did he do?
Jess:
It was just the way he spoke to them, the girls and Dawn. If you only saw it a couple of times, you’d think he was just trying to be funny. But I saw it often, very often, and I think it definitely affected the environment in that house.
Pip:
What?
Jess:
Sorry, I’m talking in circles, aren’t I? It’s quite difficult to explain. Um. He would just say things to them, always little digs about how they looked and stuff. The total opposite of how you should talk to your teenage daughters. He’d pick up on things he knew they were self-conscious about. He said things to Becca about her weight and would laugh it off as a joke. He’d tell Andie she needed to put on make-up before she left the house, that her face was her money-maker. Jokes like this all the time. Like how they looked was the most important thing in the world. I remember when I was over for dinner one time Andie was upset that she didn’t get any offers from the universities she’d applied to, only one from her back-up, that local one. And Jason said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, you’re only going to university to find a rich husband anyway.’
Pip:
No?!
Jess:
And he did it to his wife too; he’d say really uncomfortable things when I was there. Like how she was looking old, joking around counting wrinkles on her face. Saying that he’d married her for her looks and she’d married him for his money and only one of them was upholding their deal. I mean, they would all laugh when he did it, like it was just family teasing. But seeing it happen so many times, it was . . . unsettling. I didn’t like being there.
Pip:
And do you think it affected the girls?
Jess:
Oh, Becca never, ever wanted to talk about her dad. But, yes, it was obvious it played havoc with their self-esteem. Andie started caring so much about what she looked like, about what people thought of her. There would be screaming matches when her parents said it was time to go out and Andie wasn’t ready, hadn’t done her hair or make-up yet. Or when they refused to buy her a new lipstick she said she needed. How that girl could ever have thought she was ugly is beyond me. Becca became obsessed with her flaws; she started skipping meals. It affected them in different ways, though: Andie got louder, Becca got quieter.
Pip:
And what was the relationship between the sisters like?
Jess:
Jason’s influence was all over that as well. He made everything in that house a competition. If one of the girls did something good, like got a good grade, he would use it to put the other one down.
Pip:
But what were Becca and Andie like together?
Jess:
I mean, they were teenage sisters, they fought like hell and then a few minutes later it was forgotten. Becca always looked up to Andie, though. They were really close in age, only fifteen months between them. Andie was in the year just above us at school. And when we turned sixteen Becca started, I guess, trying to copy Andie. I think because Andie always seemed so confident, so admired. Becca started trying to dress like her. She begged her dad to start teaching her to drive early so that as soon as she was seventeen she could take her test and get a car, like Andie had. She started wanting to go out like Andie too, to house parties.
Pip:
You mean the ones called calamity parties?
Jess:
Yeah, yeah. Even though it was people in the year above that threw them, and we hardly knew anyone, she convinced me to go one time. I think it was in March, so not too long before Andie’s disappearance. Andie hadn’t invited her or anything, Becca just found out where the next one was being hosted and we turned up. We walked there.
Pip:
How was it?
Jess:
Ugh, awful. We just sat in the corner all night, not talking to anyone. Andie completely blanked Becca; I think she was angry she’d turned up. We drank a bit and then Becca completely disappeared on me. I couldn’t find her anywhere among all the drunk teenagers and I had to walk home, tipsy, all by myself. I was really angry at Becca. Even more angry the next day when she finally answered her phone and I found out what happened.
Pip:
What happened?
Jess:
She wouldn’t tell me but I mean it was pretty obvious when she asked me