Jessica Taylor

Henri said our names were fitting because we were destined to be together in our old age, like our great-great-aunts. Two gray old ladies in the bodies of teenage girls. Someday we__ live in a big house with faded curtains, a dozen or so cats, and a handful of our marbles long ago lost. On all accounts__ur destiny, her clairvoyance, and our soon-to-be missing marbles__ believed her.

Henri held herself as if only her arms could keep her pieced together, and I saw that behind all her fake control__hrowing herself at a teacher, carving our dad out of her heart__as something fragile. I wish we__ seen it sooner__y dad and Mr. Flynn, they had a responsibility to see it, to do better. Those moments were my sister spinning out.

Nobody could hold the same place in your heart as your sister. Love or hate her, she was the only person who grew up exactly like you, who knew the secrets of your household__he laughter that only the walls of your house contained or the screaming at a level low enough the neighbors couldn__ hear, the passive aggressive compliments or the little put-downs. Only your sister could know how it felt to grow up in the house that made you you.

She ran a streak of foundation under each eye, highlighter down the bridge of her nose, and bronzer beneath each cheekbone__ layer of armor before battle. Because that__ what these parties were to her, a war on all the heartbreaking boys in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now our father lived in a world where we didn__ belong, with a needy girlfriend who didn__ look much older than Henri, a saltwater pool in need of daily skimming, and a flashy Porsche that needed to be raced around the roads of wine country.Fortunately, we didn__ need him either__hat__ what Henri said.

Henri held herself as if only her arms could keep her pieced together, and I saw that behind all her fake control__hrowing herself at a teacher, carving our dad out of her heart__as something fragile. I wish we__ seen it sooner__y dad and Mr. Flynn, they had a responsibility to see it, to do better. Those moments were my sister spinning out._