“Hi, Mum.” Rian goes over to her and plants a kiss on her cheek. “What’s that amazing smell?”
“Chicken pot pie.”
“My favourite,” Tyler says, glancing warily at my sister, who appears to hate him as much as she hates me. Apparently, all that New Age, yoga, meditation crap has done nothing for her – she’ll hate anyone, with no reason at all.
“Come on, dear,” my mother says, placing her hands on Skylar’s shoulders to guide her into the other room. My sister approaches me.
“That girl is not okay,” she says, her voice strangely serious.
I thought she’d come to insult me.
“You think?” I ask sarcastically, irritated.
Great. I really needed my eighteen-year-old sister to make me feel even shittier than I already do.
“She needs help. And I don’t exactly think you’re the right person for the job,” she adds, before leaving me alone in the kitchen, with the niggling feeling that everyone knows exactly who I am, and what I can never be.
“I don’t think that’s true,” Tyler says from behind me. “Sure, it won’t be easy, but I think you can do it.”
“Thanks, Tyler, but you don’t have to say that just to go against everyone else.”
“You’re her father.”
I turn to face him. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
“It’ll take time, and you’ll both need to be patient.”
“She hates me, Tyler.”
“That’s obvious. You always hate the person who stays, even when the one who left didn’t choose to go.”
That’s the third pearl of wisdom he’s bestowed on me today without batting an eyelid. What’s happened to my childhood friend, Tyler Hayes?
“She needs to take it out on someone, and you’re the only one around.”
“That’s not a great consolation.”
He smiles at me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “If you ever need me, I’m here to help.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re friends.”
“But we haven’t seen each other for – how long? Fifteen years?”
“Who cares? Friendship has no time limits.”
I smile, despite myself.
“It’s like family,” he adds. “You’re in the right place, Kerry. You’re home.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I do. And pretty soon, you’ll think so, too.”
Luckily, at dinner, Tyler doesn’t stop talking for even a second – something that my mother adores. I don’t know whether he’s doing it to keep the mood light, or to cover up the uncomfortable silences, but I appreciate it; just as I appreciate the fact that he’s decided to keep being my friend, even when I don’t deserve it. But I’m alone, I’m scared, and I have no idea where I’m going. So I’ll take his friendship and his offer of help, just as I know I’ll take everything else my family can give me.
Skylar is sitting next to my sister. They’ve barely exchanged a word – my sister doesn’t know her like me or our parents do – but my father is sitting across the table from them, and he seems to be making things easier. I think he’s the only person she hasn’t insulted since we’ve been here.
