Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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Tenna's sleeping, peaceful face was wrinkle-free. Her every breath left her body in a smooth exhale. No worries, no tension.
People want to believe everything is fine. They don't want to listen to that part in their mind that looks at suspicious behavior as a sign of worse things lying under the surface.
Evan and Tenna have gone back and forth in their relationship, years before the kids even came into the picture. They were middle school sweethearts. Then they were high school sweethearts. Then, they became parents shortly after graduation.
I'm 24. My sister is only 23, and she already has a three-year-old and a one-year-old.
I never understood what drew Ten and Evan to one another, sparking like electrical wires writhing in the wind, only to fall away, their sparks fading to the quiet fizzling of an energy current that won't connect.
I never understood, but I also never questioned it.
It's so bizarre to have witnessed a couple be together since they were twelve. On again, off again. The first breakup. The first high school dance. The first girlfriend other than Tenn. The serenades outside this apartment when Ten was pregnant with Rinley.
They didn't have any shared interests—they didn't do anything together for fun. No couples activities.
Really, their relationship has never made a lick of sense. It's so hard to form my thoughts around the whole idea of it, after the years and years it's morphed to get to this point.
Maybe it was that confusion that slowly disintegrated Mom and Dad's understanding and patience. Maybe that overwhelming sense of not understanding their relationship was the first nail in the coffin between them and Ten.
But, had I always been supportive? Had I ignored signs I shouldn't have? Was Evan just angry yesterday, or was there more to the story? The tears, the shaking, the kids' patience sitting in a car for hours...
Had I always done right by my sister, or had I avoided it because I felt it was easier to pretend not to understand someone so intrinsically different from myself?
Am I to blame for what happens next?
What is going to happen next?
Is it really my responsibility to become so ingrained in my sister's relationship problems?
"Gra—cie?"
I blinked, my body twitching a little where it lay facing Tenna on my full-size bed. Our faces were close enough for me to make out the individual pores around her nose and the faint freckles—much fainter than mine—across her sun-tanned cheeks.
I cleared my throat, speaking quietly. "G'morning."
"How long was I asleep?" Tenna asked, digging her knuckles into her eyes. She turned onto her back, her spine cracking first thing in the morning.
