I was about to close up but then something happened. Pretty tall guy with shirt brown and dark brown eyes walked in. He was wearing ripped black jeans with a grey Marvel shirt, brown boots, a brown belt, glasses and he was swinging his keys around his finger.

"Hope I'm not too late for the ice cream." He smiled.

I shrugged, "Not at all."

He looked at my name tag, "Wait, you're Lanny?"

I nodded.

"Huh, I thought you would look a lot difference. But I guess I could see the similarities."

Yeah, I'm not working anymore night shifts.

"Your birthday is in a few days."

"Tomorrow actually."

"Perfect! We could spend the rest of the night together!" He seems so happy.

"Who are you?"

"Right, I left when you were so young. Keep forgetting kids don't have great memories."

I was waiting for this stranger to answer my questioned.

"My name is Jeremy. Pleasure to meet you." He had his hand out for me to shake, which I did, but slowly.

"Okay, nice to meet you, Jeremy, who is still a complete stranger to me."

"You know what, I knew I was forgetting to tell you something!" He said with a huge smile, "I'm your older brother!"

I just looked at him like he was crazy, "Uh..."

"I know I seem crazy, but it's true!"

I've never seen any pictures with you."

"They're all in the attic, kind of like how your bracelet was in the attic. Plus Sophia hates me, she'll never talk about me."

"I know. I live with her," I replied, "Anyway you could prove you're my brother?"

"Just take me home." He smirked.

This can't be good, right? Even if he isn't my brother. I shrugged made us both vanilla ice cream cone, locked up and left. We just walked to my house. Jeremy said he wanted to get to know me better. I was cool with that.

"You're going to be 18, right?" He questioned.

I nodded, "Yeah, is there something special should know?"

"If you're anything like me, you're screwed."

"What were you like?"

"Rebellious, sneaking in, sneaking out, drinking, I got an STD once, um always fighting with Sophia, best friends with dad, pretty much everything along those lines."

"Yeah, I'm screwed."

"Luckily I just bought a house today."

"So, why show up now?" I asked.

"I didn't want to miss another birthday. I drove from Boston to New Jersey, just to be closer to you."

"Boston?" I looked at him.

"I graduated Harvard a few years ago, did a lot of medical research, helped find cures and now I'm rich."

"Holy crap, how old are you?"

"26."

"And you accomplished all of that?" I said in shock.

He nodded, "No thanks to Sophia. Dad helped me, I got a part time job and slowly we paid for Harvard."

"So, you got a girlfriend?" I asked.

He shook his head, "Nope, just a lot of hook ups, you?"

I nodded, "Yeah, her name is Sadie and she is a rich girl."

"I always imagined you with that red haired girl you always hung around."

"We kissed, she said that she didn't remember it and that was the end of it. I moved on."

"Nice." He added.

We finally made it home and I walked in with Jeremy behind me. My mom looked up and rage filled her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in anger.

"Sophia, calm down. I'm here for my brother's birthday."

"I told you, I never wanted to see you again."

"Well, sucks to be you. I'm rich now. I graduated from Harvard no thanks to you."

"You were never that smart."

"Oh, mother dearest, I was and I am. But, I guess you would never understand because you flunk out of college, didn't you? I guess being popular could only get you so far in life." Jeremy shrugged. 

There's a lot of tension and pent up aggressive between these two. I'm terrified, yet I enjoy it. Adam came running into the room with a drawing that he made. He right up to my mom. Jeremy had wide eyes and looked really annoyed.

"Seriously? You adopted a kid. You trying to corrupt him too?" 

"Adam loves it here, he's a sweet boy, who I know will not turn into you two." She replied.

"Well, have fun rasing him by yourself." 

My mom and I both looked at Jeremy, frighten and confused. I promised my dad that I would never say anything. She stood up and walked towards him. 

"What are you talking about?"

"Where is he, Sophia?!" Jeremy yelled.

She didn't say anything just looked at him. She looked so angry and then she slapped him. It felt like slow motion, like none of of processed it fast enough to see what was really happening. 

Jeremy rubbed his hand against his face, "Why won't you stop pushing people away?! You did to me, to my dad and now you're doing it to Lanny!" 

"Lanny is not going anyway." She slowly turned her head to me.

"I'm going to be an adult tomorrow and it's my choice." I added.

"Roland. Jacob. St. Louis. You are not permitted to leave this home." 

"You've made 17 years of my life a living Hell and I'm not about to let you ruin 18 years," I was angry, "I'm packing my stuff, then staying with Jeremy tonight."

She was left speechless as Jeremy and I went up to my room and began to pack. I actually didn't have that much to pack, so we only had to take 3 trips. Every time we walked passed the living room, my mom gave us the worse look ever. I was all packed and I told Jeremy I had to quickly do something. He had to get his car anyways, so it worked perfectly. I walked back inside and looked at... Sophia. I walked over to Adam and knealed down. I'm not the biggest fan of this kid, but I should say goodbye. 

"Hey, buddy, I'll be gone for a while. I just wanted to say goodbye." I said. 

"Mommy said that I don't like you." He replied.

"Well, that's a lot weight off my shoulders, I don't like you either kid. You ruined a lot of my dates." I stood up and shrugged. 

"Lanny." Sophia said.

I turned around, not sure what to expect. 

"Never come back here again." She just stared at me. 

"That's the point," I replied, "Oh and Sophia, you ever wonder why everyone leaves you?"

She didn't say anything, just stood there. 

"Because you're a controlling bitch." I walked out the door and that was the end of that. 

Jeremy pulled up, I put my stuff in his car and we drove off to his place. He lives in a huge home, actually a few houses away from Sadie. We walked into his home and he showed me to my room. It was huge, with a walk-in closet. I looked at Jeremy. 

"By the way, you could totally have your party here." He shrugged.

"It's just going to be me and my friends." I replied.

"Mind if I crash the party?" He smiled.

"Go for it."

"I should bring a date, I wonder if Marissa still lives around here." He thought out loud and walked to his room.

I decided to unpack tomorrow and get as much sleep as I can now. Tomorrow is going to be awesome. Can't wait for everyone to meet my brother or re meet him.