Page 34 of Glass Half Full
“I could try harder,” I admit. “Maybe we could do something together, something outside the house. I think part of the problem is that we get so annoyed about living together.”
Dad’s whole face lights up. “You could take her to Taverne Toulouse with you tomorrow night.”
“Um, no.” I catch his warning glance and sigh. “As if she’d even want to go.”
“Why don’t you ask her?” he suggests. “She might just surprise you.”
* * *
It turnsout Michelle does surprise me. I suspect Dad might have given her a little talking-to, but I’m still beyond shocked to be walking into Taverne Toulouse with my best friend on one side of me and my sister on the other.
“I’m just going to slip over to the bar...” Michelle announces, half joking and half serious as she starts to veer away from me.
“I told them to double check the ID for any girls who look like me,” I warn her.
I didn’t actually do that, but she could pass for a couple years older than seventeen even when she’s not made up like she is tonight, and I swore to my parents I wouldn’t let her drink. I need to keep her away from the bar. I’m dead if a photo of her holding a cocktail shows up on her Instagram.
“That is racial profiling,” she fumes, but she gives up on her beeline to the alcohol.
“Whatever it takes to keep you sober.”
“Just one glass of wine isn’t going to get me drunk. I could—”
“No, Michelle.”
She rolls her eyes. “What was even the point of me coming to a bar, then?”
“Um, to support your sister at her new job that she worked very hard to get?” Tahseen replies. She’s spent enough time around my family that she’s as comfortable nagging Michelle as I am. “I don’t drink at all, and I’m here.”
Tahseen still lives at home too, and while she exaggerates how strict her parents are, it’s not by much. She had to lie and tell them she was at a slam to avoid a fight at home tonight.
“See?” I throw my arm over Tahseen’s shoulder. “This is what a loving relationship looks like.”
Michelle raises an eyebrow. “You would say ‘ew’ and push me off if I tried to put my arm around you like that.”
“Okay, fair point.”
“But if it gets me a drink...”
Without warning, she launches herself at Tahseen and I, wrapping us both up in a group hug. We almost topple over and clutch each other even tighter to keep our balance, laughing and shrieking as we sway on our feet.
I’d never admit it to Michelle, but I don’t know what I’d do without both of them here. I could have handled the crowd if I’d been working, stuck focusing on tasks detailed enough to distract me from the swell of people in the room, but tonight I’m just here to support Taverne Toulouse—which means mingling and smiling and being a normal human.
A few months ago, just the thought of surrounding myself with this many people would have been impossible. I would have run out of breath wondering what they were all thinking and if it was about me. I would have felt my fingers go numb as I pictured myself having an episode right here in the middle of the room. The Brighton flashbacks would have started, and a few minutes later, I’d have been a shaking mess barely capable of walking myself out the door.
“Hey.” Tahseen bumps my arm with hers as Michelle turns away from us to check her phone. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I reach out and squeeze her wrist to let her know I mean it. “I am.”
It’s not effortless. It’s not easy. I can still feel the fear rolling around in my stomach, but it’s more of an apprehension that thingscouldgo wrong, not a certainty that they will.
“Oh, there’s Zach!” I spot his flannel shirt weaving through the crowd. “He’s coming this way. We should say hi. I want you to meet him.”
“Zach is the really sweet one, right?” Tahseen questions. “And he’s in love with the girl with pink hair who trained you?”
“That’s him,” I confirm. “Only do not mention anything about him being in love with her.”
“Got it.”
