“Hey, sweetie. Melissa thinks it’s better if you sit this one out this year. She feels like you take attention away from Ryan.
Please respect her wishes.”
I read it twice.
Then again. Sit this one out.
Like Ryan’s birthday was a game I could skip. My throat went tight.
I tried to breathe, but the words looped in my head like a bad echo.
Respect her wishes. The cafeteria noise blurred away. I called Dad right there, not caring if anyone heard.
“Dad, what the hell is this?” My voice came out sharper than I meant.
On the other end, he sighed, that long, world-weary sound I’d grown up hating. “Britt… it’s not me.
Melissa just thinks it’ll be less complicated if you don’t come this year.”
“Less complicated?” My voice cracked. “I’m his sister.
What’s complicated about that?”
“Please don’t make this harder,” he said quietly.
“She just… she wants Ryan to have a family celebration. No outsiders.”
Outsiders. I couldn’t speak.
My hands shook so bad I nearly dropped the phone.
I hung up before I burst into tears. That night, I cried anyway.
Ugly, hiccuping sobs in my dorm bathroom until my eyes swelled red. The week blurred past in shades of gray.
Ryan’s birthday loomed, every thought tinged with dread.
I’d already bought his gift—a Lego rocket set, the one he’d been dreaming about for months. I wrapped it in shiny blue paper, drew silver stars all over it, and added a card with us in spacesuits, holding hands on the moon. It sat on my desk like a ghost, daring me to accept I wasn’t welcome.
Saturday came.
I tried to convince myself to stay in pajamas, eat ramen, and let the day pass. But around two, when I knew the party was in full swing, the horn blared outside.
I peered out the window. Grandpa’s truck sat at the curb, old and stubborn like him.
He stood by it, arms crossed, eyes blazing.
I opened the door. “Grandpa?”
“Grab the gift,” he barked. “What?”
“I know everything.
Your dad’s gone spineless, and that woman’s out of line.
Get your shoes on.”
My heart pounded. “She said I’m not allowed—”
“I don’t care what she said,” he snapped.
“You’re Ryan’s sister. Nobody erases that.
Not today.
Not ever.”
I hesitated. “But what if she makes a scene?”
Grandpa’s lips twitched in the ghost of a smile. “Then we’ll make a bigger one.
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