“Don’t say that, sweetie. It’s a bad word,” Gaten, my dad, scolds, throwing Jesse a murderous glare. Aveena snickers in her chair, tilting her head forward and hiding behind her caramel-brown hair.
“Honey, give Charles some milk, will you?” Gaten asks my other dad, Dave—it gets confusing, so I call them by their names to differentiate them. Dave nods, rises off his chair, and threads his way to the fridge.
“Not milk, juice,” Charlie protests.
Dave casts a glance over his shoulder at his husband for confirmation. This is how these two make parenting decisions nowadays.
I couldn’t have been older than five when I realized that Dave was my “Yes” dad, while Gaten was my “Hell to the no” dad. My older siblings, Jesse and Catalina, figured that out right off the bat. These assholes spent most of high school tricking my dads into disagreeing with each other.
By the time Yes Dad had agreed to something, they were out the door, and it was too late for No Dad to hit the brakes—oldest trick in the book, you know the drill.
“Any more sugar and he’ll be impossible to put down for a nap.” Gaten shakes his head, and Dave nods in approval, pulling the milk out and filling up Charlie’s spillproof cup.
“Juice,” Charlie insists.
“I said no, Charles,” Gaten declares.
“Damn,” Charlie blurts, recycling his new favorite word, and Jesse chews down on his bottom lip to keep from laughing.
“Jesse, don’t encourage him,” Gaten reprimands.
“He’s right. This isn’t funny,” Dave chimes in.
Jesse laughs into his fist. “It’s a little funny.”
I’m next in line, my loud snort rippling through the room.
“Diamond!” Gaten scolds.
My weakness is the final domino to a long line of muffled chuckles, sending a chain of laughter around the kitchen. There isn’t a single serious face to be seen as my parents try to scold my little brother for his potty mouth.
“Wasn’t Catalina coming home?” I change the subject once order has been restored. I’d be lying if I said I’m not relieved to see my older sister is MIA today.
Most of the makeup Finn ruined was hers, and there’s no doubt she’s going to skin me alive when she finds out. Finn wired me the money to replace it, but I haven’t had a chance to hit the mall yet.
“She couldn’t make it. Something to do with her boyfriend,” Dave explains.
“Which one?” Jesse mocks in a whisper that only Aveena and I catch.
My best friend and I trade glances.
He’s not lying.
Catalina’s been all over the place since breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, Mal. They’d been together for years. Malek was her first everything. Until he vanished overnight, leaving the country without a trace just weeks after he proposed to her.
The dude took ghosting to a whole new level. He deactivated all his social media, quit his job, cleared out his apartment, and fell off the face of the earth.
The worst part is, Cat and Mal were the couple you’re jealous of. The couple that irritates the shit out of you because they’re that perfect.
It was just something about the way he looked at her. Like Cat was the only woman whose language Mal understood and her eyes the only place where he felt at home.
Every lead Catalina came up with turned out to be a dead end. The police told her he’d most likely done a one-eighty and started a new life. She was in therapy for months afterward. In time, she found comfort in the only person who was also left behind after Mal disappeared.
His best friend, River.
She’s been on and off with him for months now. The truth is, she’s still not over Mal, and I have a feeling no rebound could make her forget the guy she was supposed to grow old with.
“How was your first week of work, sweetheart?” Dave follows up.