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“You two have suddenly become a lot more affectionate,” Nicole commented as we entered the theater. “Were you scared to kiss in front of us?”
“Something like that.”
A man took our excursion tickets and gave us blue stickers before directing us to sit with our group members on the right side of the auditorium. On the bench ahead of us, a mother and daughter from our ship argued in Spanish about a souvenir the daughter wanted her mother to buy for her because she had run out of her own spending money.
“¿Por qué gastaste todo tu dinero en chucherías?” the mother demanded.
Nicole and I grinned at each other. “You still remember Spanish from your time in Peru?” I asked. Whereas I didn’t last twelve months, Nicole had made it a full two years before my dad drove her so crazy that she agreed to live with Mom again. It didn’t hurt that Mom’s second husband, Bill, had taken off by then.
She tilted her head. “Enough.”
“Didn’t you study abroad in Mexico, too?” I was woefully short on the details of my own sister’s life. I wasn’t good at relationships in general, and maintaining one with a sister six years younger than me hadn’t been a big priority.
“Yeah, in Mexico City.” Her curt tone didn’t invite more questions.
I watched her, unsure what to say. We hadn’t always been distant. After our dad left, I was the one who walked her to and from school, helped with homework, and prepared her dinner if Mom had to work late. I’d missed homeroom for half a year in seventh grade because Mom had forgotten to fill out our bus paperwork and I couldn’t get to the middle school on time after dropping my little sister off at the elementary school.
Nicole used to tell me everything, even though I was a teenage boy who probably had less sense than she did, but when she was hospitalized for anorexia as a freshman in college, I hadn’t even known about it until after she was released.
A memory bubbled up, vivid as if I were reliving the moment in high definition. “Do you remember that kid who kept pushing you around in elementary school?”
Nicole turned and blinked at me. “Stephen Walker? What made you think of him?”
I shrugged. “Just reminiscing about the past. Do you know what happened to him?”
She unfolded her arms. “Do you mean in life, or just after you hit him?”
I winced at the reminder that I’d behaved so violently. I’d told Stephen to stop messing with Nicole, but he hadn’t listened, finally pushing her down on the gravel playground after school while she’d waited for me. When I found her scraped and bloody, I hadn’t stopped to think before I took a swing at him. The punch probably hurt my hand more than it hurt his face, but Nicole told me at the time he hadn’t pushed her anymore. “Uh, both?”
She sighed heavily. “He turned to a life of crime. He’s in prison now for assault and battery.”
I drew back. “What?” I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse. In retrospect, it seemed bizarre that a thirteen-year-old punched a ten-year-old kid instead of going to a teacher for help. Maybe I’d just decided by that point that adults couldn’t be counted on. It hadn’t occurred to me then that Stephen probably had a reason for being so aggressive.
Yep, I definitely felt worse.
Nicole smirked at me. “Just kidding, he’s an accountant. We’re friends on social media.”
“Nicole!” I groaned, before giving in and laughing.
I watched my sister out of the corner of my eye, remembering what Jenna had said about how Nicole might just need someone to validate her.
I cleared my throat. “That Frank is pretty awful, huh?”
“Yep,” she expounded.
The gambit hadn’t worked, but maybe that hadn’t been enough of an invitation for Nicole to be vulnerable. I tried again. “Do you want to talk about Mom and stuff?”
Nicole’s brows went up. “What’s gotten into you? We donottalk about feelings in this family.” She shook her head. “Must be Jenna’s influence.”
She wasn’t wrong. Until this trip, I’d seen my very limited time with my family as fulfilling an obligation. I’d never even stopped to question how we’d all ended up the way we had. “Yes, Jenna has noticed a few things about us.”
“And she hasn’t broken up with you over them, which is amazing.” Nicole stared at me. “What kinds of things did she say?”
“Um, she said that Mom buries bad stuff by putting a positive spin on things.”
“Duh.” Nicole rolled her eyes.
“And that maybe you’re looking for more validation from me?”
