We Are Infinite

s i x

k a d e  /  s i x

I'm sitting on the bleachers during break at school on Monday morning, earphones in, trying to focus on writing an essay that I'd forgotten to complete over the weekend. As I complete a sentence with a full stop, a notification pops up on my phone. An Instagram DM notification, to be more specific.

A smirk takes over my features as I see the name of the sender. Mia Lynch. Random stranger off the Internet. I'm aware of the statistics that should be staring me in the face, but it's just a few DMs, right? Shouldn't hurt anyone.

She says that the WTF was sent mistakenly to the wrong person, but I'm not sure whether I believe her. How does one even send a DM to the wrong person?

I laugh to myself again. Mia and I had exchanged a few more DMs during the weekend, jokey texts that pinged back and forth between amusement and curiosity, but nothing too serious. I don't even know where she's from, or what she looks like. Her Instagram was pretty anonymous, with no selfies of herself.

Mine was pretty similar, to be honest.

As I'm replying to her message, with her tone hanging on the edge of annoyed, my little brother Finn comes up behind me, wrapping a scrawny arm around my shoulder.

I turn around with a grin, ruffling his dark hair, "Hey buddy, what's up?"

"Kade? Why aren't you in the cafeteria?" Finn asks innocently, big brown eyes looking up at me dotingly.

I struggle to keep my grin on my face, "Oh, I needed to finish up some homework. That's all."

As if that's all. As if it didn't anger me to be sitting at the same table every goddamned day, with the same people who took the term 'shallow' to a whole different level. Finn looks at me with concern in his eyes, and again I wonder how someone so little could be so perceptive.

My little brother is my whole world, but even though he deserves all the stars in the sky, all he is stuck with is me. Life is cruel like that, you love someone but you know they deserve more.

I wrap an arm around Finn's tiny shoulders, shutting my books and pulling my earphones out of my ears. I walk him to his class on the ground level, asking him about the sleepover he'd had at a friends house during the weekend.

We reach his class and I wave him goodbye, then head off to my own class. Fourth period English. I check my phone under the desk in class, the ghost of a smile crossing my face as I fire off another DM to Mia Lynch.

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