“It just seems like you guys are being really hard on her over a few hundred bucks.”

“A few hundred dollars?” My dad’s voice was uncharacteristically angry. “Your sister ran up eight thousand dollars on five different cards! We only found out because we started getting calls from debt collectors!”

I was horrified not just that my sister could do something so stupid, but also that she’d lied to me about it so coolly and deliberately. I called her on it, and instead of being embarrassed, she immediately went on the defensive.

“You know what, Katie? Screw you. You have no idea what real life is like. I’m sorry I don’t have a rich benefactor like Tad Duncan to pay for all my expenses. But, of course, side with Mom and Dad. Always the golden child!”

She hung up on me and ignored my calls for the next two months.

I was only able to get back in her good graces by needing her. I caught my arm on a gate and tore my rotator cuff. I was terrified that it could be serious and called her crying. She was working as physician’s assistant by then, so I habitually presented her with any and all medical queries. For Penny, to be needed was to be loved, to be valued, to exist. She calmed me down about my injury, reiterated what the team doctors had told me. And, like that, I was forgiven. But the brief period of not having my sister in my life shook me. Regardless of how little we might have had in common, she was my only sibling, my touchstone. Without her, I was unmoored.

I had to hand it to Penny. I didn’t necessarily see the appeal of most of her boyfriends, but the one thing they all had in common—with the exception of the scripture-peddling Brandon, who evidently only had eyes for Jesus—was their boundless devotion to her. She wrapped men around her finger, and though she often wasn’t terribly nice to them, they showered her with gifts, and praise, and seemingly did whatever she wanted. I can’t pretend I wasn’t slightly in awe of it, and all of a sudden I wanted some of that for myself.

Penny’s beau of the moment was Jon—he worked as a plumber and drove a truck jacked up to the hilt. Penny had broken up with her last boyfriend mere weeks before meeting him. As always, the moment one man disappeared, another came immediately to take his place. This was extraordinary to me. Other than the horrible kiss with Matt, there’d only ever been Luke. The idea of the parade of men who came through Penny’s life made me feel faint.