Page 76 of The Surprise
“You’re as bad as your Aunt Donna,” Dad says. “And if you don’t watch out, you’ll end up being on the wrong side of things just like she is.” He drops his voice. “And if you think I’ll spare you, you’re as dumb as your aunt.” He grabs his coat and stomps out the door.
Mom just sighs.
“What did that mean?” I ask.
“He got her fired today,” Mom says. “She deserved it. She was being terribly disloyal.”
It takes me a beat to process what she’s saying. “Dad got hissisterfired, because she wants some of their parents’ inheritance?”
Mom just stares at the table in front of her.
“He cost the Brooks women their children’s inheritance, too. Has it ever occurred to you, Mom, thatDadmight be the bad guy?”
I wait in my room for an hour and a half before sneaking outside to get my gifts out of my car. I carry them as quietly as I can inside the house and set them all on my desk. Then, finally, I open Ethan’s gift. I’m hoping there will be some sign, some message that he still likes me. That maybe, some day in the future, I might be able to date him again for real.
It’s a simple photo frame with a small photo inside.
The one I took of his family.
Looking at that image, which Ethan had asked me to send him weeks and weeks ago, breaks my heart. It’s everything I’ll never have. The boy, the family, the shiny future. A tiny knock at my door startles me, and I drop the photo frame. It lands face down on my floor. Before I can even pick it up, the door’s opening. It’s my dad.
Of course it is.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“Your mom’s asleep, and I hope you’re happy with yourself. She must have had some pills stashed somewhere, because when I came back inside, she was out cold.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. But I’m not as sorry as I probably should be. I’m tired of being sorry for what Mom does. I’m tired of apologizing when other people react to something I did. I’m tired of everything always being my fault.
“You know, you might not think I was such a villain in all this, if you knew why I was doing it.”
“Doing what?”
“If I was married to someone like the Brooks women, I could be generous and share my inheritance with your aunt. But I’m married to your mother, and she needs more than most people.”
“You mean because she’s always binge shopping? And going to pricey rehab places?”
Dad frowns. “Your rudeness is really disgusting.”
“But that is what you meant.”
Dad sighs. “You keep right on acting all self-righteous and important.” He smirks. “Because you’re just like Donna.”
After he leaves, I lean over slowly and pick up the photo. The glass over the front of it is broken, and it just highlights how different my world is than the world staring back at me from the photo. Their happy, bright joy can’t even survive in this house when it’s behind glass.
My life shatters theirs, and that thought makes me bawl even harder.
15
Ethan
If I had grown up out here, I probably would have played football in high school. I’m tall, I’m coordinated, and I’m athletic. I played high school basketball back home, but it’s Texas. So to play high school football, you need to live, breathe, and sleep football.
I did not.
Even so, I’m familiar with how it works. My friend who made the team had to go over plays every day to remember them all, and then several times a week, they’d run each one in turn.
When Izzy jogs inside to grab drinks, I snag her arm. “Hey, can you go over the plan with me one more time?”
