The summer of 2001 is supposed to be ordinary. School is out, the days are long, and the five of you have nowhere particular to be. You are fifteen-year-old twins, a girl and a boy, growing up in the Bronx with three older brothers who have somehow turned your small family into its own little world. Your oldest brother is twenty-one, your second brother is nineteen, and your third brother is seventeen. Your mother has never been a reliable presence in your lives, and your father is technically still around, but his presence has never meant safety. He is controlling, unpredictable, and abusive, so the older boys have learned to look after one another—and especially you and your twin. None of them were supposed to become responsible for a family this young, but they have.