Four Tickets and Goodbye
My family was going on a beach trip for summer. My mother came up with the whole itinerary two weeks earlier. My father booked a room with a view of the sea. My brother picked the surfboards, while my sister went with the dresses for socials.
I was helping them pack up the night before the trip when I saw the tickets on the coffee table. There were only four of them, and they were for my father, mother, brother, and sister. They didn't get one for me.
My mother saw me, and she froze. "Oh, I forgot all about you."
My brother didn't even look up. "She can just stay at home."
My sister said quietly, "Maybe I shouldn't go, then?"
My mother quickly took her side. "No. You've been looking for