The Good Hair Family Sitcom

S3 E4.3: The Devil's Cropped Top

Andreas's POV

I don't even know what show we're watching. It's some Netflix show that Jayda picked out. The main character is a lesbian; I'm not surprised. I have to admit it's pretty entertaining. Just enough gore to make it fun but not so much that Jayda wouldn't like it. Actually, I don't know her opinion on gore. Maybe she'd love it. I wonder if she'd want to have a zombie film marathon sometime. If she does, though, she's got to stop reaching across the entire couch from the other end just to reach the popcorn then curl back up in her spot.

"You know you can sit closer," I say with a chuckle.

Jayda gives me a faint smile and shifts a bit toward me. But not enough. She's still reaching. And honestly, it feels pretty shitty. Maybe I'm making too much out of this, but it's like she doesn't want to be near me, like she's deliberately trying to keep her distance. Am I that bad?

"What are you guys watching?" comes Cara's voice as she descends the stairs, "and why are there so many bad words?"

I pause the show before spinning to face her, questioning, "What are you doing down here?"

Cara winds around the couch and plops down in between me and Jayda; there's plenty of room for her after all.

"I wanted to join you," Cara says.

"Uh, well, we can't really keep that show on," I respond.

"Do you want me to go away so you can keep watching?" she girl asks.

"No, not at all," Jayda denies. "Stay."

Jayda flicks her eyes to me, and I somehow understand her without any words. I switch to the Netflix homepage and start scrolling through.

"What do you want to watch?" I ask Cara.

"I don't know."

"Anything," I say.

"Um... I don't know."

The second 'I don't know' is what gets me, and I shut off the TV completely. Why? Because Cara always knows how she feels. Even when it's rude or unpopular, she has an opinion. Only this year has she started not really caring.

"Okay, what is it?" I question.

"What is what?" she wonders.

"I'm your big brother, right?"

She nods shyly.

"And you're my little sister."

She listens motionless, looking between the couch cushions and me.

"So you can talk to me about anything," I state.

"Anything?"

"Same goes for me," Jayda speaks up.

Cara glances back and forth between the two of us before muttering, "I just didn't want to trick-or-treat this year."

"You didn't want to dress up and see your friends?" Jayda says.

"I don't know," Cara murmurs. "I don't know what to dress up as anyway."

"You used to have a little Indiana Jones costume," Jayda recalls.

"I grew out of that," Cara says.

"You really are growing fast," I say. It's probably not news for her, but it's bigger for me, because it's weird to think that she used to not know how to even read a couple years ago, and now she can read the books that Brayden reads with only a few problems. She doesn't even play with dolls much anymore. Now she's really into crafting and building. It's kinda crazy how fast that all changed.