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He pointed through the open doorway of my bedroom, to the line of photos on the mahogany dresser. I turned to follow his finger.
“Ah, yes,” I scoffed. “My ‘bucket list’.”
Storming in, I took one of the photos and brought it over to him. Without a word, I dropped it into his lap.
“What?”
“See that photo?” I asked, pointing. “It’s the one photo none of you asked about. You talked about all the others, but not this one.”
Connor scooted closer to Aiden’s side of the couch, to get a good look at the photo himself. The two of them shrugged.
“That’s because you’re not doing anythin’ radical in this photo,” Connor shrugged. “It’s just a picture of you.”
“No,” I said, struggling to keep the quickly-forming lump out of my throat. “It’s not.”
They peered at it again, then back at me. They held it up to Elliot, and he looked too.
“Jordyn,” said Elliot carefully. “If there’s something you need to say, just—”
“That’s a picture of Jocelyn,” I said evenly. “It’s one of the few printed photos I have left.”
They were still confused. “Jocelyn?”
“My twin sister.”
The nostalgia surged up from my stomach as it always did, but this time I didn’t waste any energy pushing it down. Instead welcomed it, letting it wash over me. For once, it almost actually felt… good.
I knew the next question before it was asked.
“You have a twin—”
“Had,” I interrupted Aiden somberly. “I had a twin sister. And she was beautiful. Bright, funny, full of life.”
The color drained from their faces, as their eyes wandered to the floor. Even Elliot squirmed in his chair, and Elliot never looked uncomfortable.
“We grew up in Florida,” I began, “but you know that part already. We had the perfect childhood. A fantastic home. We graduated with honors, and were enjoying the summer before college when my parents both drowned on their dream vacation; a safari in Africa.”
The statement came out so casually, so nonchalant. It hit the room like a thunderclap, knocking everything into stillness.
“Mom fell into a river,” I said, “and dad went after her. We never did get much in the way of details. Neither of them could swim worth a damn, though.” I shook my head. “Funny, right? We lived right by the ocean and they never did more than dip their toes in.”
Aiden was apparently holding his breath. He let it out with a shudder. “Jordyn, I’m so sorry.”
“Know where we were when it happened?” I half-laughed. “Setting up a house party. One last celebration before we headed off to school. One big bash while our parents were away.”
Connor looked ready to get up and maybe hug me. I stopped him with an outstretched hand.
“I’ll never forget where I was when we heard: hanging balloons on our gazebo. Those balloons hung there for months afterward, deflated and dangling. I never took them down. I never went near that part of the yard again.”
The guys looked horror-struck. It wasn’t at all what I wanted.
“Anyway, we did the best we could after that,” I went on, “but their deaths ruined everything. Neither one of us went to school. We stayed home instead, got jobs, and tried to keep the house.” I sighed bitterly. “We ended up losing it in the end. Not long afterward Jocelyn met a guy and shacked up with him, and I moved into a tiny apartment by myself.”
I’d been pacing back and forth before them, but I’d finally stopped. Elliot reached out to me, took my hand, and pulled me into the loveseat beside him. As his arm slid around me, a single tear rolled down my cheek.
“What happened after that?” he asked softly.
“We stayed in Florida for a while,” I explained, “even though I wanted to go. Jocelyn’s boyfriend turned into her fiancé, and then her husband. I was skeptical at first, but he ended up being a really nice guy and he loved my sister. They got a little place together, and tried starting a family.”
