"So what about you?" Archie asked.
Jerking my head back to the table, I stared at my brother across from me. "Huh? What?"
He looked at me like I was the biggest dumbass on the planet. "How was your day?" he said slowly, like I had difficulty with my hearing. "I've only had to ask you like three times."
My mouth fell open. "What? You're seriously asking me about my day?"
That was rare. Like a once-in-a-lifetime question from this kid.
He lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "Yeah. Just trying to make conversation so you don't keep obsessing abouther."
There was no use pretending like I didn't know who he was talking about. "I'm not obsessing."
Archie snorted. "You're the definition of obsessing."
"Am not."
"Am too."
God, this kid was dragging me down to acting juvenile right now instead of me lifting him up to my level. So I resisted arguing back and instead returned to his original question.
"My day was fine." Not really. "Thank you."
"No problem, dude." He stopped eating to pile on more meatballs.
"Don't forget your salad," I reminded him, my eyes going to the completely untouched vegetables.
"I'm saving the best for last," he said with a smirk.
Yeah, right. If anyone out there had pointers for getting a thirteen-year-old boy to eat more vegetables, I sure would love to hear it.
"So..." he said. "Question for you."
"Yeah?" This should be interesting.
"Why do you and Dad even like your jobs? Isn't it kinda messed up?"
I blinked at him, his words hitting me like a punch in the gut. On many levels. "What? Seriously?" I blurted out, not thinking. "How do you even know what we do?"
"You guys think I don't pay any attention, but I do."
Wow. Just wow. What in the hell was going on? "It's... complicated. You'll understand when you get older."
He scoffed at me, then proceeded to talk around a mouthful of food. "What exactly is there to understand? You basically kick people out of their homes, right?"
Great. This is what my little brother thought of me? "It's not that simple. Peopleselltheir places and they get a lot of money for it. It's business. It's progress."
He took one bite of his salad and proceeded to choke it down. "Whatever you say, bro."
Why did this whole conversation make me feel like shit? I knew I was right. Wasn't I?
"So, another question for you," Archie said.
My stomach clenched. "Yeah?"
"Would you rather step on nails then have to run through fire, or stick a pin in your eye and then your eardrum?"
These would-you-rather questions killed me, and I had no idea what his fascination with them was. "Nails and fire. For sure."
