it might as well be the Apocalypse

"No." Henry said flat out about going to the dinner with Frankie.

"Yes. You, are going." Vada gave him the eye, and evidently, it wasn't about Frankie. But Henry was in no mood to be himself. God, it was a hard act to keep in tact. He'd had to fake a smile most of the day.

 Now this with Josie. He was furious with her.

Oh, he was in a funk. He wanted to go to bed. Have a good cry. Make some sense of it.

All he wanted to tell her was that he'd seen Preston kissing Jude.

Yeah, this fellow who gave Cassie a dog..who just so happened to be Jude's ex's brother.

One minute he was on cloud nine that he'd figured this small mystery out. Henry saw them in the MEN's bathroom..for gods-sakes. KISSING.

He'd almost done a happy dance then. Tickled pink, in fact.

God, he knew he was awful. But he thought it funny, and then Josie had to go and think the worst.

What was the matter with her?

"You're coming." Vada snatched him before he could even find his suit jacket that was much too warm for the library. Henry seriously thought the AC was going out in the library these days.

"What is it!" Henry was dragging his feet, practically on the brunt of having a fit.

"Its JOSIE!" She might has well have screamed, but she only hissed.

Henry looked at her bug-eyed. She wouldn't tell him. It would have to wait.

So there he was sitting at dinner at Spaghetti Works, across from Frankie who kept studying the menu. Yes, Henry saw the resemblance. They were siblings. REAL SIBLINGS. Vada and Frankie. It was in the lip. The cheekbones. The hair. Henry tried to shake it off. Wondering what Vada was really going through.

What were they to do with Frankie? Was he coming to live with them? It was a question on the tip of his tongue. Soon enough Vada hustled Henry to the salad bar.

"What did you want to tell me?" Henry whispered to Vada.

And then her one little sentence turned him inside out. He was out cold.

Well..maybe it was a seizure. Sometimes, he thought he could tell the difference. But sometimes, he couldn't.

He needed to hear Vada say it again, but he was in the floor with salad all over him and everyone staring down at him in the middle of the mess he made.