Wait a minute. “Senior year? You were with Luke then. You cheated on him?”
“It was high school,” she explained. “Everybody cheated.”
“Luke cheated on you, too?” Tara asked.
Cassie turned to her, offended. “Who would cheat on me?” she demanded.
MIKE, I wanted to scream. Mike had cheated on her while they were dating, while they were married, while she was pregnant with his freaking baby. Currently, as we spoke, Mike was probably cheating on her.
I was furiously angry. How could she have done that to him? “I can’t believe you, Cassie.”
“What?” She sounded genuinely confused.
“How could you cheat on Luke? How could you treat him like that?” I was actually sputtering in anger.
Tara lowered her eyebrows and made a small headshake at me.
“Why would you care, Emily?” Cassie asked. “What difference does it make to you?” She stared at me.
I took a deep breath to try calm down. “I’m just saying, it’snot very nice to have someone cheat on you. I was just thinking of his feelings.”
She laughed harshly. “What feelings? We got exactly what we wanted from each other. He was the hottest guy, I was the hottest girl. We looked great together. He had a credit card and took me everywhere. I let him do whatever he wanted. It was just high school.” My anger boiled and I opened my mouth.
Tara hit me on my leg and shook her head again. “It was a long time ago,” she commented.
But I wasn’t done. She was such a user! “I think that’s terrible. You should be ashamed of yourself! He’s an amazing person, and you treated him like crap!”
“You’re such a fucking goody-goody! He got exactly what he wanted and it wasn’t true love. Please, Emily! Did you think you were going to find your one and only in high school? No wonder you never had a date.” She laughed meanly.
“So you think you found true love with Mike? Or did you just marry him because you looked good together in pictures?”
Cassie was staring daggers at me. “Mike and I have something real. We do love each other, not that my virgin half-sister would understand.”
“Then where is he?”
Silence descended over the room. Tara stood up and gathered the yearbooks. “Emmy, come help me put these away.” She took me by the arm and tugged me out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Putting a hand on my back, she pushed me in the direction of the stairs.
“Where do I start?” she asked me when we got to the kitchen.
“I know. I know, ok? The one time she was happy and having fun, I messed it up. I practically told her I’m interested in Luke, which, despite the fact she apparently cheated on him, she will never forgive me for. I questioned her sacred relationship with Mike. I almost called her a slut. I was mean to my sister with cancer. Did I leave anything out?”
“No, you pretty much covered it,” she told me.
I looked out the window into the backyard. Charlie had an enormous axe raised over his head and looked to be aiming it at his foot. “Oh, holy Mary!”
As we prevented his near amputation, Tara let the subject drop.
Chapter 6
Monday morning I awoke to another frigid shower and a sister who wouldn’t speak to me. The water was so cold that it actually hurt after a while, so I got out, shivering like a leaf, and washed my hair in the kitchen sink. At least I didn’t have to feel the icy water running over my body while I rinsed off the shampoo. I looked in the mirror and saw that my lips were blue, but that glacial water really did give me a kind of glow. Good to know.
The night before I had heated water for Cassie to take a bath, but she refused to acknowledge me when I poured it into her tub and turned on the tap until I had the right temperature. I waited outside her closed door until I heard her slowly get out of bed and go into the bathroom. Then I crept into the room and waited outside the bathroom door in case she needed me. She was so frail, I was afraid she would fall. I would have killed her because I couldn’t keep my dumb opinions to myself.
I hurried into Charlie’s bedroom to get him up. He was curled in a ball in the middle of the bed, covered only by the sheet which had pulled free from its moorings. Everything else that had formerly been on the bed (comforter, blanket, pillow, and bear replacing Danny Bob) was on the floor. It looked like he had been involved in a wrestling match in the night.
“Pal,” I murmured, rubbing his back. “Time to get up. Riseand shine, sleepyhead.”
He muttered something groggily.
