“You never mentioned her! You never told us that ya’ll were serious!” Vi protested.
Dad scrubbed his hands over his face with frustration, “I’m sorry…I guess that’s all I can say.”
“No need to apologize, I think Vi has the same concerns as I do is all.” I said.
“What’s that?” Dad asked.
I looked at Vi and she nodded for me to continue, “That the two of them will come between the three of us. I can tell you right now, Tabitha and Vi’s attitudes are gonna clash. It’s gonna to take a while for Tabitha to adjust to country life—she’s pretty citified.”
Dad nodded, “You two are the most important people in my life, nobody is going to come between us. This is a big change for all of us, but no matter what, you two will always come first. If there’s ever a problem, come to me.” He looked at Vidalia and me.
“Fine, I just…I’m sorry.” Vidalia said. She stood from where she was sitting and walked over to dad and hugged him. “I love you dad.” She kissed his cheek before going back upstairs to her room.
We sat there in silence for a few minutes, “I know I hurt you guys and that is killin’ me.” He said.
I shrugged my shoulders, “We’re all old enough to get along. I just hope Claire has a talk with Tabitha. It’d sure make things easier around here if we don’t have Vi and Tabitha at each other’s throats all the time.”
“I’ll be sure to have a talk with her myself.” Dad said with a nod.
“I’m gonna go call Julia, maybe she can help Vi understand things somehow.”
< < < > > >
“Wow, are you serious?” Julia asked with shock after I told her the news.
“Yep and Vi is pretty upset. She did apologize though. I just hope it’s not one big catfight ‘round her all the time. Them constantly trying to one up each other, it’ll get old in a hurry.” I told her.
“I can’t believe it, I mean, I’m happy for your dad. So…is Tabitha pretty?”
I chuckled, “Are you serious?”
Julia laughed softly before sighing, “Vance of course I’m going to be a little jealous. I don’t know her, what if she’s like all the other girls in the school and thinks you’re drop dead sexy?”
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me, “Don’t start that shit.” I grumbled. “I’m going to be nice to her to make things easier on dad and Claire. Hopefully Vi will do the same.”
“So, since you avoided answering my question…I take it she’s pretty?”
I rolled my eyes, “Yeah I guess so, but way to city for my taste.”
Julia didn’t say anything for a few seconds, “Well, I can’t wait to meet them both. I’ll help keep Vi in line.” She finished with a soft laugh.
I smiled, “I’ve gotta go, supper’s about done. I’ll see you tomorrow mornin’.”
“Love you Vance.”
“Love you too.” I replied then disconnected the call.
Supper was quieter than usual, I could tell that Vi’s mind was still weighed down with everything, because she barely ate and only answered with short quiet answers when dad would ask her something. She excused herself from the table, scraped her plate then put it in the dishwasher, “Let me know when ya’ll are done and I’ll come finish cleanin’ up.” And back upstairs she went.
Dad was shaking his head, “Should I tell Claire to have Tabitha text or call Vi? Isn’t that what teenage girls do?”
I laughed, “What, text all the time?”
He nodded his head, “Schools done in a few weeks, maybe if they talk more through text and on the phone they’ll be more civil.”
Knowing Vi, she would be even more pissed off if dad gave her cell number to Tabitha, “I’d just hold off. Let her have some time to herself, by the time they move in maybe she’ll realize it’s not as bad as what she was thinkin’.”
“I sure hope you’re right. I wanted to ask you a favor…would you be willin’ to move in to the other bedroom? That way the girls are sharing the same bathroom.”
“Sure, but the room needs a lot of work and the bathroom connected to it needs some work too.”
“We’ll work on it and have it done before they move in. I knew that Vidalia wouldn’t be up to movin’ into a different space.”
< < < > > >
Over the following weeks dad and I worked on the bedroom as often as we could. The sheet rock had to be replaced because of a water leak years back, and the bathroom had to be gutted completely. Vidalia was none too pleased to find out she would be sharing a bathroom with Tabitha and tried to convince dad to let her switch rooms instead. Needless to say he was having no part of that.
“I can’t believe this!” she threw her hands up then walked away.
While Vi and I were doing chores she hadn’t said more than a few words to me so I finally decided to ask why.
She shook her head and sighed, “I’m not ready for them to be here! We are about to have a sister, a city slicker sister.” She whined.
I laughed, “Step sister, that’s if they get married. Let’s just give her a chance, think about how she feels comin’ into our house. I’m sure it’s not gonna be easy for her either.”
Vi nodded in agreement, “I know but it’s just going to be weird introducing her to all of our friends. We don’t know nothin’ about her. What does she do? Is she on the cheer team at her school? Is she good in school?”
I shrugged my shoulders, “Why don’t you get her number from dad and text her? Break the ice.”
She pinched her lips together while biting the inside of her cheek, “I guess I can. You text her first though.”
I laughed, “ME?” I pointed at myself. “I hardly ever text! I’ll add her to my Facebook but you get the duty of texting her.”
“Deal.” Vi replied with a smile and a quick nod of her head.
Chapter 2
There was no way in hell I was going to ever be happy living on a farm or ranch; whatever that place was we just left.
“Aren’t they precious?” Mom snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Who?” I asked.
“Vidalia and Vance. I can’t believe I made myself look like such an idiot when I called them identical twins.” She shook her head.
“Precious? Vidalia and I couldn’t be any more opposite and Vance seems kind of cocky.”
Mom looked at me, “Tabitha Renee you just met them. You can’t have such a negative attitude.”
“Why didn’t you and Kevin bother talking to all of us about it? You just sprung it on us. I knew you two were serious but I didn’t expect this.”
Mom grabbed my hand and squeezed it, “I’m sorry, we had talked about how we should do it. Please don’t be mad.”
I couldn’t be mad at mom and Kevin, ever since dad cheated on her when I was little she hadn’t trusted men. Kevin broke through those walls with his slick southern charm and she was happier now than I had ever seen her. “Just give me some time to process all of it.” I said with a smile.
The rest of the flight mom read a book, I struggled to stay awake so I decided to study for my Algebra test that I had coming up in a few days. At some point I fell asleep though, “Sweetie wake up.” Mom spoke softly. I blinked my eyes open and she was smiling at me, “They just announced we are about to land.”
< < < > > >
“So, is he cute?” My best friend Rachel asked.
“I just told you that I’m moving six hours away and all you care about is if my soon to be step brother is cute?” I replied.
Rachel shrugged her shoulders, “You’ll be back during the summer right? I mean it’s not like we won’t call and text each other all the time. Does your dad know yet, oh god what is Sheldon going to say?”
I nodded my head, “Yes, dad knows and he’s not very happy about it but him and Beth insist that I come stay. I don’t know why Beth would want me there, we’ve never gotten close to each other. Sheldon doesn’t know yet. It’s not like we have been dating very long. We only
started dating four months ago.”
“So…tell me all about your new stepsiblings!” she said as she spun around in my desk chair.
“Honestly, I don’t know much about them. His name is Vance and his twin sister is Vidalia.”
Rachel stopped spinning, “Like the onion?” she asked with one perfectly manicured eyebrow raised.
I nodded, “Just a little FYI, I don’t recommend bringing that to her attention.”
“You didn’t!” Rachel gasped.
“Unfortunately—I did.” I flopped back onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. “I’m going to talk to mom. I can already tell that Vidalia and I aren’t going to get along very good. If I’m miserable I’m not going to stay there, I’ll move in with dad.”
“What about Vance? Is he nice?” she asked.
I shrugged my shoulders, “He didn’t say much really. But to answer your question from earlier, he is pretty cute. If you’re into southern boys.”
Rachel laughed, “Oh, I’m in to southern boys alright! What’s their last name? I want to look them up on social media.”
I bolted upright on my bed, “DON’T you dare add them!”
“Jeez I’m not going to!”
“McCormick is their last name.” I finally relented.
Her fingers flew across the screen of her phone. “Holy shit!” she said. I waited for her to continue. “She’s beautiful.” Then, “Oh my fucking…he’s not just cute, Tabi! Vance is HAWT—H.A.W.T Hawt!”
I rolled my eyes, “If you say so.”
She looked up from her phone, “I’ll be coming to visit you A LOT!”
I laughed, “I just can’t believe this. I’m not going to fit in there at all, I can only imagine what the kids are like at the high school.”
Rachel put her phone down, “Don’t be such a negative Nancy, they’re probably just as upset and confused as you are. This is going to be a huge change for all of you.”
< < < > > >
As I expected, Sheldon didn’t seem to care too much that I was moving. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ll see you around this summer I’m sure.” That was the end of my short relationship with him.
With the school year getting close to ending mom and I busied ourselves packing up our apartment. As I was packing my collection of trophies and medals up from years of dancing, my cell phone chimed with a text message alert. When I swiped the screen the number that showed up wasn’t one I recognized.
Mom walked in to my room, “Need any help sweetie?”
“Nope, I’m texting Vidalia. She said she’s going to talk to the dance coach and see if I can land a spot on the team.” I said with a smile.
She walked over to my bed and sat down beside me. “That’s great that you two are talking. I think you’ll become really good friends. Has Vance text you?”
I laughed, “He doesn’t seem like the texting type, mom.”
She laughed softly, “You’re probably right. Let me know if you need my help.” Mom kissed my temple then left the room.
I put my phone down and looked around my room, life was going to be way different. Our apartment was spacious and updated with beautiful modern touches. My bedroom was feminine and airy with a king sized canopy bed. I kept it spotless and everything in order. The house we would be moving in to was a large country home, that needed updated but was still beautiful with its country style look.
My phone dinged with a notification, I swiped down on the screen. I tapped on the friend request and Vance’s smiling face showed up. I clicked the ‘Accept Request’ button. Then my phone jingled with a new message from Vidalia.
Vi and I continued texting each other throughout the week. When she told me she had talked to the dance instructor and that the lady was excited to meet me, I couldn’t have been happier.
Rachel on the other hand was finally starting to realize that I wasn’t going to be around every single day. We had been around each other since the second grade when she transferred to my school.
Sitting indian style on my bed she looked at the sparse walls. Her eyes filled with tears, “I’m not liking this, can’t you convince your mom to let you stay with your dad?” she pleaded.
I sat down beside her, “Mom would go crazy, literally. I promise to call or text you every single day.”
Rachel wiped tears from her face, “And no matter what you’ll be back for summer?”
I wrapped my arms around her, “Promise.”
We sat there for a few minutes, hugging each other. Rachel sniffled, “You’re going to be somebody else’s BFF. At least you’re going to be living with a super hot guy.”
I laughed, “It’s going to be weird having step siblings but I think when you meet Vi you’ll like her. I’m always going to be your BFF.”
We decided to go make a sandwich then spend the rest of the day watching movies.
“What are you doing?” I asked Rachel when I realized she was on my phone.
“Ogling over your super sexy step brother. He’s so sexy, he’s beautiful!” She turned the phone so I could see it.
It was a picture of Vance in his football uniform, his dirty blonde hair clumped together from sweat. The black lines painted on his face were smeared, his blue eyes sparkled with happiness and his smile showed his perfect straight white teeth. He had one arm draped over Vidalia’s shoulder as she smiled big and held up one finger. His other arm was draped over another girl’s shoulders, she was dressed in the same cheer uniform as Vi. The caption under the picture read, “Look at this sexy trio! Love you baby~~State Champs!”
“Yes, and do you see that Julia is obviously his very pretty and very in love girlfriend?” I pointed out to Rachel.
She tossed my phone to me, “Details—details.”
I shook my head and resumed the movie.
< < < > > >
“I’m going to miss you so much!” Rachel sobbed as we hugged each other.
It was moving day and neither one of us were taking it very good. I hugged her tighter as hot tears rolled down my cheeks. Mom hugged us and cried too. “You girls are breaking my heart.” She whispered through her own tears.
“Remember you promised to call or text me.” Rachel said when she pulled away.
“I will.” I wiped my cheeks.
Mom’s town car pulled up, the driver got out and put our luggage in the trunk and waited patiently for us to say one last goodbye to Rachel. Clark even hugged her before shutting the door after we were inside.
I turned around in the seat and waved goodbye to Rachel until I couldn’t see her anymore. “You’re going to be fine sweetie.” Mom said and hugged me as I cried some more.
Chapter 3
It wasn’t a small change when Claire and Tabitha moved in--it was huge. Having two extra people around seemed to throw all of us off of our routine. When Vi and I went to do chores in the morning, Claire and Tabitha were both still sleeping soundly in their beds.
“I’m sorry but I think they should have to pull their weight around here too.” Vi said as she poured a bucket of feed for her horse.
“Yeah, I’m hopin’ that dad will try to get them to do somethin’. I haven’t even seen Claire do a load of laundry or the dishes.” I said with agreement.
“It’s only been a month though…” Vi said trying to sound like she could convince the both of us that we weren’t frustrated.
After chores were finished we went back up to the house. Claire was watching TV and doing some kind of needlepoint craft and Tabitha was nowhere to be seen. Dad was in his office talking to a trucker that would be bringing a load of cattle later in the week. Vi and I sat down and waited for him to finish his conversation. When he hung up he sighed with frustration.
“Been gettin’ cattle here for over thirty years, you’d think they know where we are located by now.” He scrubbed his hands down his face. “You two don’t look very happy.” He leaned back in his chair and waited for us to start talking.
“We just want to know
when Claire and Tabitha are going to start pulling some weight around here? It’s not just our responsibility anymore.” Vi stated.
“They don’t have a clue what to do.” Dad protested.
“Neither of them know how to do laundry or dishes…or how to do housework?” Vi asked with big eyes.
“Vidalia…that’s not what I meant and you know it. Farm life is far different from city life.” He told her.
“So it’s all on us still?” I replied with frustration. “They can’t help around the house at least?”
Dad looked at me and Vi, then stood up, “I’ll have a talk with them.”
We left his office and went upstairs to relax for a little bit before our day got busy. Vi had a barrel race coming up so she wanted to work with Rose some more and I had to work on one of our tractors before harvest started.
After working for a couple of hours I pulled my shirt off and wiped the grease and sweat off my face. My cell phone had dinged a few times with messages and missed calls so I finally took the time to see who they were from. Julia had text me numerous times asking if I wanted to go out since it was Saturday night and Vi had tried to call to ask if Julia had text me. The shop door opened and Tabitha walked in carrying a sandwich and a bottle of water. I put my hat back on and waited for her to notice me standing in front of the tractor.
“Oh…hey!” she cleared her throat and looked at the floor.
“What’s up?” I asked with a grin. She wouldn’t look at me but her cheeks were turning pink with embarrassment. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought she had never seen a guy with no shirt on before.
“Mom made you this sandwich. Kevin said that it’s your favorite.” She pushed it toward me. We stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds. I watched her continue to look around the shop area, effectively avoiding looking at me. I stared at her features, Tabitha reminded me of Heather Morris in the movie Glee. (Don’t judge, I was forced to watch that shit before dad put a TV in each of our bedrooms because Vi watched it all the damn time.)
Right Kind Of Wrong Page 2
