“I don’t suppose we have to explain why we called this meeting . . .,” Robbie began.
“Meeting?” said Tig. “Or ambush?”
“Please don’t take it that way, Tig,” said Claire. “You know we all love Kyra.”
“Totally,” said Olivia. “I mean, she’s one of the most thoughtful people I know.”
“That’s true. Like when she gave us all a present for Saint Patrick’s Day,” Robbie said. “Those bags of green hard candies? Remember?” Tig remembered. That was so like Kyra. She loved giving gifts. If she could’ve figured out appropriate gifts for Presidents’ Day and Martin Luther King Day, she probably would’ve done presents for those, too.
“And she’s always the first person to call if she thinks you’re upset,” said Claire. “She’s considerate; she’s a good listener. . . .”
“She’s always had my back,” Tig said. “She always says we’re the Bennett Mafia. She’s never let anyone run me down if she’s around to stop it.” Tig felt guilty. Sure, Kyra could be super-annoying, but she’d always been there through thick and thin. How could Tig go along with this? Even if Kyra was bringing the whole band down?
“She’s a great friend,” Claire said.
“Just not a great bandmate,” Tig said.
“If we’re being honest, no, she’s not,” Olivia said. “Come on, Tig. You know we’ve all tried.”
“I do know,” Tig said. “And I appreciate it.”
“Anyone else would’ve been gone a long time ago,” Robbie said. “We’ve kept Kyra around all this time because she’s your cousin and our friend.”
“As long as we’re being honest, Robbie,” Tig said. “You know you kind of can’t stand her.”
“Look,” said Robbie. “I know I’ve been harsh here and there. But honestly, it’s not that I dislike Kyra as a person. She can be a lot of fun sometimes. It’s just that I take my music very seriously, and it makes me angry when other people don’t. I fully admit that.”
“I hate to state the obvious,” Tig said. “But y’all know Kyra doesn’t exactly have a wide circle of friends. We’re pretty much it. I mean, yeah, she likes telling people she’s in a band . . . a lot . . . but I think she also likes being in a band with us. Even if she’s terrible at music, the band makes her part of something.”
“No one’s saying we freeze her out,” Robbie said. “She can still hang with us even if she’s not in the band.”
Tig sighed. “What do you think about all this, Paris?”
Paris put her hands up in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Hey, this is between y’all,” she said. “It’s only my third practice. And I ain’t so hot a player myself yet.”
“I just asked what you think,” Tig said. “Can’t you just give an opinion?”
Paris sighed. “I don’t want to make anybody mad. Y’all’ve been real nice to me, and I know Kyra’s your cousin, but from what I can tell about being in a band, you can’t have a member who doesn’t pull her weight. That dog just ain’t gonna hunt.”
“Dog?” Claire asked. “Hunt? Is this a colloquialism I’m not familiar with?”
“Yeah,” Tig said. “It means it’s not going to work.”
“Oh,” Claire said. “Charming.”
Charming my foot, Tig thought. She was already irritated, and Paris’s homespun sayings weren’t helping. Seriously! How could Robbie stand her?
“So what do y’all want me to do?” Tig said. “As if I had to ask.”
“You know what you have to do,” Robbie said. “You’ve known for a long time, Tig. You just don’t want to do it.”
“Dang right she doesn’t want to do it,” Paris said. “Shoot, kicking your own cousin out of the band? Kyra’s gonna be madder’n a hornet. I don’t blame Tig for not wanting to do it.”
“But she will do it,” Robbie said. “Won’t you, Tig?”
Tig sat on the steps to the door of the studio and put her head in her hands. “Yes,” she said. It pained her to say it. But Robbie and the rest of the girls were right. Tig had tried every way she could to make Kyra practice, but nothing had worked. She’d even directed her anger at Robbie and Paris because it had been too hard to face how angry she was with her cousin. Sure, she didn’t like Paris, and maybe it had been Robbie’s plan all along to replace Kyra with her. But could Tig really blame Robbie? Something had to be done, and Tig hadn’t had the guts to do it. This had all been going on for far too long. “I’ll do it. I’ll tell her she’s out of the band.”
“Is there any way we can help?” Olivia asked.
“Do you want us to be there with you when you tell her?” said Claire.
“I don’t know,” Tig said. “I mean, on the one hand, if we were all there, it might seem less like it was all my doing. But on the other hand, I don’t want her to feel ganged up on.”
“You’re right,” Claire said. “But know this: we will all support you. When Kyra asks us about it, we won’t put the blame on you and say we had no idea. We’ve all got your back. Right, girls?”
Everyone agreed.
“Why don’t you sleep on it?” Robbie suggested.
“Sure,” Tig said. “I bet I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.”
After the girls were picked up, Tig went inside.
“Late practice today,” her mom said.
“Yeah,” Tig said. “About that. . . .” She told her mom everything.
“Whoa,” said her mother. “This is not good.”
“Neither is Kyra’s playing,” Tig replied. “What am I supposed to do?”
Tig’s mom called into the other room, “Dave, could you come in here for a second?” When her dad came into the room, Tig’s mom gave him a brief update about the band situation. Then she said, “We can’t keep it from her anymore. We’ve got to tell her.”
“Tell me what?” Tig asked. “Y’all are scaring me.”
“Let’s have a seat,” Mr. Ripley said. The younger kids were in the other part of the house, and the television was on. “They’re occupied,” he said to Tig’s mom.
Tig couldn’t stand it. “What’s going on?”
“It’s about your uncle Nick,” said Mrs. Ripley.
“Uncle Nick? What about him? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine,” her mom said. “I mean, physically, he’s fine.”
“Then what?”
“Your aunt Laurie,” Tig’s dad said. “She’s leaving him.”
As Tig listened in shock, her parents told her the whole story. How Aunt Laurie didn’t really have a sick friend out of town. How Uncle Nick had tried everything to save the marriage for Kyra’s sake. How Aunt Laurie wouldn’t change her mind.
“So that’s what you two were talking about that day in the kitchen,” Tig said. It was almost a relief to put the pieces together.
“Yes,” said her mom. “We didn’t want to tell you until we were certain they couldn’t work things out. But now there’s no chance of that.”
No chance? Of course there was a chance! Why wouldn’t there be a chance? Not that Tig had ever really liked Aunt Laurie, but she was Kyra’s mother. And Uncle Nick’s wife. And they loved her. They were a family. Didn’t that mean anything?
“Maybe they just need a vacation or something,” Tig said. “Maybe Uncle Nick could send her roses? She likes stuff like that.”
Tig’s parents looked at each other. “Believe me, Tig,” her mother said. “Uncle Nick has tried everything he could. It’s over.”
“No,” Tig said. “I’m sure they’ll work it out. Kyra can’t do that every-other-weekend thing that kids with divorced parents have to do. Nobody in our family has ever been divorced! They have to fix it!”
“Tig,” her mom said, “there are things that you’re just too young to understand. The marriage cannot be fixed. Please just take my word for it and let it go.”
“How can I just let it go? How can any of us? This is awful! Does Kyra know?”
“They’re telling her tonight,” Tig’s dad said.
“Oh, poor Kyra!” Tig said. “Now I feel really awful about the band. Do you think this is why she’s been so terrible at the bass?”
“I don’t know, honey,” said her mom. “Maybe she’s been distracted. Maybe she’s just not musically inclined. It’s hard to say.”
“Maybe you and your friends could give her a little more time,” Tig’s dad said. “These next few months are going to be tough for your cousin.”
Tig nodded. “I’m sure when the girls find out about the divorce, they’ll cut her some slack.”
A few hours later Tig’s mom’s phone rang. “Of course,” Tig heard her mother say.
Shortly after that, Kyra walked in the door. Her face was red and puffy. Tig was almost afraid to speak, to move. She didn’t know what she should say or do. But when Kyra’s cracking voice said, “Oh, Tig!” and she started to cry, Tig instinctively ran to her cousin and pulled her into a tight hug. They held the embrace for some time, sobbing together.
“You’re going to be okay,” Tig kept saying over and over. “You’re going to be okay.”