Invisible String

Chapter 3: Chances

"I've been giving out chances every time
and all you do is let me down."

🦷

The bottle of wine opened with a loud pop. Jay turned around and watched as his sister poured some into two glasses and then offered him one.

"I thought the wine was for dinner." he objected, but accepted the glass anyway.

"That's why we have two bottles. Because I don't think I can survive this night without a little help." Lizzie simply said, taking a sip of wine from her own glass. "And you know dad hates wine."

"He thinks it's too fancy." Jay chuckled in agreement, then looked down at his kitchen table. It had grocery bags spread all over it, filled with vegetables, seasonings, and a lot of other stuff he had gotten from the store.

Initially, when Will came to him with the idea of a family dinner two days ago, he assumed they would just order some food, fight over pizza toppings and call it a day. Then, Elizabeth had insisted on cooking for them and using one of their mother's recipes. Now, he knew his sister was a great cook, but Jay suspected she was doing that just to try and impress their father. And they both knew he wasn't a man to be impressed easily. Which is probably why she was chugging her entire glass of wine before finishing to chop off the cucumbers.

He just hoped she wouldn't cut her fingers off along with it.

"You know, we don't need to go if you don't want to."

Elizabeth offered him a sad smile, but didn't say anything else. She turned to watch the food in the oven and stayed silent until he heard the door to his apartment opening.

"I just had the craziest shift." Will entered the kitchen, still in his scrubs and with the package of a bakery in his hands.

"Aren't all your shifts crazy?" countered Lizzie.

"They are, yeah." he agreed. He paused, taking a look around the mess she had created on Jay's kitchen table."What are you cooking? Smells great."

"Lasagna. It should be ready soon." She turned to look at the oven again, rubbing her hands together nervously.

Will shot Jay a look. Jay raised his eyebrows at him in response and nodded lightly, as if saying "Yeah, I know." This dinner was either going to be a great family reunion, or it was going to be a huge disaster.

🦷

Elizabeth didn't know what to expect when stepping into the house she spent 18 years of her life in, but was no longer her home. It would be the first time she visited in four years, since that disastrous holiday break of her first year into dental school.

She walked into the living room and her eyes immediately went looking for familiar elements; to the wall where her mother used to track their growth, tracing over her heads, writing their names and dates until they were sixteen; the old, weird colored sofa where they would sit together after dinner to watch TV; the kitchen table where they would do homework after school.

"Dad should be home any minute now." Will led the way into the kitchen, his and Jay's arms busy with the trays of food. "C'mon, let's set the table."

Carefully, she followed them and watched as they set the food and kitchenware down. It had taken her two hours to assemble the lasagna last night so she could leave marinating overnight like their mother used to do.

Jay was fishing through the cabinets and handed her a pile of plates for her to put down; it was the fancy plates their parents got as a wedding gift, the ones with little yellow flowers painted on them. Their mother loved those plates and only let them use them on what she called "special occasions", and Elizabeth liked the thought of her mom laying those down to welcome her daughter back home if she was still here.