Imperfect

It was a balmy summer night, and the three of us were in the living room, watching TV. I sat apart from them in an armchair. None of us had talked since they’d walked in and joined me. As the show was ending I cleared my throat and said, “So, uh, Annalise, how’s Lee doing?” Both my siblings stiffened, keeping their eyes on the screen.
“He’s...uh...he’s good. Um, he just got a puppy. A black lab named Trevor,” she said quickly. “That’s great. I haven’t seen him in a while. He should come over so we can hang out with him,” I said, forcing my voice to be steady. We all knew what this meant, although none of us said it aloud. “Jean-Paul, you should come, too.”
He nodded. “Yeah....yeah. That’d be great.” I felt a smile on my face. Things would be awkward between us as we tried to fix our family, but it’d be worth it. Anything was worth it for my siblings. As the night went on, we began casually chatting, all three of us aware of how much this actually meant as we became normal again.

I finished summer school and started at a college in Philly, near the building Mr. James worked out of. I’d taken him up on his job offer, so I had money and something to keep me busy. I lived alone in an apartment by school, but I didn’t feel lonely. My friends from the asylum visited, as did my family, except for my mother. I didn’t want to see her. I’d made new friends, too. I still hadn’t found Aven, though. Eventually, he found me.