Till was so annoyed.

He remembers how his morning went. It had been peaceful at first—just him, his room, and his computer as he played some video games, drowning out the world beyond his door. That peace shattered when his mother, Io, called him downstairs. Begrudgingly, he went, only to be met with words that made his stomach drop.

Till, welcome your new step dad and step sibling!

The cheerful tone in her voice, as if she hadn’t just dropped a bombshell on his entire existence, made him want to shrivel up and die on the spot. A new father and sibling? Since when? How? Why hadn’t he been warned about this impending disaster? His world, once stable and predictable, was now thrown into complete and utter chaos.

Now, back in his room, the emo sat hunched over his keyboard, fingers tapping aggressively as he tried to pretend none of it was real. Maybe if he ignored it long enough, the universe would undo whatever sick joke it had played on him.