Seizure (Part II)

This is a continuation. To start from the beginning, click here.

As she trailed off, she sniffed an opportunity to pass Garrett. Maggie straightened and didn’t quite seem to know where to put her hands. For a moment Tess hesitated, then, sensing the window closing, gunned the Jetta and committed herself. Amanda gripped the front seats and braced for an impact. However, Tess drove it onto the gravel shoulder and maneuvered the car around the steadily leftward-drifting Garrett Simpkins. The clamor of the gravel distracted them from the fact that they had not actually crashed: Tess unleashed a finger on Garrett, nearly hitting Maggie in the face when she reached back. Amanda immediately warned Tess that if she was going to drive like a maniac, then Maggie would have to drive herself to Vegas.

“Jesus,” Maggie said, addressing no one in particular, “I want to get there alive.” She then spoke to Amanda over her shoulder. “She is not the only one who needs to calm down. We’re not ten minutes from our house and we’re already bickering.”

“I will calm down when Unibrow Kyle Busch here stops trying to kill us,” Amanda said pungently.

“Bitch! Shut up! I do not have a unibrow!” Tess shouted.

“I’m only saying what everyone can already see,” Amanda declared.

“What is it with you two? I want a peaceful trip! A relaxing trip! I—”

“I swear I had meant to be on my best behavior on this trip,” Tess sighed. “I was apprehensive about this trip because I know whenever we’re together it gets hairy—and I know I just said hairy, Amanda, so you can stop snickering. At least I have tits. But you’re right, though, that there is something going on between me and Dad and I’m really sorry that it’s upsetting you guys. However, there is no way I’m going to talk about it with you.”

“Well, if it’s not betraying some big secret, maybe you could inform us as to why he had to take you to the doctor?” Amanda replied tartly, this time saying it as much to Maggie as to Tess.
“Why’s it important for us to know?” Maggie offered. “If she doesn’t want to tell us, she shouldn’t have to if she doesn’t want to.”

Tess, who a week ago had had her conception of what constituted a necessary secret violently obliterated, calmly said:

“Dad took me to the hospital because I had been having seizures,” Tess said quickly, in a neutral tone. “It’s nothing, okay?” she added, sensing concern. “It’s not like I get the shakes or black out. So relax. They call it catamenial epilepsy, on account of it’s women who get it and it tends to get worse during a woman’s period. It’s not full-blown epilepsy. The doctor spent a lot of time explaining that to me and Dad. And it’s okay for me to be driving a car. Hearing about all this, of course, it explained some symptoms I’d been having—obviously I’ve been really distracted and anxious lately, and not for all the usual teenage drama reasons. But the main reason I asked him to take me was because I was wetting the bed. I would appreciate it very much if you didn’t make fun of me for this—you both have plenty of things I can make fun of and, I swear to God if you start in on me about it, I will drive this car into oncoming traffic. I admit I was planning on keeping it from you two, but I guess I should have told you, now that I look at it, especially with things as they are, because we’re sisters. There you go, that’s my…big secret.”

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