4. Sally
CHAPTER FOUR
Sally
The next day sucked, and so did the day after that. It’s been three days since I came back from my hookup, and I haven’t left my room unless it was for food. Though, I only left for dinner because Moms would tear down my door if I didn’t show up.
Ma has one rule, and that is no matter what is happening in our lives, we always show up for dinner. Family dinner is important in our house, and I won’t take it for granted—not when I didn’t experience it for most of my life.
If my parents ever find out what I’m doing, they will wring me out to dry.
I sit on my bed, playing with a mechanical pencil and staring at the vlogging camera in front of me.
The camera is on, but the memory card is on the desk next to it.
So many hours of me talking about everything in my life, including these weekly trips, yet nothing is coming out. I feel like a failure.
My phone lights up with a notification, and my mind is immediately back at the motel.
The door opens, and Ella walks through, looking directly at me before rolling her eyes. I’m surprised they haven’t fallen out yet.
She walks over to the second desk that happens to be right next to mine. We pretty much had the same classes throughout high school, so it was easy for us to work together. My phone goes off again, causing me to cringe. Ella checks her phone before looking back at me.
“It’s the family group chat.” Ella says, throwing me a pity smile before walking out of the room just as quickly as she came in. I’m sure she knows about my trips to the motel, but she’s never been the type to pry.
Lotte
Dick, I need a picture of baby Emmy
Richie
You know that’s not my nickname. Why do you insist on calling me that?
Also, why do you need a picture of my daughter?
Lotte
Because you’re a dick, Dick
Also, I need my daily dose of birth control
Mimi
Don’t call our niece birth control
I smile as a picture of baby Emmy appears in our family chat.
In the picture, she’s wearing a baby-blue beanie and a onesie with a giraffe on it.
Her black, curly hair is barely visible, with most of it in the cap, but you can still see little curls spilling out.
Her grin is the most contagious thing I’ve ever seen.
So far, Richie is the only Reed family child to even be in a committed relationship.
Normally, the parents ask if you have a significant other. My moms think it’s funny to ask all of us if we are using protection. The question is usually more targeted at Lotte, Ella, and Miggy, though.
Leon and I can’t get pregnant. Then you have the other members of the Reed family.
Mia—we call her Mimi—has never even talked about a real guy.
She usually just talks about the idea of romance portrayed in her books.
Richie has been married for two years now, so they stopped asking him since they actually want grandkids.
And finally, Trinity isn’t home often enough to get asked because of her acting career.
Another text comes through this time with Trin.
Trin
I don’t think many of us need help with birth control, but Emmy is adorable, and I can’t wait to see her
Mimi
Are you going to make it to Christmas this year?
Trin
Don’t call me out like that :/
You’ll never let that go, will you? I missed last Christmas for work.
Mama
That’s my beautiful granddaughter!
A smile plays on my lips. The first smile in the past couple of days. The family chat continues to go off while I leave my room. The house is uncharacteristically quiet as I walk into the living room.
“Sal!” Mimi yells from the kitchen.
Before I can even react, she sets her mug down and pulls me into a hug.
Mimi has always been a bit more affectionate—at least way more affectionate when you compare her to Ella or me, who handle social interaction like the plague.
She is currently attending NYU, getting her degree in English and Creative Writing, but she always comes home for the summer.
With her living in the student apartments, she gets new roommates every year. She says it’s to make her more social.
Luckily, that won’t be happening to me. The anxiety of constantly having to present as my most feminine self would be exhausting if Ella and I weren’t planning on attending Grace Hill together.
Ella got a full-ride scholarship with the volleyball team, and I will join the film program as a student assistant, helping them manage the facility.
The pay will help me pay for the rest of my tuition that isn’t covered by scholarships.
I secured my spot because of a mockumentary I did on our family.
Though, no one besides the school and my family will ever see it.
“Do you want tea?” Mimi asks after letting go and walking back over to the kitchen counter. Her straight, dark-brown nearly black bob sways just above her shoulders. “I just made a cup, but I can make another. I made a friend from London, and he introduced me to adding milk to Earl Grey tea.”
“Can’t you drink coffee like a normal person?” Ella calls from the living room. Mimi frowns before shaking her head.
“Cup?”
“Sure.”
Mimi smiles at me, and for a second, I see pity flash through her eyes before it fades, and she turns to the kettle, filling it with more water.
My eyes dash over to the pile of mail with the opened letter from a few days ago. I force out a sigh before walking over to the letter and staring down at it.
I take the letter out and begin forcing myself to read.
Dear Miss Reed, we regret to inform you of the passing of your birth parents, Damian and Christina Gordon.
They passed on May 1. I am sorry we are getting this to you so late, but we did not know the Gordons had a daughter until going through the will and dividing their personal effects.
We are reaching out with our condolences and to inform you that your childhood home has been left in your name, as well as a sum of money left over from their bank accounts.
Enclosed along with this letter is a check for the amount and a key to your home.
Our condolences, Miss Reed
What the hell?
No, really, what the hell? First, they treat me like a nuisance. Now I have a home I hate in a city I hate. Do they think this will wash it all away?
What next?
I can feel Ella’s eyes boring into me, waiting to see what I do. Mimi continues making the tea, but her body is turned to keep me in her peripheral view. They want to see what I’ll do, to see how I’ll react, and honestly, I want the answer just as much.
What am I going to do now?
Will I go back there?
Will I feel better?
Worse?
Right now, any possibility feels like too much. I already feel like crap because of David and Dalton. Now I might be forced to feel like crap because I don’t love my bio parents. I don’t want to do anything. So, I don’t. I walk out fast enough that Ella and Mimi can’t stop me.
Swing sets have always been a calming place for me. I can keep my body moving while not thinking. I think I also like the rush of falling when you are coming down. That quick panic that doesn’t even last a second when your body lifts ever so slightly off the seat. I’ve always been a thrill seeker.
My birth parents are dead, and I’m the owner of their house. A noise comes out of me that I barely understand. It rumbles through my chest and sounds like a mixture of sobbing and laughing before it transforms into an uncontrollable laughter. I must sound like I’ve dived off the deep end.
“Hey, Miss Girl! Hope this is a good sign.”
My head snaps up at the familiar voice. Standing by the back door is one of my two older brothers, Miguel Reed, in his leather biker jacket and goofy smile.
I leap off the swing and run toward him with my first real smile since reading the letter. “Miggy! What are you doing here? I thought you were still in Traverse City?”
Miguel goes to school at Northwestern Michigan College, which is an hour away, so he visits at least once a month. I guess it is summer now, and he can travel as much as he wants. He did get that motorcycle that our parents hate.
“I’m on my way to Lansing to see Rich and decided to spend the night here.” Miguel wraps an arm around me, pulling me into a hug and kissing the top of my head. “How’s my favorite sister?”
Something else is up with him, but he’s not saying it. I don’t pry, though—because I never do—and wiggle out of his hold.
“I heard that!” Both Ella and Mimi exclaim from inside.
“I know!” Miggy sings back as he turns and smiles at me again. Miguel Reed was the first boy to call me a girl. Early on, he learned I loved being referred to in a more feminine way, so he made it his mission to always call me some girly name.
“Hmmm?”
“Don’t make me tickle it out of you.” Miggy’s hands mock-reach for me as I bounce away from him.
“Don’t you dare,” I deadpan before smiling again. Tickles from Miguel are a weakness. I don’t know what magic he has in those hands, but no secrets are safe when the boy is around.
“Well, come on, then. Why are you out here?” he asks, but I know where this line of questioning is heading.
The letter. He saw the letter and knew something was off, or Ella told him the minute he arrived, and Miggy was being Miggy by making sure I was okay.
Back when the bullying was a little worse, he offered to leave a college party and come get me. He said, “They made the princess cry, so now they have to deal with the knight.” That was my freshman year. The boys thought it would be fun to lock me in the boys’ locker room while they were changing.
“Sal? Come on, Miss Girl.” He’s pleading now, even using his puppy-dog eyes. “We’ve always been able to tell each other everything.”
Not everything.