The jazz blasting from Izzie’s room has been turned down a bit, and I hope that’s a good sign. I knock on the door and wait.

I hear voices inside whispering back and forth, and it’s only a moment before the door opens, a furious-looking Tyson standing in front of me, arms crossed over his chest.

“Is that your intimidating pose?” I ask him. “Because it needs a little work. Ask your boyfriend how it should really look.”

“Otter’s a jerk,” he says hotly.

“And you know as well as I do that he didn’t mean it.”

He deflates a little at that. “Yeah, yeah. But he’s still a jerk.”

“I probably wasn’t helping things.”

“Are you guys getting divorced?”

I laugh. “No. What the hell.”

“It needed to be asked.”

“Did it?”

“I told Izzie that if you did, we’d get two Christmases.”

“You really need to stop listening to JJ.”

“I’m mad at you. Izzie is too.”

“You are not my spokesperson,” I hear our sister say from somewhere in the room. “Like I would ever allow someone who doesn’t eat meat to speak for me. You are an embarrassment to humanity.”

I’m a little relieved to hear that she doesn’t sound too upset.

Ty glares over his shoulder. “Right, because advocating murder is better than—”

“Did you know that PETA is responsible for killing almost fifteen hundred animals in 2015? And almost thirty-five thousand since they started being tracked in 1998. I would think if anyone wants to discuss murder, we should start there.”

The Kid lets out a strangled noise. “You know I’ve distanced myself from them! And why are you googling those statistics? You are a little girl. You should be collecting stickers or talking about boys.”

“Not all of us are you.”

“Hey! I don’t do any of that!”

“You’re a vegetarian. How am I supposed to know that?”

“Children,” I say with a sigh.

“I am not a child,” both of them growl at me at the same time. It’s really rather disconcerting just how much they sound alike. How much they sound like me.

“Can I speak with Izzie, please?” I ask Ty, who still hasn’t moved out of the way.

“Are you going to make her sad?” he retorts.

I smack him upside the head.

“Hey!”

“Don’t be stupid,” I scold him. “Go downstairs and keep your boyfriend company. You know how he gets when you’re away from him for too long.”

“That’s ridiculously codependent and unhealthy,” Izzie mutters.

“Welcome to the family,” Ty says before stepping forward. “Stay right there for a minute.” He shuts the door behind him and looks back at me. “What the hell.”

I sigh. “He didn’t mean it. And according to Creed, he’s kicking his own ass right now. No one plays the martyr like Otter Thompson.”

“No one except for you. Or me.” He frowns. “Wow. That is unhealthy.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should change that.”

“Meh,” he says. “I’m set in my ways.”