Chapter 3

At three that afternoon, someone knocked on my door.

It was Mom, with Tyler behind her. She shoved a cleaning cloth and a mop into my hands.

"Your brother's girlfriend is coming in a couple of days. Clean the place up. Don't embarrass him."

I looked at the two of them. They were dressed for going out, and Mom's purse was stuffed full.

My grip tightened on the mop handle. I pointed at Tyler.

"She's his girlfriend. What does that have to do with me?"

Mom's brows drew together. She sounded impatient.

"I'm taking your brother out to buy her a gift. It's her first time in our home. We have to do this properly."

"And stop measuring yourself against him. He isn't you."

She left with Tyler before I could say another word.

She didn't leave room for me to refuse.

She seemed to have forgotten that I was the one about to get married.

If anyone deserved something done properly, it was me.

But then, did she actually care?

By the time I finished cleaning, it was five.

Serena got home from work and walked straight across the floor I'd just mopped.

She had two gift bags in her hands. One held an electric razor. The other held a stack of disposable ones.

She hid the bigger bag behind her back.

Her footprints tracked across the living room, stopped in Tyler's bedroom, and came back out again.

She carried the bag of disposables over to me.

"Here, this one's yours. I've got a surprise planned for Tyler, so keep your mouth shut."

I held the bag of cheap razors, and slowly, without meaning to, my chin started to sting.

My chest drew tight along with it.

When Tyler was born, Serena and I had been in exactly the same position.

Forgotten by the entire world, the two of us were stuck in a corner of the hospital.

That was when Serena took my hand.

She saw how lost I was, how small, and she stood guard over that little bruised feeling I couldn't name.

I thought that in this family, at least I still had my sister.

Then Tyler got older.

The first time he called her by name, the last comfort I had went with it.

Serena said, "He's my brother too. It isn't fair to him."

But in the end, I was the only one anything was ever unfair to.

Her heart had picked a side, and it stayed picked.

She saw my eyes redden and laughed, half exasperated.

"They're razors. Are you seriously getting emotional over razors?"

"Is that all it takes? Is that how your girlfriend won you over, a couple of cheap gestures?"

I set the bag down and wiped my eyes.

"She's never bought me disposable razors. She knows the plastic ones give me hives."

The smug look on Serena's face froze.

After a moment she apologized, though nothing in her expression suggested she felt bad.

"Sorry. I didn't know. I only wanted to make Tyler happy."

"The store threw in the disposables free when I bought the electric one. I had no idea you were allergic."

So even the razors that made me break out were something Tyler got first.

I opened my mouth to tell her that she did know.

She'd given me the same thing for my eighteenth birthday. She'd stood there and watched my face swell up.

In the end all I said was, "It's fine."

And it really was fine now.

Once I was married, we wouldn't be family anymore.

We'd just be relatives.