Dirty Little Secret

nine | holidays

December 22nd

Riley

"I'm so glad you're back. I've missed you!" My youngest sister, Leah, squeezes me tightly.

"How's your knee?" My dad asks.

My entire immediate family is crowding around me, and it's overwhelming.

"Why don't you sit down?" My mom says.

"Do you need an ice pack?" Hailey asks.

I heave out a sigh. "Can you all just like, back up?" I chuckle. "It's just a hairline fracture, it's fine."

"It's not fine. You got into a car accident, honey." Mom says, sweeping my hair back from my eyes.

"I got rear-ended. Nothing major. Sure, it was scary, but at least the baby bunny didn't die!" I smile hopefully.

Dad huffs. "This is why you don't break or swerve for animals."

I mimic his huff. "It was a baby!"

"Your life is more important than an animal. I'm sorry you don't agree with that." He says before turning on his heel and walking further into the house I grew up in.

I'm a lot like my father, and that's why we butt heads so much. But we never fail to bounce back, and there are rarely ever any serious arguments.

"We ordered pizza!" Leah tells me.

I crutch my way into the living room and sit on the couch. Hailey pushes the ottoman in front of me and props my foot up on it. "Seriously, do you need ice?"

"Sure," I tell her, setting my crutches to the side.

"I was thinking we could start our Christmas movie marathon early this year," Leah says excitedly, sitting down on the grey couch beside me.

My fourteen-year-old sister is the kind of girl that everyone can't help but love. She's drop-dead gorgeous. She's highly entertaining. She gets good grades. And she's just a damn good person.

If she likes you, she'll poke fun at you, but it's all in a teasing manner.

"How's Gabe? You haven't talked about him much." Mom sits on the large ottoman and looks at me expectantly.

"He's good," I answer. "He's been busy lately."

"At least football is almost over."

"Yeah. They made it to the Cotton Bowl again. Gabe thinks they're gonna win."

"They've already won twice in a row. It's possible. Tell him we're sorry we can't make it this year." Mom frowns. "But Hailey's excited to go."

I smile at my sister. "I'm excited for you to go too."

Hailey is eighteen, which means she graduates this May. I've always been fairly close with my sisters, so having Hailey come to visit will be great for multiple reasons--one of those is that Gabe won't try and do anything while Hailey is there unless I royally piss him off.

"When do I get to come visit?" Leah whines.

"When you're older." Mom taps her nose, and the whiny teenager groans.

"College is scary. I'm in my twenties and sometimes I don't even want to be there. I couldn't imagine my fourteen-year-old sister there for a weekend." I shake my head at the thought. "Besides, it's a bunch of drunk frat guys anyways. You're not missing anything important."

Leah frowns, and I realize she's not sad about coming to visit me at college. She's sad because Hailey and I have always been closer because Hailey is older than Leah. Leah has always felt left out.