I get a notification. “Click to View attachment.” 

It’s from my dad.

I tap on it, expecting it to be another cringe meme he found on facebook.

I was wrong.

I play the video.

It’s from 9 years ago of 2 people I don't recognize laughing together.

Who’s that? My friend asks looking over my shoulder.

 Oh that’s me and my brother, I say.

You have a brother? I’ve never seen him, she replies.

-Oh yea well I don’t really talk to him.

That’s so weird.

-It is? 

Why don’t you talk? She asks.

10 years ago, a brother and sister were best friends.

The sister looked up to her brother, and saw him as her role model, joining him no matter what he was doing. Reading Harry Potter? 

She was next to him using her 3 year old vocabulary to read along. Playing Minecraft? She watched him play, waiting for her turn.

It never came.

As the brother got older, he drifted and drifted. Until there was no thread tying them together. 

Their parents believed in astrology. The sister asked their mom 

Why doesn’t he care?

He will by next may, when you’ve both matured, according to the prediction.

Four mays later, that prediction had yet to come true.

During distance learning, everyone was in their own worlds. In that house, everyone had a seperate world. That never changed.

Oh that’s kinda sad. Did you try to get him to talk to you?

-Yeah but i guess you can’t force relationships with people when they don’t want one.