Parker Lowell
I looked over my shoulder at the pictures he was looking at and laughed. "More like a future model or something. I'm in most of those pictures," I said.
"Good point," he said. "Who are these people?"
Over the past few days, I couldn't help but notice that Zac was a much more straight forward person than either of his brothers. He wasn't afraid to ask questions about things that I think Taylor and Isaac had passed off as too personal and always seemed to say what was on his mind.
"Mostly just friends," I replied, taking a deep breath before diving into my closet to hunt for my work clothes. I hated that I had to go to work that day. People weren't supposed to go to work during times of family crisis (ookay...), but if I didn't go, I'd never be allowed to set foot in that place again. Besides, I missed seeing Dave.
"Ah, I see," Zac said, nodding as he scrutinized all the pictures I had hanging on the walls and set on various surfaces. "No Larry?"
I popped my head out of the closet. "Larry?"
"Well, Gina's boyfriend. Whatever his name is," he said, waving it away carelessly.
"Lyle?" I said. "No. He's one of Gina's boyfriend's I'd rather just forget about."
"Don't get too attached to him or anything," he said joking, smiling at me.
"No problem," I said seriously, going back into my closet.
Apparently, he decided not to pursue the subject because he stayed silent for a few moments before moving on to a different subject.
"Whose babies are these?" he asked.
I knew what picture he was talking about, but popped my head back out of my closet to make sure.
"My real mother's," I said, grinning at him slightly even though I knew he might get uncomfortable about it like Isaac had. I was actually getting slightly sick of explaining that picture over and over again to everyone who walked through the room. "Our mother took it right before she dropped us off at the foster home. I'm not sure how, but it ended up with Gina and she gave it to me for my birthday."
"Oh," he said, setting the picture carefully back on the dresser. "When is your birthday?" he asked curiously. "I mean, I know it sounds stupid, but since you were adopted..."
"March fourteenth," I answered, smiling at him to let him know I didn't think it was a dumb question.
He nodded. "So that's your real birthday then?"
"I don't know for sure," I said. "It's either that or just one giant coincidence that both your parents and Gina picked the same day to celebrate our birthdays. A-ha!"
"What?" he said, chuckling.
"Nothing, I just found part of my uniform for work," I said, tossing the black pants out of the closet, not caring where they landed.
"Oh," he said, laughing. "Where do you work?"
"At a grocery store about ten miles away from here," I replied. "But I'll only actually be going if my ride remembers to show up today. And if he doesn't, then I won't be going ever again because I'll be fired."
"Oh," he said again. It was a word the Hansons seemed to be fond of. They all used it a lot. "So you don't actually know? Like, when your real birthday is and stuff?"
"Nope," I said. "I'm just the informed one, I don't actually know all the answers. In fact, I didn't even know anything about my mother, not even her name, until your parents and Gina told us in the hotel room when you guys were at the zoo that one day."
"Really?" he said with disbelief. "You're joking. Gina didn't even tell you your mother's name until then? That's cheap."
"Then I guess you'll be even more amazed to know that I didn't know my twin's name until Gina gave that picture to me. Of course, she told me it was Jordan, so apparently your parents chose to change it a bit for one reason or another."
"Jordan what?"
"I don't know," I said, shrugging though he couldn't see me. "Jordan Whitney. Don't know what his middle name is."
We fell into silence again after that as I continued to rummage around in my closet. I was in the middle of searching for the last missing piece of the uniform, the bow tie (yeah, yeah. Ha-ha, Parker has to where a bow tie to work. Ha-ha), when Zac broke the silence, his tone unusually serious.
"What's...," he began, but paused to think of how to word his question. "What's it like, you know, not knowing? Like not even knowing your mother's or father's names or your own birthday and not knowing where any of them are?"
I came back out of the closet (with my bow tie), thinking about it while I came back into the room.
"I never really thought about it," I said. "I mean, on my birthday I thought of Taylor and I sometimes thought of it when I saw one of your videos on television, even before I knew Taylor was my twin, but I've never really thought all that much about my mother or my father. I guess it's probably because Gina has always been my mother. Not some woman she used to know in high school who accidentally got pregnant and haven't seen her since I was two."
"Do you think Taylor thinks like that, too? I mean, about our parents being his parents, too, and not her?" he asked me.
"I know he does," I said, giving him a reassuring smile. "I should go get changed. I don't have to be to work for another hour, but there's no telling what time my ride could decide to show up. If you want to start up a game on the Nintendo, I'll be in in a few minutes."
He looked at me and grinned devilishly.
"You better be careful, or I'll start calling you Tay just like everyone else has been doing," he commented.
"Please," I said, rolling my eyes. "If I get called Tay one more time, there's going to be one less pop star in this world."
He snorted and got up off the bed, walking into the living room.
"Turn it to channel four!" I called, walking into the bathroom.
I closed the door quietly, face to face with the floor that had been cleaned not all that long ago of the blood that had been there when I got home that fateful day. Only three days before.
I took a deep breath. It still made me feel sick to think about it at all or to even walk into the bathroom. Looking at the door was even worse though. There were still traces of the red stuff on its white surface.
I quickly got dressed and walked back out of the bathroom as fast as I could, no longer wanting to be in there. I just didn't want to think about it. Not ever.
Zac had popped in Super Mario Bros. 3 (and if you're wondering, yes, it is one of those older ninetendos that don't have 3D or anything like that) and was holding one of the old controllers that, when I picked up the second, seemed smaller in my hands than I remembered.
"You have crap for games, you know that?" Zac commented as I sat down. "What the heck is this Bubble Bobble?"
I laughed.
"It's these two little dinosaurs who kill monsters with bubbles that they blow out of their mouths. It's hilarious," I said to him, remembering the game I had played so much when I was really young. I had alwyas liked the blue dinosaur better than the green one, so I would always make the game go to two players and then have all the monsters kill off the green one while I played the blue one.
In this game, however, Zac had taken it into his own hands to choose who played who. He was Mario (of course) and I was Luigi.
We were in the middle of a heated game when the doorbell rang.
"Damnit!" I said just as Luigi died at the hands (fins, whatever) of a fish that was jumping out of the water as he crossed a bridge.
Zac cackled as he began to play his round and I got up to answer the door.
I opened it wide without thinking and without seeing who was outside the door first. What I saw made me wish immediately that I had taken more precautions and I quickly closed the door enough so that she couldn't see past me into the living room. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped simultaneously.
"Theresa!" I exclaimed in surprised. "Hi." My voice was shaking, it was obvious that I was surprised and now nervous.
"What's wrong?" she asked me curiously.
"Nothing, nothing at all," I said as casually as I could.
"Oh," she said. "Who was that?"
"No one," I said. "Just one of my friends from school, that's all."
"Oh," she said again. "Well, my mother insisted that I bring this over to your mother," she told me, handing me a pink wrapped plate of cookies that I hadn't seen in her hand before then. I took them in mine. "Don't let her fool you, she didn't bake these. I think she bought them."
I laughed lightly, nervously.
"What're they for?"
"Didn't your great aunt die or something like that?" she asked me.
"Oh! Yeah," I said.
We stood there in silence for a minute. I must have looked totally absurd with myself practically closed in the doorway like that. I know the neighbor was staring.
"Gina's, um, not here right now," I told her. "She, um, went to the store."
"And didn't bring you?" she said, noticing my uniform.
"Different store. Like, the mall or something," I said, waving it away carelessly, praying that she didn't ask anymore questions about it.
She didn't. Instead, she asked something worse.
"Whose white van is that in the driveway?" she asked, pointing over her shoulder at the white van the Hansons had rented, parked right in front of the house like we expected it to blend in and maybe no one would notice it.
"Uh...um...uh...," I stuttered, trying to think up a good excuse.
Then Zac did an incredibly stupid thing without meaning to. I will never forget the absolute rush of anxiety that ran through me when he suddenly called out from the living room: "Parker! Your turn!"
He probably didn't do it on purpose. Probably without thinking. Probably did it all the time at home when one of his brothers got up to do something and his character died before they returned.
The only problem with that was that he wasn't home. And he had said it within earshot of someone who shouldn't have known he was there.
"Who was that?" she asked me.
I cleared my throat.
"N-no one," I said. It was obvious in my voice that I was lying to her.
She smiled an odd smile as if she thought I was playing a game with her, but she wasn't sure why or what the object of the game was.
"No, there's someone in there," she said, pointing. "Who is it?"
My eyes nervously darted around, refusing to meet with hers.
"Oh, c'mon, just tell me," she said.
I didn't know what to say to that. I couldn't very well just tell her but I also couldn't tell her I couldn't tell her because then I'd have to tell her why I couldn't tell her (got that?). I lingered in the doorway, looking around nervously. I played with the doorknob, not sure of what else to do.
"Just give it up, Parker. We're busted," Zac said from so close behind me that I jumped. The door flew the rest of the way open due to me letting go of it so fast and revealed that I was, in fact, standing next to Zac Hanson.
Theresa's eyes widened wider than I thought humanly possible although later, when I looked back on it, I figured that my eyes were probably a hell of a lot wider than hers when Zac had accidentally spoken up.
"Oh my God," she said.
Do any of you even remember who Theresa is?
Index
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty-One