"𝗛𝗘𝗬, 𝗝𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡, 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘!"
     "Yeah?" Jason asked as he came around the end of the shelf in the quiet, mostly empty bookstore, and walked up behind his girlfriend. "This one?"
     "Yeah." Jason got the book from the top shelf and handed it to Anna. "Thanks."
     "You're cute when you're being short," Jason teased, walking back to the other aisle.
     "Hey!" Anna followed him and poked him in the arm. "That's not even true!"
     "So true."
     "It's not that I'm short, it's just that you're tall," the girl defended herself as she began scanning the books in that aisle.
     "Being tall isn't a bad thing," Jason mumbled to himself as he trailed behind his girlfriend, stopping occasionally to look at a book on the shelf.
     After walking around the store for a while, they made their way to the checkout. "Did you get everything you wanted?"
     "Yeah," Jason replied. They made their way over to the counter and, after waiting for the only other customer to check out, paid for their books and left.
     "Hey," Joe said. "You nerds done?"
     Anna laughed, taking his comment lightheartedly as the trio began walking down the sidewalk. "Yes."
     "Man, you've got a lot of books," Joe teased Jason as they made their way to their car.
     "It's not that many, really..." he trailed off.
"So, where've you been at?" Anna asked Joe as they approached the car.
"Working out. Gotta get in shape." They both laughed as they got in the car, Anna in the driver's seat and Joe in the passenger seat. Jason grumbled quietly to himself as he got in the back. "Come on, slow poke!" Joe teased when he opened the door.
"Whatever," he murmured to himself so the others wouldn't hear.

"𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗠𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗢 𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗘!" Anna commented loudly as they got out of the car at the twins' house, debating over a movie that had came out recently.
     "Whatever," Joe replied as they headed inside.
     "I have to agree with her. It was pretty lame," Jason added, closing the door behind him.
     "Of course you agree with her, she's your girlfriend," his twin grumbled before heading off towards his bedroom. A few moments later, his door could be heard closing.
     "So, what do you want to do?" Anna asked as she sat on a stool in the kitchen and began looking through the books she had purchased.
     "I don't care. We can do whatever you want to do, or we could just hang out for a while," he replied as he sat down across from her.
     "Let's just do that, then."

     "𝗕𝗬𝗘," Jason waved and smiled to Anna as she got into her car. She waved back before driving away. With a sigh, he closed the door and walked back inside.
"Bro, you didn't even walk her out to her car," Joe said from his spot leaning against the kitchen counter. "Gotta be a gentleman."
"Would you just shut up for two seconds?" Jason glared at him before storming off to his room.
"Why?" his twin, who had followed him, asked as he opened the door.
"Maybe I'd like to go a few minutes without being criticized by you!"
"What?" Joe leaned against the door frame as a crease formed between his brows in confusion.
"Well you called me a nerd earlier, then told me I had too many books. And then you called me slow, and accused me of only agreeing with Anna because she is my girlfriend," Jason began. "And the being a gentleman comment? Really? Was that one even necessary, Joe?"
"I'm allowed to criticize you. You're basically me!" Joe laughed to himself and shook his head.
"Yesterday you told me I needed to get in shape because I was too skinny. And then told me I was too pale." Jason sat up on his bed and glared at his brother from across the room.
"It was a joke!" he defended, pushing himself off of the door frame and standing up.
"No! Jokes don't hurt like that! So why don't you stop picking and prodding at how I live my life or what I look like or act like and go do something by yourself?" Jason got up and approached him. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"
     "Just chill. You're acting crazy." Joe rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You need to calm down, man."
"I need to calm down?" Jason got closer to him, but his brother shoved his chest and knocked him away. "What the heck? You want to fight now?"
"Why not?" Joe smirked at him. "Push me."

𝗝𝗢𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗘𝗬𝗘𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗟𝗘𝗙𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗢𝗠 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗘, shaking his head as he went back into his own room. Jason, meanwhile, just closed his door and stumbled over to sit back down on his bed.
     As he ran his hands through his hair, he kept thinking about all the criticizing comments that had been said to him over the past few weeks. It had gotten to be too much, and even after getting in a few swings at his own brother, he slowly began to cry into his hands.

     "𝗛𝗘𝗬, 𝗝𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡," Anna said after she picked up his call. When he didn't say anything, she spoke again. "Jason? Are you there?"
     "Oh, yeah. I'm here. Sorry," he mumbled.
     "It's fine. Is everything okay?" she asked.
     "I just..." he trailed off for a moment. "Can I come over? I just can't stand being here right now."
     "Uhm, yeah. Sure." She sounded positive even over the phone, causing Jason to smile. "I'll be waiting for you, then."
     "Alright. Well, see you soon." Jason pulled the phone away from his ear after saying their goodbyes and hung up the call. He stared at his phone briefly before tossing it to the side and beginning to get ready to go out.

     "𝗕𝗔𝗕𝗘, 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗖𝗥𝗬𝗜𝗡𝗚?" Anna asked as soon as she opened the front door of her house. She put a gentle hand on his face and turned it to get a better view. "What happened? Did you seriously  get into a fight?"
     Jason hung his head low and avoided eye contact with her. "Mhm."
     "We need to get you cleaned up. Come on." Anna tugged on Jason's arm and pulled him inside, closing the door behind him, and leading him towards the bathroom. "So, are you going to tell me who you managed to get in a fight with?"
     "Joe," he mumbled as he leaned against the counter. Anna stared at him, waiting for an explanation. "I couldn't take it anymore."
     "Take what?" she asked as she began to dab at his cuts with a wet washcloth.
     "He just kept saying all these things...I just felt really insecure. Couldn't take it anymore."
     "And you thought getting in a fight with him would help for what reason?" she asked as she started putting a bandaid on the cut above his eyebrow.
     "He pushed me first..."
     "Did you approach him?"
     "Well, he was standing in my room." Jason hung his head again. "He told me to push him, and I was just really upset..."
     "I don't want to hear about you getting in fights again, alright?" she asked him quietly. "You know you could've just came here instead."
     "I know."