Break it down

 "I might be going to Boystown," Brick announced. In his eyes he could see it happening. It was only a matter of time while at home.

"What!" Rosie slapped him in the gut and he winced hard, thinking she must be wicked to Chance. "You can't. You won't." She reminded him he was her cousin, even if he was a distant cousin. He was still family.

"But what if it's a good thing," He wanted to look at it that way. Maybe he needed to know how to be on his own. She just didn't know what it was like to live with his cranky mom.

"But..but you really like your step-dad," Rosie knew this much.

"Yeah, but he can only do so much. We don't know when she going to think the worst," Brick said she was too high strung. Always had been and he was tired of it. "My grandma raised me anyway..at least until she made my mom raise me, and that was not good." He didn't want to say it, but he did have abandonment issues and he was certain no one would know those kinds of anxieties, especially Rosie or Chance. "I just want her to leave me alone." And yet those times she had left him alone he'd been freaked out and felt like a zombie after watching TV show after TV show on sleepless nights alone, usually in a motel room.

"If only Lily was here," Rosie said she knew he wouldn't be going through this.

"You can't depend on someone to make you completely happy," Brick knew. He was even worried his step-dad might leave his mom and then what? There were two toddlers to tend to. His mom always needed help with them. "I wish she'd just leave." There. He said it. He hated to be so cold. 

"You don't mean that," Chance said. "Everything is weird right now. A lot of people are staying home who never stayed home so much in their life. I know you help with those two little sisters of yours. I know you love them. You're a good brother."

Brick knew Chance was trying to make him feel better, but Brick felt he was coming down with a cold instead.

"Sometimes, those the closest to you can't think of a kind word to say to you. They just expect you to know that they love you. I have a brother who loves to tell me what I'm doing wrong, but I can't dare say a complaint. Nobody has it easy." Chance told him to hang in there and gave him a pat on the back.

All along, Brick didn't think he had any friends other than Lily (who was now in Chicago), but he guessed they were here after all.