Release (Release #1)

by Aly Martinez

Bits and pieces of Ramsey were intertwined in everything I’d ever wanted in life. He was my family. My best friend. The yin to my yang. The heart to my beat.

When Dad was gone, my mom was a totally different woman. Don’t get me wrong. Whether he was home or not, she was always smiling. It was how I learned what an incredible disguise a grin could be. People didn’t pry about why you had bruises if you were happy. Nor did they inquire if there was enough food to feed your children or if your husband had spent all of his money on beer, video poker, and truck-stop hookers. (Yeah, my old man was a real class act.) People didn’t actually ask questions at all if you were sporting a smile. It became my family’s greatest defense.

That was exactly how I lived my life, showing the world a pretty exterior to hide the disaster on the inside.

I’d imagined running away every night since I was old enough to dream. But in my dreams, I’d taken her and Nora with me. We were a family. The three of us against him. Forever. In the end, my angelic mother, who I’d placed on the highest of pedestals, proved she was no better than he was. She blew me a kiss as she backed out of the driveway. She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t frantic. She smiled. And then she was gone.

Thea and I were two of a kind. Lost. Broken. Forgotten. Stuck.

I’d often wished we had a cool story about when our relationship transitioned from that of tolerating each other to discovering we were two halves of one soul. But the truth is Thea and I evolved much like the seasons: slow, steady, and unstoppable.