I make it back home, parking the car in the garage and taking my stuff back inside, Mars's leash in hand. I make sure to put the truck keys back where I found them so my parents don't know I ever left.

          In all actuality, my mother would care all that much that I left—--she's always been relatively distant anyways... Always gone when I was young and emotionally unavailable when she wasn't. When she was home—--and wasn't running errands, at work, or off with her friends from work, she seemed to always distance herself from me... Ada too, but that was to a lesser extent. In terms of me and Ada, my mother always seemed to have a detachment with us.

           My father, on the other hand, would be completely and utterly pissed that I took the truck for a drive... Though it was not like he was using it for anything anyways. ...He was just sitting it in the garage, letting it collect dust.

          I let Mars off the leash and he hightails it off, to one of his toys, flopping down on the floor and grasping it between his teeth.

          I set his leash back on the hook.

          My phone buzzes.

          Odd, I think to myself, fishing around in my pocket for it, before pulling it out. "Probably just mom and dad saying they had to come back early because of the storm system south of town." I pause. "Who am I kidding? They'd drive in a tornado and all if that meant they could buy the necessary items to shower Marek in... Like he's his own damn king of the world."

When I unlock my phone and check the notification, I'm met with a shocking surprise that it's neither of them messaging me...

Ada.

I swallow, blinking a few times in disbelief and tapping the notification, anxious with anticipation as I wait for what feels like an eternity for my slow phone to load up the messages.

The message from my older sister is simple enough. It's just: Hey.

It's from four minutes ago... So, in theory, if I start typing a response, Ada will probably see that.

I tap the message bar and all of my breath catches in my throat for a moment—--my fingers hover over the keys, unsure of how to respond at first.

A part of me screams: "come on, Jupiter, you've known her your whole life. You know exactly what to say to her." The other part of my mind brings up a good point: "the last time you talked to her was a year ago... and she just ignored you then, so why should this be any different? You'll respond and she'll ghost you until you're 27 and the cycle will start anew."

I swallow, waiting another minute more and start typing out my own message when hers says, "delivered five minutes ago". My response is simple... Just like hers. 'Hi.'

I groan immediately after I've sent my message. "Well, that was a shitty response... Wasn't it? I mean—- Is that how you respond to someone you haven't seen face to face for three years?" I throw my head back. "Dammit... Stop overthinking it. Ada won't care." I look back down at my phone and then send: 'How are you?'

I glance over to Mars, who's still playing with his squeaky toy bone, contently.

I wanted my message to be perfect... Because I know full damn well that if it wasn't, I would've fucked up... just like always, and it would give her free reign to ignore my existence again.

I just wanted a proper relationship with my family...

My phone buzzes once more and my gaze immediately shoots back to my phone to read her message. I keep reading her message so fast that the words just keep getting all jumbled up before they even reach my brain, resulting in me having to reread it three times.

'I'm good, J... Thanks for asking.'

The words breath catches in my throat once more. J? I had some sort of nickname from her now? We were that close?

I see her start typing again and I remain silent—--the only noise in the room being Mars playing and the ceiling fan spinning.

'Can I ask you something?'

I pause, typing in response: 'Sure. What is it?'

I get a response back from Ada almost instantly. 'You think you can keep a secret? From Mom and Dad? ...and Marek?'

'Yeah... Probably... But why?' I ask through text.

'Marek talks too much,' her message says. 'If he knew what I was going to share, he'd alert everyone in a forty-five mile radius.'

I snort at her message. 'True enough. But why not Matka and Ojciec?'

'Matka and Ojciec are a little... old fashioned, you know. They hold the same views as the majority of the old country.'

I pause, knowing exactly what she means—-where my mom and dad had grown up, there was always a bit of a conservative swing... Ada had been born back in Poland too—-unlike Marek and I. She didn't live there very long—--until she was about four-years-old—-but she still had a better sense of the place than I did.

It takes me a moment, but I reply: 'Fair enough... They are pretty... traditional. I promise I won't say anything to them... Whatever it is.'

She almost instantly replies back, 'Thanks! You're a life saver.'

I wait for several minutes more, waiting for her to say anything else.

And finally, she does. 'So, first of all... I'm having a baby.'

I blink a few times in disbelief and rub my eyes just in case I read Ada's message wrong, but no... I didn't... Holy shit. 'Um... Wow... Okay. Yeah, I promise I won't tell Matka and Ojciec.'

'Good... Because if you do, they'll yell at me for not being married and then insist on coming over to Jersey City to see me... and then the cat will be let out of the box.'

'What cat?' I reply.

'My girlfriend.'

I pause yet again. 'You have a girlfriend?'

'Yeah... Her name is Qiana. We met our first year of college, became friends, went on a few dates, and just went from there.'

I gaze at the messages on my phone, in awe, totally dumbfounded. My sister had a girlfriend. Wow. I type, 'Can I meet her?'.

She replies: 'Yeah... Eventually... When I can make it down from Jersey... There's always drama with the interstates, so getting down to Indi is a pain.'

'Well... Uh... Congratulations,' I send off before typing a message. 'I promise I'll keep this all between just us... and I look forward to meeting Qiana when I can.'

My parents' car pulls into the driveway and I notice almost instantly, sighing. I head up to my room, Mars following along with his happily wagging tail. Despite the praise solely for my younger brother I can hear downstairs from my parents already, after the conversation I just had with Ada... It seems like things might actually be looking up for me for once.