Another Now

Tom Jacobs

The night of Monday, February 12, 2018 was nothing out of the ordinary. After school, Grace's bus (and my old bus) dropped her off before mine at the high school did. I was glad for that, that we were no longer on the same bus due to my first year of high school. I wanted to believe that I wasn't still mad at her for something she did seven months ago, so I pretended I had a valid reason. However, I wasn't innocent after the night of July 29th, the night I threw the lamp at her head and landed her in the hospital. Like I was holding the 4th over her head, she was holding the 29th over mine. Our sibling relationship never really improved after that. It might've been permanent.

I got off the bus and trekked inside before Grace did. She followed behind and talked a bit with our dad about her day before she trotting upstairs.

She was avoiding me. She was always avoiding me, but more so than usual that night. Normally, she wouldn't mind if I came downstairs and made my dinner at the same time as her. But today, the second she saw me, she made an effort to get out of there fast. Part of me wanted to ask what I possibly could've done by doing the same thing I've been doing for months, but I decided against it. Our conversations never surpassed small talk and I wasn't sure I could handle anything more than that.

The next day, I got off the bus for school and walked up the back staircase, where my bus usually drops us off. I had just passed the water fountain when someone gripped my arm tightly and pulled me out of the main hallway and into the area that lead to both bathrooms. My first thought was that I had barely said to words to anyone at Lark Creek Consolidated High School since I first started attending six months late. My second thought was that I was about to get beat up or raped in the disability's stall in the bathroom. But when I saw the face of the suspect, it was Barb Keane's. At least she wasn't going to rape me. That happened years ago. It's also a story for another day.

"What the hell was that for?" I managed to say.

"Did you know?" she asked, ignoring me as if I never said a word.

"What? What are you even—"

"Did you know?" she emphasized each word, more forcefully and blunt than I was comfortable with.

"Did I know what? What is this? You haven't talked to me in—"

"About your sister. And Jess."

"What?" I was brutally shocked. Could this be what I was thinking it was?

"Get your head out of your ass and answer the question" she snapped, having grown unsettlingly irritated.

"What? Are they together or something? I can't comprehend that after... that night." I shook, fearing the answer to the question, still wondering why she cared and why she would come to me at all.

"No, dumbass. They're not together. They never were."

"What do you mean? You lost me."

"They never were together. Not now, and not on that night either" she declared, waiting for the appropriate reaction. I wasn't sure how to react to anything anymore.

"Wait, do you really mean—"

"Jess and Grace never hooked up on Leslie's living room floor is what I mean. It didn't happen. The entire thing was misread" she cut me off.

"B-But how? How do you know? And why now? What changed now?" I had so many unanswered questions, my head was spinning 90 miles an hour.

She sighed before saying, "we found something. Something that doesn't line up with the story. It would only make any sense if the story your sister claimed was the truth. Which, it was."