Noox

I go downstairs, quickly wash my hands in the bathroom to remove the lotion, then clean up the kitchen. Kelly is gone, so I return to my room and sit down at my computer. I crack open the interest campaign for Noox and find that over two thousand people have signed up! "Damn," I murmur to myself, as I fire up my development tools and start building the tool for the first time. A little bit of application development, a little bit of architecture. I piece together the different components to form the basic outline of a scalable web application. My mind sorts through edge cases and what-ifs, targeting the important ones for immediate work and storing the others for later. I incorporate cloud systems and autoscaling compute functions, studying these new topics as I go. In the back of my mind, I piece together an algorithm for efficiently managing design elements in a tree data structure and correlate that to an implementation on the website.

After a few hours, I have a simple web application deployed. Nothing advanced, nothing crazy, but it is a foundation to build on. I have the cloud infrastructure set up to run it. The plan to complete it. All I need now is the time.

Around lunchtime, I hear approaching footsteps, followed by a knock on my door. Not Mom's gait, and I don't think it is Kelly's either.

"One second!" I say, and open the door for Ashley. I look at my older sister, glad to see she is still home, but then I wonder why. "Is everything alright?" I ask, noticing the demure expression on her face, totally at odds with her normal forceful personality. She's wearing an old tee shirt and a pair of gray joggers, both pieces of clothing swallowing her tiny frame. The dark marks bulging against the white cotton from her shirt indicate she isn't wearing a bra underneath.

"Hey, I was about to cook some lunch. Want some?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry," I answer, rubbing my stomach. Ashley shoots me a half-hearted grin and pulls a black curl out of her face.

"Alright, come down when you're ready. I'm going to make some sandwiches."

"I'll come now," I say, and follow her downstairs. Her steps are silent and timid, as though she's scared to offend the world, and I grow more worried. This is not her normal behavior.

Without another word, she goes into the kitchen and starts pulling bread and other things from the cabinets and refrigerator. I lean against the counter behind her, watching her work. "Ashley, why aren't you at work?" I ask, after a few minutes of silence.

"I quit."

I raise an eyebrow at her, but my mind has already calculated why. Undoubtedly, the man that had molested her last week had tried something again, and she rejected him. He likely tried to **** or otherwise leverage her into an agreement, and she simply quit instead.

"It's alright, Ashley."

The bread in her hands slides onto the counter, and she leans against the granite in silence for a moment, arching her neck before turning to look at me. That sad look is there, replacing the shy one of a few minutes ago, and I close the gap between us. I wrap my arms around her, pull her into my chest, and caress the back of her head with my hand. "It's alright," I murmur, over and over. She remains stoic at first, but I feel her body sagging against me, accompanied by a wetness on my chest. A sob wracks her frame, and she wraps her arms around my back and hugs me tightly. I don't say anything else. Instead, I simply hold my sister, supporting her.

I remain there for her for a few more minutes, until she pulls away. She uses her shirt to wipe away running mascara, leaving black streaks all over the white cotton. "Do you want to talk about it?" I ask, as I tear off a paper towel from the roll behind her and dab her cheeks with it.

"No, Dom, it's alright," she says, her voice sullen.

Regardless, I gently take her hand in mine and lead her to the kitchen table to sit down. I take a seat beside her and turn to face it, then raise a hand to brush one of her dark curls away. "Ashley, listen to me. You have done so much for our family over the last few years, while I've done nothing. You've suffered for us. But that's changing, right now." She looks away, but I keep going. "Look, I don't know what happened. You never have to tell me. But I'm here for you. To support you as you've always supported us."

"But, we won't have any money," she murmurs, still looking away. "I'm going to start looking for a new job tomorrow."

"One sec," I say, and pull my phone from my pocket. I navigate to my business bank account and show her the five thousand dollar deposit. "I haven't been entirely honest lately. I've seen how you, Mom, and Kelly suffer. I got tired of being a waste of space and have been doing something about it. I studied computer science, and I got my degree. I passed the exams yesterday. And, I built a piece of software and sold it for five thousand dollars. It's not much, but it's a start. I'm going to support all of us, so you don't have to. I'm already working on my next project, and I know it will be big."

Ashley looks up at me, finally meeting my gaze. The mascara has dried around her eyes, giving her a ghoulish experience, but it only seems to highlight her beauty in my eyes. "Really?" she asks, her voice soft and ****.

"Really."

She smiles, lips trembling, and leans into me one more. "Thank you, Dom," she mumbles between quiet sobs. "It's been so much. I've been trying, but I can't handle it anymore. I'm still going to search for another job, but maybe I'll take a moment to breathe."

"Hey," I say, pushing her away and placing a hand on each of her shoulders. "Why don't we do something fun to celebrate?"

"Celebrate?"

"Of course! My degree, your newfound freedom. We have a lot to be thankful for right now."

"I can't believe you got a degree, in computer science no less, and didn't tell us. Does Mom know? Are you serious about this?"

"I told her yesterday."

"I bet she's thrilled, isn't she?"

"You have no idea."

For the first time since we came downstairs, Ashley gives me a smile. A true smile. I rub my hand along her arm to comfort her, feeling the smooth skin beneath prickle at my touch. "How do you want to celebrate?"

"I don't care. You tell me?"

I nod, feigning deep thoughts, but my mind already has the answer ready to go. "Well, as much as I enjoy sandwiches, I think that is kind of shot. How about I take you and Mom somewhere for lunch?"

"I'd love that," she says, smiling again.