“My mother’s dead.” Quickly turning my head to look at him. “And ghosts aren’t fucking real.” I push past him, leaving him standing on the edge of the cliff, walking back up the mountain to find my sister.
“Terri’s here.” My sister rolls her eyes as she sits down between Zeke and I.
“Why?” we both ask her in a unison groan.
It’s weird being back with my brother. It’s like nothing has changed, even if we haven’t seen one another since Christmas. It’s always been him and I. We know one another better than anyone else. We don’t even have to look at one another to know what the other is thinking… something about sharing a womb or some shit; I guess.
“Who’s Terri?” Ro asks as he sits next to Zeke.
“Our grandmother.” I can hear in her tone that Drew is rolling her eyes. “She tried to hug me.”
“How’d you get away?” I can’t help but laugh, knowing that our parents would find all of it quite comical, and then Mom would definitely curse Terri out.
“I pretended not to hear her and dodged through a door.” It makes my brother and I chuckle.
“That probably means she’s up Liv and Billie’s asses.” I groan out, looking around for my dad’s mother, whom I have only met a handful of times in my life. Dad didn’t carry any sort of resentment towards his mother. At least since I’ve been alive, he just didn’t want her around. It’s hard to trust someone who consistently lets you down, abandons you, and then acts like she’s the victim.
I catch my cousin and aunt with my grandmother and stand up, ready to go save them. As I approach, my grandmother’s face lightens as she sees me. “Zeke.”
Shaking my head, I roll my eyes as I look at Billie and Liv. “I have a seat for you guys with us.”
“What about me?”
“No.” I shake my head.
“What? But I’m the mother.” She shouts, making a scene.
“Technically.”
“But Zeke.” She tries to plead with me.
“That’s Zane, Terri.” Liv cuts out at her, just as irritated with our grandmother as I am.
“Well, they’re identical. How the hell am I supposed to tell the difference?” She scoffs this time.
“I dunno, Terri.” My brother’s voice starts from behind me. “Everyone else, who has been in our lives for any amount of time, can.” He laughs out, creating more of a scene… my brother, the attention seeker. It’s the biggest difference that we have. He craves attention when he wants it, and only the amount that he wants, so he creates scenes he can control. It’s why his chosen career path makes sense. Everyone around us starts to turn and look at us. “Maybe if you had seen us at all since we were 13… you could, too.”
“That was because of your moth—”
“You say one negative thing about my mother. I won’t just kick you out of here.” Drew steps up between where we stand and Terri does. “Now, take a fucking seat and, for once in your life, pay your son some goddamn respect.”
“You’re just like your mother.” She scowls out at my sister and I glare holes into Terri as I step in front of my sister, as if she needs anyone to protect her.
“Good.” she shouts, her arms coming onto my arm as she tries to push me aside.
Instead, I turn around, spinning her around and push her back towards our seats. I hear Drew mumble something under her breath about not being able to tell us apart when our eyes are so fucking different.
“I am curious.” I whisper over to my brother as we walk side by side. “If Terri and Drew got into a fight. Which do you think would outweigh the other, assaulting a minor or elder abuse?”
It makes my brother laugh out as we continue to our seats. “Dad would have loved that one.”
?
The funeral passes, and we all cry. How could we not? We convinced the funeral home to let us do a dual service. For both of them, it’s what they would have wanted. Zeke and I joked about putting them in the same coffin, but the funeral home didn’t find that one funny. I watched Terri roll her eyes and leave once she noticed it… fucking good. I’m sure that we haven’t seen the last of her. She knew Dad was into some shady shit. She’ll show up looking for a handout and trying to blackmail us into it.
“Ro.” I call after him as we walk into the clubhouse… possibly for the last time, depending. “I need your help.”
“Whatever you need, kid…”
