"Alex, do you want some popcorn?" James asked, yelling from the kitchen.

I walked into the kitchen, and my first reaction was, "What's wrong with it?" Because, you know, it's my brother.

"Nothing," James said, "Can't I just do something nice for my little brother?"

I slowly took the microwaved bag of popcorn out of James' hands, and with a suspicious glance at my brother, I opened the bag.

A puff of smoke came out of the bag, and there was a horrible stench that in my opinion, could only be described as burnt tires.

"Hm. Guess there was something wrong with it," James declared before sprinting out of the kitchen and locking himself in his bedroom.

"You can't stay in there forever!" I shouted, throwing the bag of popcorn in the garbage and then bolting up the stairs.

After almost an hour of waiting outside of James' room, I gave up and trudged into my room, which was right down the hall. I pulled out my dark green journal and began to write an essay about why family shouldn't lie to each other.

"Many families have pointless arguments that bring them farther and farther apart, all because of a little white lie. Sisters lie about stealing clothes for a Tinder date. Mothers and fathers lie about what they did that day while the other adult wasn't home. Brothers blame each other for forgetting to turn off the Wii console. Infinite paths could come from these problems and could quite easily develop into something extreme."

Read the beginning of my essay. As I added in a few extra words to make the sentences flow better, I heard a door open, then slowly close again. I checked the time. It had been about 2 hours since the popcorn... "incident."

I stepped out of my room a few minutes later and trotted downstairs to find James watching "13 Reasons Why."

Now, that didn't bother me at all. But what did bother me was the bowl of popcorn sitting in his hands. I could smell how delicious it was from all the way across the room. Extra salt and butter, microwaved for just the perfect amount of time.

I snuck up behind my brother and slowly grabbed a handful of the popcorn that had so much butter on it, it could barely stay in my hands without sliding off. I sprinted away with a generous handful of popcorn in each of my palms, and I locked the bathroom door shut behind me.

"Alexander freakin' Hamilton!" James bellowed, and by the loud stomps, I could tell that he was nearing the bathroom.

I was so scared that my brother was going to murder me for stealing his popcorn, that I never set foot outside of the bathroom ever again. I lived off of a few old breath mints, the sink water, and I tried chewing on my retainer, but apparently that's chew-proof. It also turned out that my toothpaste didn't taste all that good while being consumed. Bubble mint tastes much better while brushing your teeth. And of course, I lived off of the popcorn that I stole from James.

Until one day when I heard James yell for me if I wanted any popcorn...