Page 1 of Made for Us

CHAPTER ONE

ABIGAIL

I lean over the empty white desk, unpinning the thumbtack at the corner of the picture as the soft music playing from my phone fills the room. Unpinning the other corner, the picture comes undone in my hand. I stare down at the picture of Gabriella, my twin sister, and me at our high school graduation. The two of us are in our graduation gowns staring at each other, sticking our tongues out. I can still remember it like it was yesterday, feeling the pit in my stomach knowing our time was soon running out. It was going to be the first time we were leaving each other, ever. We were going off to our respective colleges, neither of us knowing how one would survive without the other. I was off to Dallas to study nursing, and she was off to the West Coast. She was in love with photography, and LA was the place to be. She even contemplated Paris. The only thing was she didn’t want to be anywhere close to the family.

I put the picture down on the empty desk before leaning over and unpinning another picture right next to the one I just took down, when my phone rings from the side of my bed. I make my way through the moving boxes to get to the cell. I look down, seeing a picture of my dad and me, “Hey, Daddy-o.” I smile. “What’s the dealio?”

He chuckles as I sit on the bed before leaning back on the pillows and putting up my legs on my unmade bed. “Hey, Abby,” he says softly. “Whatcha doing, Buttercup?”

It’s my turn to chuckle at him. Apparently, the story is he used to call us Buttercup because he couldn’t tell us apart from the back, so he just went with calling us that nickname. “I’m almost finished packing.” I look at the boxes all over my bedroom. It feels like I arrived at the empty room just yesterday. “I can’t believe this is it.” The wall that used to hold hooks to hang my jackets is down. The dresser that used to have little knickknacks on top is now bare.

“You busted your ass,” he says, and I can see him smirking, “taking after me.” I laugh right away. “Don’t tell your mother.” My parents met when my brother, Dylan, got an opportunity to attend my father’s hockey school. From the way they tell the story, it was love at first sight. At least for my father.

“Your secret is safe with me. When are you guys coming down?” I look over at the window and see the sun has already gone down.

“We leave bright and early in the morning,” he confirms. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” He’s flying down with my mom to attend my graduation ceremony. The butterflies now fill my stomach. I’ve worked my ass off for this. The past six years are a blur, and it feels like I just moved out to college yesterday. I graduated after four years with a bachelor’s of nursing and then did two years at John Hopkins.

It’s my turn to smirk, and my heart speeds up. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“My daughter, a pediatric nurse.” I blink away the tears. “So flipping proud of you.”

“Okay, I’m going to let you go before you make me start crying. I have to get my makeup done soon, and I don’t want to have swollen eyes.”

“Okay, okay, fine,” he says. “The moving truck is scheduled to be there on Saturday.” I nod. “Then we can fly to Dallas and start house hunting.”

“Dad,” I say softly, “I was going to rent an apartment.” I close my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Negative. Can’t talk now, heading to a meeting.”

“We’ll discuss it at dinner tonight,” I tell him quickly before he hangs up.

I shake my head and look down, seeing he’s already disconnected the phone. I toss my phone on the bed beside me, then get up and walk back over to the family board I did as soon as I moved into this studio apartment in Maryland, which is five minutes from campus, two years ago. I put my favorite pictures right in front of my desk, so when I looked up, all I saw were my people. I grab a picture of the whole family that was taken last year at the annual family vacation. There were so many people that Uncle Matthew had to call someone with a ladder to take an aerial shot. I stare at it for a couple of minutes, my mouth going to a smile without even knowing it. There is so much love in my family it’s almost contagious. I put the picture down when my phone rings again.

Turning, I walk over to the phone I just threw down. “Hello.” I press the speaker button when I see it’s Gabriella.

“Well, well, if it isn’t my older sister.” She snickers.

“By three minutes,” I add, walking back to the board to remove the rest of the pictures.

“Whatever. What are you doing?” she says, and I can hear she’s walking outside when I hear car horns in the background.

“Doing last-minute packing,” I tell her. “I have pretty much everything packed. I’m just packing my desk.” Putting the phone down beside the stack of photos, I add, “Did you pack yet?” She surprised me two days ago when she called telling me she was moving. From the last conversation with her, everything seemed like it was going amazing in LA.

“Not even close. You know me, always late to the party. Anyway, I’m not calling about that. I’m calling to discuss this year’s vacation. Did you get the itinerary?”

“I saw an email, but I figured someone would tell me something.” I unpin a picture of my brother, Christopher, and me on the beach last time we saw each other last summer.

“Well, it’s another little island. At this point, I think he had them build us houses.” She laughs. “Either way, we have to celebrate.”

“I agree.” I unpin a picture of me with my nephew, Maddox, who is now taller than most of the men in our family at only sixteen. “We both should let our hair down.”

“Speak for yourself,” Gabriella pffts out. “My hair has been down for the past six years. But I’m happy you are finally going to let your hair down!” She snickers. “It’s been tied up so tight that it’s not sur—”

“Okay, well, this has been a great chat,” I shut her down before she says anything else, “but I have to shower.”

“Fine, I’ll let you off the hook for now, but as soon as we get on that island, we are finding someone to finally get you to let loose. I don’t know how you do it.”

I roll my eyes. “You know, I’ve lived for the past six years without you beside me, and I survived.”

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