Page 43 of Keepsake

“Vienna, that’s enough.”

“I won’t eat it!”

“No, you won’t. Because dinner is finished now. But that’s not what I want to talk about.”

Suddenly, I could hear my own thoughts again. Just a simple sentence shut Vienna up. She was caught unaware. And the only moment of silence was when Lachlan padded from his bedroom, rubbing his eyes.

He found me sitting on the floor, and I put my finger over my mouth telling him to be quiet, and then I called him to me.

As Lachlan walked, I tuned back to the conversation.

“School was ok.”

“Are you sure?” Logan asked. “Because I feel you’re upset and lashing out at me.”

Lachlan came and sat on my legs, his head turning to the side like he was listening to the conversation as well.

“Some girls are nice,” Vienna said.

“And some are not?” Logan wanted to know.

Vienna must have shown some kind of body language, because I didn’t hear an answer from her, but Logan tsked. “I met your mom on my first day at school. Did you know that?”

“No.”

“She was the coolest. Everyone wanted to be her friend, and I was the weirdo. I was awkward and quiet and Sofia just… sat beside me and started talking.”

Vienna still said nothing, so Logan kept going. “You don’t need all the girls to be nice. You only need one, you get it?”

Silence, and then finally. “Yeah, I get it.”

“Was anyone mean to you?”

“No.”

“Would you tell me if they were?”

“Yeah.”

“Ok…” Logan took a breath. “I get a lot has changed. But you can’t be mean to me to make yourself feel better.”

“I wasn’t being mean to you,” Vienna argued.

“You were screaming at me for hours. I’m exhausted. I bet you're tired, too.” Without waiting for a reply, she kept going. “From now on, when something is bothering you, even if it is small, you come and tell me. We can talk, we can try to solve it, or I can just listen if you want me to. But this is unacceptable.” Growing confident, Logan added. “And you’re going to have to eat…”

“I don’t like it!”

“So you’re going to make a list of vegetables you like. You can’t hate them all. You have to eat properly. That’s not negotiable.” Her voice grew hard. Lachlan in my lap turned his head to look at me with his widened eyes, like it surprised him too.

“I want to make things good for you, Vienna. I want to be… your friend. Can we be friends?”

The silence held for a while… we all held our breath.

“Yeah. I have no mommy, and you have no best friend. Makes sense that we stick together.”

And my fucking heart shattered into a million pieces.

“No.”

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