Too close,Too long

Ezra always noticed the way Micah looked at him — longer than necessary, like he was trying to memorize something he already knew. It was the kind of look that left Ezra dizzy, unsure whether it was affection or something else entirely.

The house was quiet that afternoon. Their parents were out at the farmer’s market, and the late summer heat had wrapped itself around the walls like a thick blanket. Ezra was lying on his bed, one leg dangling off the side, a book open on his chest. Micah leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, eyes fixed on him.

“You’re not reading,” Micah said, smirking.

Ezra blinked, realizing the same sentence had stared up at him for the last ten minutes. “Didn’t say I was.”

Micah stepped into the room, casual, familiar — like he’d done a thousand times before. He dropped onto the bed beside Ezra, close enough for their arms to touch. Neither moved away.

“Mom said we might drive out to the lake tomorrow,” Micah said. “If it doesn’t rain.”

Ezra nodded. “Yeah. That’d be good.”

Silence stretched between them. Not awkward — just full. Like there were words they didn’t know how to say yet.Micah rolled onto his side, propped on one elbow. “You’ve been weird lately.”

Ezra turned his head. “So have you.”

Micah smiled, but there was something fragile beneath it. “Yeah… I guess I have.”

Ezra’s heart beat faster. This was the part where he usually made a joke, changed the subject, or walked away. But something inside him was tired of dodging the feeling that had been following them for months.

“Do you ever…” Ezra started, then hesitated. “Feel like we’re too close?”

Micah’s smile faded. “You mean… like people might think it’s weird?”

Ezra nodded, slowly.

Micah didn’t look away. “It’s not weird to me.”

Those five words hung in the air, heavy and sharp. Ezra couldn’t breathe for a second.

Micah reached over and gently nudged Ezra’s hand, just once. It was barely a touch, but it sent a shiver through him.

“I don’t know what this is,” Ezra whispered. “I just know I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Micah’s eyes softened. “Me neither.”

They lay there, quiet, the air suddenly thick with something unspoken but understood. A truth they had danced around for too long, now staring them in the face.

But then, footsteps echoed outside.

“Mom’s home,” Micah said, sitting up quickly. The closeness vanished like a shadow in sudden light.Ezra nodded and sat up too, heart pounding, guilt blooming like wildfire. He didn’t know what they had just admitted — or how far it had gone — but something had changed.

Something real.

Later that night, when everyone had gone to bed, Ezra couldn’t sleep. Restless, he wandered into the attic, looking for an old photo album. What he found instead was a box labeled with his name.

Curious, he opened it.

Inside: a birth certificate. A letter. Hospital records.

And one word that stopped everything cold.

*Adopted.*

Ezra staggered back, the floor seeming to shift beneath him. The truth settled over him like a stormcloud.

He wasn’t Micah’s brother.

Not by blood.

And suddenly, everything made sense — and nothing did.

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