AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It takes me two passes before I see him. But once I do, I know that it’s not something I’m missing.
It’s someone.
Sharing a red, white, and blue patchwork quilt on the southern dock of the pond are Isaac and Mary.
It’s my mama's quilt—her favorite Fourth of July one.
The quilt she made for this exact party almost ten years ago, the first time we attended it as a family. The first time she jumped up and down, clapping and cooing about how this was her favorite holiday in Divinity Falls. The people. The pond. The church. The fireworks and food. What’s not to love, she’d said.
This.
This is something I don’t love.
Watching what was once our thing become their thing.
Anger and frustration wash through me so rapidly, I almost vomit all the alcohol I greedily chugged during dinner while watching Mary fawn all over him. At least Isaac didn’t fawn back, but he didn’t push her away. He didn’t say anything to make her stop. He didn’t make her sit somewhere else so that I could sit on his right side, like always. He didn’t reprimand her for filling his plate or sweet tea every time it got low—that’s my job. I take care of that for him. Not her.
He didn’t do anything, and that’s what killed me the most.
It’s stupid—I know it’s stupid, to be mad or jealous. I know I shouldn't feel this way.
I shouldn’t feel any way. Not toward him—about him.
My stepfather.
Swallowing thickly, I shake my head, deciding to call it an early night. I’m suddenly not in the mood to celebrate anymore. Not that there’s been much to celebrate in the last four years.
I shoot a quick text to Isaac—one I’m sure he won’t notice with her all over him—letting him know I’m going home before I take off toward our house on the opposite side of the pond.
I try not to stare at it, at the pond I’ve spent ten summers swimming in. Making memories in. Celebrating every holiday with my family at.
My family was once beautiful.
Then it broke.
Then it was mended.
Then…
Then it broke again.
No, it shattered. It shattered so thoroughly it could never be put back together. Even though Isaac has tried to fix it, tried to get the old Eve back, tried to promise me that we don’t need anyone but each other, my heart still hurts.
Everything still hurts.
I used to think my family was like one of the patchwork quilts covering the tall grass around me. I used to think it was beautiful, four different personalities all coming together to make something broken whole again.
Mama used to say so, she used to swear it. Tell me again and again that it didn’t matter if our family looked different from others, that it was okay that Daddy was with God finding peace after such a long fight.
I used to believe her.
Now I know better.
“Eve?” a deep, slightly nasally voice calls. I jump with a gasp, bringing a hand up to still my racing heart, and whirl on the sound of footsteps steadily closing in on me. Kevin’s hands fly up as he offers me an apologetic look. “Heck. Sorry. I called you a few times. I thought you heard me.”
I swallow, shaking my head to clear my depressing thoughts. I’d been so caught up in the past I didn’t even realize he was here.
I tear my gaze from his concerned eyes and take in my surroundings. I’m already home and in the front yard. I can barely hear the music and laughter from the party in the distance. The random lights that filtered through the field are now dim.
