"I know but-" Madison swiveled her head around taking everything in. Blue eyes wide. "Seriously, Aiden. I can't do this. There's, like, a lot of people here. I don't think I realized what being exposed like this would mean."

Now that she said it, I could feel Madison's entire body tensing around me. Like a rubber band wrapping over and over around a set of spokes.

"I'm sorry, I'm not as strong as you," Madison said.

In that place, with that tone, in that moment, it was such a strange, unexpected thing for my sister to say and it took me aback. Our whole lives, Madison had been the athletic...