The Forgotten Ones

heartbroken and pregnant. She’d never been the same since.
    “Have you eaten, honey?” Gram asked, nailing me in place with her eyes.
    I flipped the bottle cap in my fingers. “No, but I’m fine.”
    “Oh no, you don’t. We had a nice steak for supper, cooked just the way you like. You’ll have some, won’t you?”
    I had to laugh. With Gram there was no choice, even if she asked. I sat down at the table while she whirled around the kitchen. In minutes I had a steak dinner in front of me, complete with steaming mashed potatoes and green beans.
    “You spoil me, you know,” I said between bites. “I’m never going to be able to take care of myself if you keep this up.”
    Gram smiled at me. “You’ll have plenty of time to take care of yourself. Let me spoil you while I still can.”
    I swallowed down the guilt, knowing she didn’t see raising me—and Mom—for the past almost twenty-two years as the burden it felt like to me.
    As I ate, my mother walked into the kitchen. She sat down at the table quietly without looking at either of us.
    “Hi, Mom…” I spoke as softly as I could, not wanting to alarm her.
    “Hello.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. She chewed on her fingernail and stared absently out the window. Even with the hair framing her face in knots, my mother looked lovely. Her eyes sage green, her skin flawless. She was forty-three but didn’t look a day over thirty.
    “That was a beautiful tune you played earlier, Beth,” Gram said as she took my mother’s hands in her own. “I could practically smell the breeze blowing in off the Irish sea.”
    “Mm hmm,” my mother answered, mostly detached, but a tiny smile lifted the corner of her mouth.
    My cell phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out quickly before it startled my mom. I opened it to find a message from my cousin, Nicole:
    I need ice cream tonight
    I gave a small laugh as I put my phone back into my pocket. I’d worked all afternoon at my grandfather’s hardware store, but it was Friday night—I should’ve known I wouldn’t be able to just relax with a good book. Nicole was twenty, only a year younger than me, and we were as close as sisters. But our ideas of a perfect Friday night couldn’t be more different. If only we didn’t live next door to each other maybe I could get out of this.
    I glanced out the window to Nicole’s driveway. When I’d gotten home, it had been filled with cars—her friends had been taking over the place. But now I was grateful to only see her little Jetta. Hanging out with Nicole I guess I could handle.
    Her friends were a different story. Especially when Ethan Magliaro was around.

Nicole and I sat down at a table on the patio with two of the biggest sundaes on the menu at DeeDee’s. The sun was hanging low in the evening sky, and the heat from earlier in the day had settled into pleasant warmth on my skin. The last fingers of golden light caused the pink and blue umbrellas to cast a glow across Nicole’s pale blonde hair. She licked a puff of whipped cream off her spoon and eyed me.
    “What?” I said through a mouthful of ice cream.
    “We’re going to the beach tomorrow,” she said before taking her own bite.
    “Have fun,” I mumbled.
    She wiped her lips with a napkin and narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re coming.” I opened my mouth to argue, but she held a slender finger up at me and pursed her lips. “It’s the first Saturday you’ve had off in months. School’s over, at least for the summer. You’re coming.”
    I sighed and looked up at the pattern of our umbrella. “You really know how to ruin a perfectly good sundae.”
    Her eyes shot daggers at me. “We’ll have a great time, Al.” Her expression changed as she seemed to change tactics. Her green eyes widened and her lip stuck out just the tiniest bit.
    Cranky Nicole was a challenge, but pouting Nicole was impossible.
    “Fine,” I sighed. “We’re going to the beach.” I looked at my sundae, which had made me so happy a minute earlier and a thought came to me. She hadn’t said anyone else was coming, but Nicole and her boyfriend Jeff were practically inseparable. “Wait, who else is going?”
    Nicole grinned, clearly smelling her victory. “The usual crew: Jeff, Rachel, Sean and”—her eyebrows inched up—“Ethan.”
    I nodded, trying to breathe evenly. I hated the way my pulse spiked at just the mention of his name. Handsome, cocky Ethan. His smile had the power to break down