Love Bird.

Go Your Own Way.

The kitchen bustled with activity, as mom cooked dinner. Jean was playing some new game on her phone, as she sat on the recliner to our left. 

And then there was us. Logan and I sat across from each other, dead silent. We probably looked like mirror images of each other - arms crossed, stone-faced, eyes never wavering. Jean had tried to start conversation, but gave up as we just grunted. 

"Dinner is ready!" Mom announced happily, not oblivious to our silence, but ignoring it.

Logan and I stood up at the same time, glaring at each other as we waited for one another to move. Anger radiated from me. Resentment from him.

Don't get me wrong. I came here to speak with him - to reason with him. But as soon as he saw my face, he went livid. He yelled about how I was out to ruin his life. He even brought Jane into the fight, which was when I shut down. We still had a lot of things to work out, her and I. Including Logan's apparent love for her.

I felt...almost defeated as he railed insults at me. Wondering why the love of my life had to be wound in such a complicated way with my relationship with my brother. I wished that none of this could have happened - that Jane and I could have met in a different, more simple life. 

But then, Jane wouldn't be the same. She wouldn't have her famous sarcastic attitude, and the love of candy land and oldies music. I loved my Jane.

But so did he.

Logan picked at his food, answering mom's inquiries about his life with one-word answers. He never seemed to visit anymore. We had no idea what was going on with him.

We were silent for the first fifteen minutes, the only sound in the room was the clanking of our plates. Mom calmly lifted her drink to her lips, taking a long sip of water as she stared hard at my brother and I, Before she sat the cup down softly, and then her hand slammed down on the table top, shocking all of us.

"I will not tolerate this any longer!" She snarled, having suddenly done away with the calm facade. "Logan, I want you to apologize right this second to Victor for your behavior. And Victor!" She pointed at me, her face creasing in a hard frown. "You never call anymore, either! You're just as bad as him! Now, I loved Jane as much as the rest of us, but she is gone," Her voice, surprisingly, grew thick with tears with the last few words. "And none of us can make her come back. Nor does moping change what happened!" Finishing, she took her glass of wine and chugged the whole thing. "I learned that lesson with your father," She added as she set the empty glass down.

We all stared at her, saddened at the mention of Dad. On the other hand, we were all dumbfounded at her outburst. We'd never seen mom so angry. 

And then, her lip trembled, and she burst into tears. "I'm losing my baby boys!" She sobbed, her face falling into her hands.

Logan and I jumped up, our chairs hitting the wall as we hurried to her side. Jean was sitting back, her face in her hand, and she looked as if she were crying as well, as her shoulders shook.

We both hugged Mom around the shoulders, our arms crossing each other as we always did when we were kids. 

"We're not going anywhere mom!" I assured frantically.

"He's right, Ma. Look, we won't fight anymore, alright? You're right," Logan added, throwing me a desperate look. 

We were always frantic when Mom started crying. It was always bad when mom started crying.

And suddenly, she was bright again. Pulling her face from her hands, she smiled as if she'd never been crying at all. "Well, that's settled then," She said, wiping her cheeks.