“Can you draw more of the two of us sometime?”
“Uh…” She turns the camera around and pulls up a different canvas on her tablet. She’s started the cutest drawing of us kissing in front of an unfinished painting on the wall.
“It’s us at the museum,” she says. I know seventeen is too young, but I’m really thinking about running away with Heaven so we can be together forever.
Suddenly, I hear the garage door open. “Ugh, my mom’s back with my sisters. I should go.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Can’t wait.” I blow her a kiss and end the call just as the door slams open.
“Not cool,” I hear Mom say. Stella grumbles something back. I get off the couch and follow the chaos into the kitchen. My sisters are hauling their bags into the house. I try not to laugh as I catch their matching bobs, shorter than Stella’s first-round hack job.
“Hey, stinkies.”
“Sissy!” Scarlett drops her bag and rushes over to me. I pull her into a big hug and kiss her all over her cheeks. I step back and check out her hair. It’s really short. Stella comes over and nudges Scar out of the way so she can hug me. I give her a good long squeeze ’cause I love this little jerk too. I blow a raspberry on her cheek and that gets her to let go. I turn her so I can see her hair, and they really have an identical tapered cut.
“I think it looks good,” I tell them.
“Why are you all goth now? Is it ’cause you’re hanging outwith that skater tattoo girl?” Stella says, tugging on my borrowed black sweatshirt before she lifts my arm and looks at my cast wrapped around my thumb.
“No.” I laugh as I pat Stella’s cheek. “I’m gay now. This is phase one of my transformation.”
“I love my gay sister,” Scarlett says.
“Thanks, babe.”
“Dump laundry before you do anything else,” Mom calls out as she steps into the house. I’m about to ask if there’s anything else she needs me to grab from the car, but I can’t find my voice. Cristine Ford steps into our house with a fresh new cut. A beach wavy bob cut along her sharp jaw. She sets her purse on the counter and turns to me, her hands proudly on her hips.
“What do you think?” she asks me. I’m still too stunned to speak.
“I think we’re too old to have matching haircuts with each other. We don’t need matching haircuts with our mom,” Stella practically shouts. And she is not wrong even if the matching sister haircuts are her fault. I look between all three of them and just—yikes.
I walk around my mom and see just how short she cut it. “Did you show Dad?”
“Not yet. These two are gonna dump their laundry, and shower and change, and then we have to shoot something before he gets home.”
“Without me?” I say, backing toward the stairs.
“You’re free for now.”
“Wait. I need to document this.” I hold up my phone. Mymom and Scarlett smile. Stella gives me the finger. She’s lucky I don’t want to rat her out.
“ ’Kay. Bye!”
I run up to my room and immediately text Heaven a picture of my mom and my sisters.
The Ford triplets.
Naur!
At least she didn’t dye it red.
I don’t hear Dad say anything about the drastic hair changes when he comes home from work, but all through dinner he won’t stop looking at the side of Mom’s head. Poor guy. All the women in his life are changing and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.
30
Heaven