Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen

Author:Sarah Addison Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

Chapter Twelve

The next morning, Zoey sat on the couch as she scrolled through Instagram. There were a few people from high school who were posting photos of things they’d already bought for their dorm rooms. Every photo included pillows. For a reason she had yet to suss out, moving into a dorm room involved bringing a mountain of pillows with you. Zoey had her college list, which she’d been adding to all year with each new correspondence from school and each new article she read about what she’d need. She would have to start buying stuff soon. She had a countdown on her phone, marking how much time she had before she moved into her dorm. She already planned to come back here as often as possible. Every weekend, if she could. When asked about home, she could imagine herself saying, “Oh, I live on Mallow Island.” Not Tulsa.

Zoey paused in her scroll. Her stepmother had posted photos of Zoey’s old bedroom—her burgeoning new craft room, Wonderland. The carpet had been torn out and pale hardwood flooring had been installed. The walls had been painted a soft aqua, and above the windows overlooking the garage LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE had been stenciled in fine gold lettering. One of the photos showed Tina on a stepladder at the windows, a tiny brush in her hand. She was in full makeup and her hair was piled high on her head. She was wearing capri overalls and a crisp white button-down shirt with blue pinstripes. She knew exactly the kind of person she wanted to portray on social media. And Zoey would give her this—in real life she was just as concerned with aesthetics as she was online. She liked things to be pretty. She shared that trait with Zoey’s father. But unlike him, she knew how to actually create pretty things, and not just collect them. She’d taken the large but oddly decorated home Alrick had bought when he and Paloma and baby Zoey had moved to Tulsa, a home that had been full of dark antiques Alrick had bought because he’d thought they made him seem important, and she’d turned it into a true showplace. Tina probably really did do that stencil herself. But certainly not in those clothes. Those were bought just for the photo.

Her bedroom looked so different. Zoey studied it carefully, realizing that what bothered her the most was that it looked better. She remembered her white walls and the scuffed blue bedroom set she’d had since she was seven and the dark curtains that were always drawn because the way the sun angled into the room made it the hottest on the second floor. Tina had wanted to paint the walls and take out the carpeting while it had been Zoey’s room. And Zoey had known how much she’d wanted it, which was the very reason she’d never let her touch it.

Zoey wondered if her family imagined her living someplace just as depressing now. They probably did.

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