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Lana clears her throat, drawing my attention. I can see her face in the small square at the corner of the screen. Her eyes are wide. After a second of confusion, Alexis jolts.
“But Dustan’s days off refresh in the fall. He just got a new slate. Before this, we didn’t have any time to spare, so…” Her voice trails off, the lie turning to a soft static in the background.
“Anyway,” Lana interjects, “did you try that gym you told me about last week?”
Alexis nods. She's desperate for a subject change. “I signed up for the aerial silks class.”
“How was that?”
“Imagine me in spandex tangled up in silk sheets suspended from the ceiling. Because it was as graceful as it sounds. I felt like a bug in a web.”
They both laugh, but I can’t find the energy to even pretend. Apparently, they talk often. I haven’t gotten more than a few random texts from Alexis in the last two months, but Lana knows about her gym schedule and her travel plans.
They weren’t just cutting Mom off. They cut me off, too.
“I told Dad about the class and then Pat sent me pictures of her doing aerial in the nineties,” Alexis says.
“You talk to Dad?” I ask in even more surprise.
“Once a week or so, yeah. We video chat over lunch on Wednesdays.”
Wow. So she really talks to him. It’s on the schedule. Planned out in advance.
I chew on the inside of my cheek. “Oh. I guess I didn’t realize you two were that close.”
Lana blows out a harsh breath. “Oh for God’s sake, don’t make this into a thing, Rayne.”
"What thing? I'm not. I was just saying, I didn't realize she and Dad were close. He and I never talk, so—”
“This is exactly what I mean by making it a thing,” she says, waving her hands vaguely through the air. “Alexis and I being close to Dad is not an issue, okay? Let's not make it one. We’ve always been closer to him than you have.”
“You’re both close with him? Do you talk to him, too?”
“Sometimes,” Lana admits. “We knew him better than you did. You were so young when Mom and Dad split up.”
“When he left,” I correct. “When he moved away and started another family. When he abandoned us.”
“He only abandoned you because you refused to talk to him,” Alexis snaps. “Communication is a two-way street.”
“Sounds like you’re the expert. I wouldn’t know. No one communicates with me.”
Alexis rolls her eyes and opens her mouth to respond, but Lana cuts in. “Can we not do this?”
“We aren’t doing anything. We’re talking!”
“No, we’re fighting,” Lana says. She’s always been the peacemaker between the three of us, but not in a peaceful way, more like ashut up before you give me a headacheway. “And there’s no reason for it. Alexis and I grew up with Dad in the house. He was a bigger part of our lives, full stop. And you were always closer to Mom. You lived with her into your twenties. So—”
“I took care of her into my twenties,” I clarify. “I could have moved out.”
Lana nods, clearly fighting an eye roll. “Yeah. Right. You could have. But you didn’t. You stayed with her.”
“She was sick.” I can’t believe I have to explain this to them. Again. “It’s not like I was lounging around watching television and letting her cook for me and leeching off the free Wi-Fi. I had to take care of her.”
“We offered to pay for nursing,” Alexis says.
“Mom didn’t want that.” It was the one thing she asked of me. If she had to die, she didn’t want to do it in front of a stranger. I could respect that.
“And you cared more about what she wanted than what you wanted.”
