Me
If Tessa were hiding with my milkshake, where would she be?
Van
Ask Vivian.
Me
I did, and she hit me with ‘girls rule and boys drool’
Tessa
That’s my girl.
I grin.
Me
Don’t drink my milkshake.
Tessa
Too late.
Beck
When we were kids, she used to hide in the dryer.
“I forgot Tessa used to hide in the dryer,” Noah laughs from the living room. “She never did it again after I turned it on that one time.”
“Noah!” Rose scolds her son. “What?”
“It was for, like, three seconds,” Graham adds. “And she was six.”
Beck
Check the towel closet upstairs. She’s short enough to fit in there.
Suddenly, there’s a thump from above and then quick footsteps that follow it.
I chuckle and make my way to the stairs.
I’ve never been upstairs, and I can’t help but wonder what Tessa’s room looks like. Is it the same as when she was young? Or have Rose and Vince turned it into something else? A guest room? Another trophy room?
With every step I take, I look at each framed photo of the Halstons.
The first was taken on some sort of ski trip, with a young Tessa on Vince’s shoulders, her brothers in the snow below. The next is a camping trip–all the kids with a marshmallow on the end of a stick, except for Beck. From the looks of his puffed cheeks, he has several stuffed in his mouth. There’s a beach photo beside that one and then one of Tessa in a cap and gown with her pink cheeks and bright smile, her brothers standing beside her with their arms around each other.
The last one makes me pause.
It’s as if the picture comes to life right in front of my eyes, with Tessa reaching out of the photo to squeeze my heart.
She’s holding a baby wrapped in a pink blanket, who I assume is Vivian, with tears in her eyes as she smiles into the camera. Van stares at his daughter from behind Tessa’s shoulder with the rest of her brothers in the same stance.
Fuck me.
The first wall I ever built around myself is starting to crumble, and Tessa is right at the center of it.
