Reclaiming My Own Life

ten birthday, it was a sound. A specific notification chime f

ghing about something that happened on a show they all watched. I didn' t watch i

glass door!" Lily giggled, her p

-Chim

hone and smiled. Dad chuckled. It was a shared momen

it right then, but the

r with her biology homework. She was struggl

he bed in her perfectly decorated room. Her walls were covered in posters of bands

started drawing out the diagrams, explaining the dominant a

-Chim

rabbing it. She typed quickl

g to?" I asked, kee

she said, no

was different. My curiosity turned into a knot in my stomach. I felt a familiar cold

s on a huge, fancy cake. I' m usually on the edge of the frame, slightly out of focus, wearing a hand-me-down from a cousin. I was th

. I had a speech to give. I told them the ceremony started at 6

had said, clapping me on the shoulder

k. They bought a new video camera for

npleasant. It made the air

said, forcing my attention back to her homework. I

her pencil down. Her phone buzzed again. Chi

so funny?"

at freaking out. He said it' s you

od ran

tion between her and Dad. But s

livious, still smiling at the screen. The pieces clicked together in my head

ike the walls were closing in.

ered, standing up so fast the

ily asked, finally looking up, he

I said. The words came o

ock me. There was Lily at Disney World, Lily with her first car (a birthday present I helped

The one who paid her own way through community college while working

n't even important enough to be inc

emptiness, a hollow space where a sense of belonging was supposed to be. The cheerful Chime-Chime-Pop echoed in my mind, a symbol of an