Later. Right. Maybe we both knew what I really meant.
There was a soft exhale I only barely managed to hear before, “I’m sorry, Peewee.”
Peewee.
There came that squeeze again, and that time, it did hurt. Just a little, but more than enough. “I know. It’s all right. See ya.”
There was a sound in the background I didn’t know what to do with before I heard, “Bye, Bianca,” and then, I hung up.
There wasn’t much else for us to say to each other, was there?
We’d both tried. Some things just really weren’t meant to be.
“You did what?”
On the screen of my phone, I could see my sister lean into her camera and flash her teeth at me. “I got some of those whitening strips. What do you think?”
What I really thought was that Connie’s mouth could now light up a glow-in-the-dark mini golf course. “Con, I think that stuff wears away at your enamel, but your teeth look nice,” I told her as I finished chopping the white onion I’d bought about an hour ago. “They’re not going to be as nice as the dentures you’re going to end up having to get though if you keep using those things.”
“That’s what I said!” my brother-in-law, who had been sitting beside her on the couch, right on the edge of the screen, piped in. I could barely see his knee right then, but earlier he’d leaned into the camera and asked when I was planning on visiting.
I watched as my sister’s head turned slowly to the right, to where he was. She stared at him.
“Punkin, we’re just watching out for you,” the man who had married my sister fourteen years ago—the father of their two children—tried to backtrack. I already knew exactly what placating face he was giving her; I’d seen it in person way too many times. “I’d love you with three teeth, but please don’t ask me to. I might laugh if you start whistling through them.”
I snorted. My sister kept on staring at him.
At twelve years older than me, Connie had been more like a mom figure to me than a sibling for the majority of my life. Tied with Boogie, she was my best friend.
Despite the age gap between us, we had cemented our bond over the dozens of times she’d knock on my window in the middle of the night so she could sneak back in. I’d earned her loyalty by never ratting her out—mostly because I had always thought she was the coolest human being, but also because, according to what our mom had said a couple of times when she’d been around, I’d come out of the womb, and we’d fallen in love with each other.
We’d stayed in love with each other. Not that long ago, Connie had said something about how she’d raised three kids and wasn’t planning on having any more. She had given birth to two of them, and I knew I was the third. The first. Her practice baby. For as long as I could remember, she had always been my rock.
Even shorter than me—and really, basically a hobbit if we were going to throw words around, because I was below average, but she took it to a whole new level—she was also a regular source of entertainment. And she was very lovable, nuts or not.
On the screen, she blinked at her husband.
He did something that made it seem like he squirmed.
She blinked again.
And again he seemed to squirm.
I missed her. And her husband. And their kids.
“Do you hear that?” my brother-in-law said suddenly, getting to his feet. “I think my phone is ringing. Let me go look for it.”
I snorted, “Liar!” at the same time my sister muttered, “Chickenshit.”
And then we both laughed and gave each other a thumbs-up through our cameras when the microphone picked up my brother-in-law’s, “I’m not lying! I’m pretty sure I heard it!”
He was totally lying.
And it just made us laugh more.
Richard did some dumb shit every once in a while, but he was awesome. After my sister and cousin, he was probably my third favorite person. Chickenshit or not.
He’d won me over from the start. It wasn’t every man who would be crazy about his sister-in-law moving in for years, but he’d been the first one to bring it up after Mamá Lupe had died. Not once in the years that I lived with them did he ever make me feel bad or weird or unwanted.
There was a reason why my sister stuck around with him and all their moves over the years while he was active in the army.
On the screen though, Connie almost instantly sobered as she faced the camera again and asked, “Now that Nosey is gone, are you going to tell me what upset you, or am I going to have to guess?”
Damn it. I knew I should have waited to video chat with her. What else did I expect?
Luckily, I finished chopping up the onions at the same time as she’d thrown her question out at me, so I had an excuse to set my knife down on the cutting board. I knew better than to try to lie to her. But I also didn’t want her to have the full story. Zac Travis invited me over and then blew me off. But it’s no big deal because it seemed he had an important call! Yeah, like that would fly with the psycho living in Killeen, hours away. God forbid anyone ever hurt me, mentally, emotionally, or physically.
My sister had never given me a reason to doubt that she would come straight to help me if I ever needed her. And even when I didn’t need her. Kids in tow at three in the morning and everything.
She was my hero.
And maybe Zac had inadvertently hurt my feelings, but I wasn’t about to throw him under the bus when part of me understood he had apologized and whatever had happened hadn’t been planned.
She had seen him a few times over the years, and I didn’t want to make things awkward. She had never been as close to Boogie or him as I’d been, but they weren’t total strangers. She had lived with our abuela for a few years before moving away once she had finished her basics at the local community college.
“I was supposed to hang out with a friend, but they kind of left me hanging. It’s not a big deal, but I just overreacted and got annoyed.”
Eyes lighter than mine stared at me through my tablet as she narrowed them. We didn’t totally look alike. Her hair was straight; mine was about as curly as humanly possible. Hers was light like our dad’s, and mine was dark like our mom’s. She had always been all cute and small, and I gained weight if I just looked at a single Chips Ahoy. Connie had always been pretty and popular and had boys all over her. Me? Not so much. At least not until my early twenties.
But she wasn’t totally believing me; I could tell from her facial expression.
“It’s no big deal,” I insisted. That got me an eye roll that made me want to change the subject ASAP. “Say, have you talked to your parents lately? They haven’t emailed or video messaged me in over a week.”
That had my sister sliding me a look before grunting. She let the “your parents” thing go, fortunately. “Yeah. Mom emailed me yesterday—”
“Mom! Mommy! I think I super-glued my fingers together!” a voice hollered from somewhere in the background. “Oww! Mom! Help me!”
My sister instantly sighed, lifted a hand, and pinched the bridge of her nose for a second before shooting me a flat look. “I want you to think about this moment if you ever decide to have kids, Peewee. Think long and hard.” One side of her mouth went up in a half smile that meant nothing good was about to come out of her mouth. “Long and hard are what got me into this situation.”