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Their parents watched them, standing right in the hallway. Their yelling match had completely covered the footsteps leaving the living room and rushing down the hallway. Tully had no idea how long they’d been there, but based on the confused flickering of their eyes back and forth between them, and the way they lingered on Joliet, they’d heard enough.
Next to her, Joliet made a gasping, wet sniffling sound. Tully could sense the waterworks about the start. “Tulsa was—”
Their dad homed in on the movement and stepped forward. “Is that true?”
Joliet startled, and all eyes turned to her. “What?” she asked, taken aback.
“The car? The cat? My mother’s ashes?” He said it like it was the most insane thing he’d ever heard, disbelieving that someone could do that. “Your sister’s exam?”
Tully watched, stunned, as Joliet’s mouth opened but nothing came out. Like she was trying to force out an excuse but nothing was forming.
Tully’s hands started shaking, hit with a rush of adrenaline that felt like a lifetime in the making. She clenched her hands, and a sense of hope hit square in the chest. Was this finally it? Were they finally going to see her?
It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but then her mother stepped forward and saved Joliet from having to answer. “I’m sure there’s an explanation for all this. She must have had a good reason.”
“A good reason?Are you serious?” Angry, Eugene chimed in from his quiet safe spot off to the side of the cramped hallway.
Tully’s shoulders sagged. “Even now, when it’s right in front of your face, you’re so blind. You’re so worried about her feeling left out or unloved that you’ve forgotten about me. I’ve always been good, I’ve always listened. I work hard in school. I’m valedictorian, for God’s sake. Yet if I do a single thing out of line, I’m punished more than she has ever been. I’ve been punishedforher more times than I can count. She isn’t the innocent angel you think she is, and I’m not the monster you think I am. Why can’t you see it? Why do you love her more than me? I’m your daughter too.”
It was amazing how silent the room became when no one breathed or moved. When, for the first time in what felt like a very long time, everyone was finally paying attention to her.
That hope in her chest, which she thought had faded, lingered like a candle flame—flickering in uncertainty and at the threat of being blown out at any second. Her hands clenched, still shaking. She exhaled, deep and hard and with it went a lifetime of weight that she hoped they could see.
“I…” Her dad started, hesitating as he looked between her and Joliet like he was trying to figure them out. “We had no idea.”
“That’s the problem. You never had any idea. You never even questioned it.”
“Tulsa, sweetheart . . .” Her mother started.
Tully’s back straightened, her breath catching. Her mother hadn’t called her that in years.
Tully couldn’t help it, she peered at Joliet.
Joliet was staring at their parents, her face red, her eyes watery, and a multitude of tears ran down her face. Yet, nothing about it looked staged. Nothing about it looked fake. She looked . . . stuck. Scared.
And rather than being mad, or frustrated, or pointing out that she deserved to feel that way, Tully felt pity. A thick, almost satisfying sense of pity.
“I don’t deserve all this. I never did. You should have been better parents,” Tully said. She saw her mother’s face fall, and her dad looked away.
Instead of waiting to see if they were going to grovel at her feet or reprimand her, she just walked past them.
She heard someone following her, but she focused on the ground in front of her, becoming unfocused as the adrenaline began to crash. Up the stairs and to her room, she went in with who she realized was Eugene on her heels and shut the door so they were alone.
She stood there for a moment, staring at the wall to collect herself.
Eugene took a deep sigh. “Well, this is easily my second most favorite Christmas ever.”
fifty-eight
tully
Tully stared at him, speechless for a few moments. Then she laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“And you are insane.”
“That was crazy, wasn’t it?”
“I’d pay money to see it again.”
