“Stay Home — It’ll Be Easier.” My Parents Celebrated My Twin’s 25th Birthday And Left Me Out

table with the cupcake and ate it slowly, tasting it fully—this one safe, this one chosen by me, this one carrying nothing but what it was supposed to carry—and outside the city hummed on, indifferent and alive, and inside my apartment was quiet and mine.

Happy birthday to me.

And this time, for the first time all day—for the first time in longer than continue reading …