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the entrance into my room. My parents, well, mainly my mother, took off all the locks to our bedrooms, saying, “People who pay bills get locks on their doors.” I didn’t have a job, so my door was without a lock.
    After about twenty minutes of waiting for my legs to get back to normal, I went downstairs to talk to Alex. I made my way to the living room, where he was watching television.
    I had no idea what to say to him. I shook my head in disgrace. “Hey, um, Alex, er, can w-we talk?” I was nervous as shit.
    â€œYeah, Ashley.” He never looked at me.
    Shit, I wouldn’t have wanted to either. Getting a bird’s-eye view of his sister’s private area probably devastated him for sure. He probably had never seen a woman’s privates before.
    â€œI—I—I’m sorry about what you saw upstairs.” I couldn’t believe I was apologizing for pleasuring myself in my own room. “You know you should have knocked, though.”
    â€œI did knock.” He huffed. “Your music was up too loud for you to hear me knocking. I just thought you were talking on the phone and listening to music like you usually do when we’re home alone.”
    â€œOh, okay.”
    â€œYou know it’s a sin to do that stuff, right?” Alex looked me square in the eyes.
    â€œYeah, Alex, we go to the same church, remember?” I was a little angry. I didn’t need him to remind me of my wrongdoing. I knew I had an addiction to sex. “Look, I know I have a small problem. I just need you to keep this between us.”
    â€œOkay.” He put the television on mute. “Besides, we all have secrets.”
    I looked at him, a puzzled look on my face. “What secrets do you have? You’re a Goody Two-shoes, and you always stay in the house. Football, school, church and home. That’s your routine, and everybody knows it.” I slightly laughed at him.
    â€œYeah, okay.” Alex had a smug look on his face. “You keep on believing that. I gets mine. Believe that.”
    We quieted down for a second as I wondered what he could possibly be doing to get his.
    â€œAlex, are you gay?” I blurted out.
    He started laughing uncontrollably, as if I had made the biggest joke possible. He never answered my question. When we were kids, Alex would always get caught in a lie because he would laugh or smile, giving away his guilt.
    â€œStop laughing.” I pushed him hard.
    He kept on laughing.
    â€œTell me. I won’t tell anybody.” I was dead serious. I could keep a secret like it was nobody’s business. All my friends knew that.
    He stopped laughing and looked at me with a smirk on his face. “I can’t believe you asked me that.” He was avoiding answering the question like a squirrel avoiding cars while trying to cross a street.
    â€œWell, are you?” I posed the question again.
    Before he could answer, my parents and Diana came through the door and interrupted us.
    â€œHey, you guys.” My dad took off his coat and sat down next to us. “So what were you guys doing while we were gone?”
    â€œOh, nothing,” we both chimed, like twins usually do.
    â€œWe were just sitting here watching cable and talking.” I gave Alex a menacing stare and then got up and headed to my room.
    I wasn’t through with him yet. The next time we were alone, I was going to find out what I wanted to know.

Chapter 12
Mona
    The Curse
October 30 th , 2018, 12:09 P.M .
    â€œAshley is such a good girl,” I said to myself as I prepared to go down to the basement and get the last little load of clothes out of the dryer. My job as a wife and a mother never paid well and had absolutely no sick days. Some days, I just wanted to walk away from it all, but the love of my family kept me onboard this ship that sometimes seemed to be headed to nowhere.
    I had to walk through Alex’s room to get to the laundry room. When it came