gulping sobs like when she had been little and infuriated that Maya wouldn’t play with her. Lauren was the baby, after all. She was used to getting her way.
But their dad just packed up the car with his clothes and boxes and books, then came over and hugged Lauren tight, whispering something into her hair before letting her go and embracing Maya. The vines held her steady, though, keeping her quiet and immobile as her dad whispered into her hair, too. “I love you so much,” he said. “I’ll see you soon. I’ll call you tonight. I love you, I love you.”
Maya felt herself nod against his chest, then pulled back. The whole thing felt so forced, so cheesy. She half wondered if she was starring in a movie, or dreaming, or maybe even dreaming about starring in a movie. Behind her, she could feel the presence of her mom standing on the porch, watching the scene with her bathrobe still clutched tightly around her. Maya knew she was hungover by the way she winced against the sunlight, the way her shoulders seemed pulled too tight against her robe.
She wondered if the sauvignon blanc was still in the dresser, or if it was all gone now.
Maya’s dad tried to hold on to her, but she just kept stepping back until her feet hit the porch’s front step. Next to her, Lauren was wiping at her face with the sleeve of her hoodie, and all Maya could think was, Gross.
“Take care of your sister,” her dad said, and then she could see his own chin wobbling. She had seen her dad cry before, of course, but that had been during movies or really sad TV commercials, not during real life. She wondered if he had cried when he’d first seen Maya, or Lauren, or even their mom. Probably not on that last one. That would be super weird to date a guy who cried when he first saw you. Maya hoped her mom had had better sense than that.
“My,” Lauren said, nudging her out of her thoughts.
“What?”
Lauren pointed toward her dad, who was handing them both a package. “Oh,” Maya said, then took it from him.
“You can open it after I leave,” he said. “I just want you to remember me, that’s all.”
“You’re not dying,” Maya said. She meant to sound funny, to ease the mood, but her words sounded sharp, like not dying was an accusation instead of a good thing. “You’re just moving out. We could have dinner with you tonight, even.”
She waited for him to say, Have dinner with me tonight.
He didn’t.
Instead, he kissed them good-bye one more time, his unshaved cheek scratchy against Maya’s, and then climbed into his car and drove away. Lauren waved, but Maya didn’t. A trail of blues floated across her mind as his car turned the corner, drifting away and then disappearing, just like him.
“Girls,” her mom started to say, but Maya just brushed past her and went back inside. She didn’t want a speech from her, not now, not ever.
“So,” Maya said, Joaquin and Grace sitting across from her at the coffee place. “My parents are getting divorced.”
She had practiced saying that sentence in the shower that morning. At first it had been hard to get the words out, but then she just turned off the hot water, and the cold water shocked the words out of her. By the time she had gotten through the sentence, her teeth were chattering and her lips were blue.
“Whoa,” Joaquin said, but he didn’t seem too amazed. Maya thought that, objectively, her half brother was a pretty handsome guy, but his eyes watched everything in the room, constantly flitting from person to place to thing. It reminded her in a way of those cats who followed the laser point on the ground, trying forever to trap it between their paws, but she didn’t tell Joaquin that. She wasn’t sure he would see the humor in it.
“Wow, really?” Grace said, and okay, she looked pretty taken aback. She hadn’t stopped chewing on her iced-coffee straw, and now it was stained with her pink lip gloss, the top starting to fray into pieces. “When did they tell you?”
“Last week,” Maya admitted. “My dad just moved out this morning.” She shrugged, then reached for a piece of the cookie that they were ostensibly supposed to share, but Maya had eaten most of it already.
“Yeah, he got a place that’s about ten minutes away, or that’s what he