Shark Lover (7 page)

She
hated the floral couches in her mother’s living room. They were white with pink
roses thrown all across them. She couldn’t believe that her mother had kept
them all of these years. The white was full of stains, she could barely stand
sitting on them. When she begged her mother to get rid of them she had always
said the same thing; the couches were a part of their lives. She didn’t
understand how a couch could be so significant, but she didn’t ask questions
any longer. She knew that her mother was set on keeping them, so she let it
slide nowadays.

            “Yeah,
yeah big deal you woke up one day by yourself,” Cathy answered back in a
mocking tone. “So what kind of dog would you even get? And are we on for our
deal?”

            “Of
course we are on! I want a Chihuahua. Just like in Legally Blond! I could be
just like Elle!” She said dreamily. “I’ll walk him all throughout the park and
dress him up in these little cute outfits and…”

            “Carly!”
Cathy interrupted her sister. “You do realize it’s a dog right? It’s not a guy.
You don’t have to act so in love.” She started laughing.

            “Right!
Sorry I get carried away sometimes.” She covered her hands over her face as her
eyes lit up. “Oh that reminds me, you still haven’t mentioned who your new guy
is, spill already so I can stop being annoying and asking.”

            “Fine,”
She sighed in irritation. “His name is Marc, he goes to grad school with me.
Now are we done here? I have to shower and do some homework.”

            “Sheesh!
If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s not a big deal. I don’t mind.” Even
though it was obvious to both her and Cathy that she did. “I just thought you
would be excited to tell me. You always used to talk my ear off about every
single guy that you dated.”

            “Well,
he’s not like any other guy I dated. He’s different.” She pointed out as she
curled a lock of her blond hair around her finger.

            “Like
I haven’t heard that before!” Carly spieled out exhilarated. “You said the
exact same thing about Jason. Don’t you remember?”

            “No
I made a specific effort to compress all the memories that I ever had with him.
I was so dumb when I was in high school. I’m glad those years are over. And I
never said that about another guy before! You are so making that up!” She
squealed as she opened the refrigerator. She dug through the compartments
searching for her favorite snack, strawberries. She ate them every day, no
matter what the season. Nothing tasted as good as the sweet berries rushing
through in her mouth.

            “Well,
you did say that. I read it in your journal. Did you know he’s clown?” She
snickered softly.

            “Duh.
We all knew he was a clown. All he ever did was try to be funny. He could never
be serious.”

            “No,
no. He’s an actual clown. He works at the San Francisco Circus.” She heard her
sister laughing hard over the receiver as she joined in with her. “Anyways, I
got to go. I start my new job tonight and I don’t want to be late. You will
have to tell me about your new boyfriend later.”

            “And
you will have to tell me about your new job. Have a good first day. I will call
you soon.” She paused and added before her sister could talk, “Don’t say
anything! I will this time I promise. You have my word. I haven’t forgotten
about my rambunctious little sis.”

            “Alright,
but you better! Bye have a good night!” She hung up the phone fast and ran to
her room hurriedly to get ready.

            “That
girl drives me up a wall, but I love her to death.” Cathy said to herself as
she set the phone down on the counter where she had been eating. She took the
plate she had eaten all of the strawberries off of and brought it over to the
sink to wash it off. She could still taste the sweet berries on her tongue as
she used her hands to scrub the plate. She started looking out the window
daydreaming.

           
“Daddy!”
She yelled as she screamed loudly across the blanket. “Carly took my last
strawberry! I was just about to eat it and she just took it. She didn’t even
ask!” She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked out across the beach,
momentarily forgetting what her sister had done to her.

            “It’s
in my tummy now! So ha!” Carly stuck out her tongue at her as she dug in the
basket for more food.

            “Girls,
please stop fighting. All you have been doing since we got here is fight. Now
we came to the beach to have a picnic and to relax. Now here, I have some
grapes for both of you.” Her father ran his hand over his forehand, wiping the
perspiration off from the hot, summer day.

            “No,
Daddy! I wanted the strawberry!” Cathy cried as a tear ran down her eye. “Carly
already got more of them then I did. That was my last one. She just ate it
because she knows it’s my favorite!” She pointed at Carly accusingly.

            “Cathy,
she’s only three years old. She didn’t do it on purpose. She just eats whatever
is closest to her. Please eat the grapes. They are really delicious.” He handed
her the plastic bag of ripe, green grapes only to find a second later she threw
them back in his lap.

            “No,
Daddy! I said I wanted the strawberry. I’m not going to be happy until I get
another one. Plus you always take Carly’s side because she’s younger. She’s the
baby! It’s not fair!” She pulled off her pink sunhat and threw it to the ground
as she took off running from the blanket. As she ran, she threw off her
sandals. They hit the sand with a big thud as grains flew all over. She didn’t
stop running. She kept running for what seemed like miles.

Her
body forced her to stop when her legs gave out and she fell head first into the
sand. The tiny grains burned her entire body like a fire in the forest. For the
longest time she couldn’t get up, until she used all her willpower to stand up.
She felt dizzy and sat back down. She saw her father approaching in the
distance with Carly secured on his left side. She had her arms wrapped around
her neck, the same way that Cathy used to hold on to him when she was that age.
She couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy as she stared at both of them.
She had always been a daddy’s girl, she didn’t like that Carly was taking her
place.

Things
were so much better when Carly was younger and couldn’t talk, she thought to
herself. When Carly was a baby, they never fought and Cathy had still had her
father’s full attention. Now that Carly was older, she wanted to be just like
her older sister, which annoyed Cathy until no end. She didn’t want a toddler
cramping her style or taking her place. Cathy was used to being the favorite.
She didn’t appreciate Carly taking over. As her father and sister came within
walking distance to her, she realized she had lost her energy to get away and
just covered her face into her knees as she sank in the sand in shame.

“Cathy!
You can’t go running down the beach like that. Daddy couldn’t see you. Someone
could have taken you. You know that you’re not supposed to go off alone.” Her
father knelt down to her level and brought her face up to look at his. “Please
don’t ever do that again. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“I
know Daddy. But I was really sad. Carly ate my strawberry and you were just
defending her. You like her better than me!” She said crying.

“Now
you’re just being silly.” He set down Carly next to Cathy so he could look at
both of his girls. “I love you both the same. You both know that. And running
away isn’t the solution. It doesn’t solve anything, it just makes matters
worse. If we have a problem, we sit down and talk about it. Now why don’t you
both apologize to each other?”

The
girls looked at each other, shook their heads to mean “no” and crossed their
arms across their chest, turning their faces away from each other in protest.

“Come
on girls. You are sisters. Sisters are the best friends that you can ask for.
You’re meant to be lifelong friends. Nobody will ever have your back like your
sister,” He stated with reason. “You girls have to be there for each other. One
day I won’t be here and you two will have to take care of each other.”

“If
she’s supposed to have my back, why did she eat my last strawberry?” Cathy
pointed out. “Best friends don’t do that!”

“Yeah,
Daddy! Cathy blamed me too!” Carly chimed in.

“Be
quiet Carly! Nobody asked you! It’s all your fault anyways. None of this would
have happened if you hadn’t eaten my strawberry! Then you go and act all
innocent like you didn’t know, when lord knows that you did!” Her blue eyes
turned fiery as she continued on with the argument. “I can’t believe you
Carly…I”

“Girls,
STOP!” He waved his hands in the air grabbing their attention. “Now this pains
me as a father to see you two fight like this! Let’s apologize to each other
now and stop this fighting. The sun is out, it’s a beautiful day at the beach,
but all of the fighting is ruining it. Carly, say you’re sorry for eating
Cathy’s strawberry.”

“Okay
Daddy, I am sorry I ate the strawberry.” She said with apologetic eyes.

“No,
don’t tell me. Tell your sister. It doesn’t do any good to apologize to me.”

“Cathy,
I am sorry I ate your strawberry.” She said as she turned and faced her sister.

“Good.
It was your fault the day got ruined anyways! But thanks.” She crossed her arms
again and looked away.

“Alright,
alright. Cathy, stop being stubborn. Accept your sister’s apology. You can see
she is being sincere.” Her father said as he intervened.

“Fine.
I accept your apology, Carly. Just don’t do it again.” She said as she blew a
strand of her curly blond hair off of her face.

“Now
you know what happens next. It’s your turn to apologize, Cathy.” Her father
patiently said waiting.

“Apologize
for what? I didn’t even do anything!” She wailed.

“You
could apologize to your sister and me for running off. We ran all the way down
this beach to come get you. Believe me, it was a tough jog. I’m not in good
enough shape to be doing this anymore.” He sat down in the sand in front of his
two girls to face them.

Cathy
shrugged as she looked away. She saw the seagulls flying high above in the sky.
She counted them one by one as they flew up higher and higher away from her.
The way that they circled around her as she laid down in the sand helped her
get away from the seriousness of her life. She didn’t want to think about
apologizing to Carly. She didn’t feel as though she had did anything wrong. As
the sun glazed down on her, she could feel her entire body sweating.

She
looked over at Carly, who looked merely like her twin sister but younger. It
might have been the fact that they were dressed exactly alike. They each had on
light blue jean shorts and a pink frilly tank top to match. Underneath they had
matching pink whole piece suits. Ever since Carly had been born, her mother had
made it a priority to always have them wear matching outfits. When Cathy was
younger, she didn’t see a problem with it. She and Carly had always seemed to
draw attention from on-lookers who thought that they were just “so cute.” When
she got to be a little older she found herself getting annoyed with the
constant matching.

She
wanted to have her own identity. When she had asked her mom why she had always
dressed them alike, she had told Cathy that she had always wanted a sister and
had told her how lucky she was to have a sister who would love her the rest of
her life. She had dropped the subject after that since she felt guilty
upsetting her mom, kind of like how she felt right now with her dad.

 Looking
at Carly sitting right next to her she noticed that the similarities didn’t
just stop with attire. Both girls had blond curly hair, fair skin and cool blue
eyes to match. Her little sister even had painted her nails hot pink to match
hers. Her little toenails glistened in the sun as the glitter danced in the
light. Carly had made a specific effort to become her mini-me. She started
feeling terrible about the way that she had treated her. After all, she was her
only sister; she didn’t need another enemy, especially not inside of the
family. She scooted closer to her sister and wrapped her arm around her.

“I’m
sorry, Carly. You didn’t deserve to have me yell at you like that. It was just
a strawberry, I can get another one, but I can’t get another Carly. I don’t
want you to hate me. I love you.” She pulled both of her arms around her sister
and held her. Carly’s arms were squished underneath her arms. After a few
seconds, she could feel Carly pulling away. Cathy stared down at the sand upset
that her sister didn’t accept her apology. Then she felt Carly’s arms wrapped
around her back and smiled.

“It’s
okay, Sissy. I forgive you. I love you too.” She tightened her grip around
Cathy and held her as tightly as she could.  

“Daddy
is very proud of you, girls. You did a good job of apologizing to each other.
Now always remember to love each other like sisters were meant to. It’s
important to forgive anyone who has done something wrong to you, no matter what
they did. You don’t want to live your life with regrets.” He pulled both of his
girls into a massive hug, when Cathy suddenly tugged away.