“Always,” he replied.
It felt good to have everyone back together, although my dad didn’t last long at dinner, quickly excusing himself to head to his office and work. We all knew what he was like after a bad game; we’d only been graced with his presence at dinner because Max was here.
Eventually, Tessa took the girls to get ready for bed, Max switched a game on the TV, and I snuck off to my room beforeI got recruited to help with Daisy and Skye’s bath. It usually ended in an all-out war between the two of them.
My room was sparse; just a bed and the suitcase I’d arrived here with. I was still waiting for all my moving boxes to get here. The only color in the room was on the wall opposite my bed where I was painting my mural. It was going to be a wintry lake scene once it was done, with a thick pine forest and snow-capped mountains beyond. So far I’d done the background and big color blocks, and I was hoping to build up the shadows and midtones this weekend. Maybe even add some linework.
My cat Mitts hissed at me from her position on my bed as I entered the room. It was her standard greeting. She hated everyone—even me.
“I’ve been thinking we should get a dog,” I told her.
Mitts gave me a judgmental glare before she repositioned herself so all I could see was her fluffy black back and curling tail. She then proceeded to calmly lick her bright white paws.
Just then the door behind me burst open. Daisy stood in the entrance, holding a Barbie in her tiny hands. Her eyes were big and filling with tears.
“Skye. Cut. All. Barbie’s. Hair. Off,” she blubbered, before darting into the room and throwing herself into my arms.
I instinctively pulled her in close. “I’m sorry, Daisy,” I murmured. “You know Skye’s only little. She doesn’t understand.”
“That’s. What. Mom. Said.”
Apparently, it was also the last thing my sister wanted to hear right now.
I gently took the doll from her hands and inspected thedamage. This was the end of the world for my sister; I wished my problems were as simple as a broken doll.
“I actually kind of like her new haircut,” I said.
“You—you do?” Daisy blinked her big tear-stained eyes up at me.
“Yeah. She looks so cool. Like she’s about to join a punk-rock band.”
“A band?”
“Yeah. You know what, I might have a blue marker in my pencil case somewhere. We could color her hair, if you want?”
She blinked at me several more times as she thought it over. “Could we dress her up like she’s in a band too?”
“Yeah.” I laughed. “We can do that.”
The two of us spent the next twenty minutes fixing Barbie. I loved spending time with my sister, but it also made me a little sad. When I was her age, there hadn’t been anyone to color a Barbie’s hair with me. My mom was gone, and my dad hadn’t really been present. It often felt like it was just Max and me. And Max would be more likely to test how far a doll could fly than try to do its hair.
But our lives changed for the better when Tessa started dating my dad. And then when Daisy and then Skye were born. The love and joy they brought into the house felt like it filled a hole inside me.
When we were done with Daisy’s doll, I was actually quite pleased with the result.
“Thanks, Kenzie!” Daisy beamed, hugging her doll tightly to her chest. “I love her.”
“She looks great, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, she does. I’m going to go put on a concert in my bed.” Daisy hurried from the room, happy once more. Although I’m sure it wouldn’t be long until Skye fixed that.
I changed into my pajamas, crawled into bed, and succumbed to the urge to check my phone one last time. Then immediately wished I hadn’t.
The algorithm must have been laughing at me—I only followed a few people from Ransom on social media, yet the first thing in my feed was a picture of Parker in all his naked glory. I almost dropped my phone. Thankfully the image had been captured from behind, and had been edited to cover Parker’s butt with a large peach emoji.
I should have felt victorious. But instead, my act of vengeance only seemed to have inflated the guy’s ego further. There wasn’t one negative comment on the post. Just floods of heart and fire emojis, some skull emojis too, and countless flattering compliments from desperate admirers. It was like witnessing a digital standing ovation. Even Parker had commented with a winky face of his own. He wasn’t just unaffected by what I’d done; he was enjoying the attention.
Parker walked through life as easily as he’d strolled across that foyer today. The rules the rest of us mere mortals had to abide by just didn’t apply to him.
