I sat down at the desk of my room. As I put my homework down in front of me, James asked me to play a game with him. “What kind of game?” I asked in a monotonous voice.

  “One where you can die.”

  “Isn’t that the majority of every game out there?”

  “I mean where your existence on Earth, is actually being threatened.” I just stared. What kind of game was he talking about? Murdering someone? Killing a police officer can surely guarantee death. But those weren’t games, they were crimes.

  “I’m busy right now, go bother your friends.” Now I was ignoring him, working on my day late assignment.

  “Come on, don’t be like that, Daniel.” He was seriously bugging me now. My brother, James, never used to bug me like this, but ever since our aunt died, he has always annoyed me. Our aunt was our guardian, since mom died, and dad was nowhere to be found since I was born. James had to have blamed me for dad’s disappearance. Mom had an affair with a co-worker, and I happened. Dad, or Mike, was James hero I guess, but I ruined it for him. He was only five when Mike left.

  “Come on, Daniel. If you hole up in here all the time, you’ll never have friends.” Now I was furious.

  “Leave me alone James! I’m busy! I’m sure Chris would want to play a game with you. Also, what a great guardian you are, trying to get a kid to play a game with you, instead of doing any homework!” I turned around and hung my head close to my work. I knew I went too far, when I heard James hesitating at my door. After a minute, he turned away, and slowly headed to the living room. James had always tried hard to be a parent to me. I don’t know why, but he had always been the one to suffer the most out of the affair.

  I just sat there, doing nothing for a few minutes. I felt guilty about yelling at James now. I should go make up with him. I got up and headed down the hall. When I reached the end of the hall, I saw Jame’s on the couch. His head was hung low, his shoulders hunched. I felt a blow to my guilt.