friends.
Life was perfect for the next eight years. Mom and Dad spent their days working, while Tommy, Walter, and I went to school and generally had a great time. Then our entire world came crashing down around us.
Mom and Dad had gone to a party to celebrate a successful release of another new drug. From what I have heard they had a wonderful last night together. They spent the evening drinking, dancing, and celebrating what life had brought them. As the night came to an end Dad got into the car—against the better judgment and wishes of his coworkers—and started to drive home. He had had too much to drink, and while he was trying to change the radio station he lost his concentration and crashed head first into a car in the other lane of the road.
After that; all Walter, Tommy, and I had were each other. We bounced around different family member's houses but nothing ever stuck. Nobody wanted to deal with three unruly teenagers. Sure they felt sorry for us initially, but there is a world of difference between feeling sorry for someone and actually caring about their well-being. After being shuffled around from grandparent to grandparent, aunt to uncle and back again for the next three years nothing seemed stable or worthwhile except for the twins. They had become my anchor to a life that was taken away when our parents died. We always knew that we could count on each other for anything and everything. Constantly being the new kids in school made it tough for us to make any friends or develop any kind of relationship with anyone outside our little bubble. But eventually we graduated high school and were finally able to start living a normal life again.
It's kind of weird to admit this now, but during that time I developed a massive crush on Tom. I know that it might seem odd hearing that I had a crush on my stepbrother, but he and Walt were my world back in those days. They represented stability and normalcy in a world that had plunged us into chaos. It didn't hurt that they were both exceedingly hot. They always made sure to join the swim team at whatever school that we were attending and their bodies reflected that fact. I still remember watching Tom coming up out the water, his bulging muscles glistening with water, a crooked smile creeping across his face as he found out that he had just beaten his personal best record. Eventually I grew out of it, but there is always a special place in a girl's heart for their first crush, and for a long time after that I'd still catch myself watching him lustfully. I don't think I've ever completely let the idea of the two of us getting together escape my mind, but it was definitely a lot easier when we went our separate ways for college.
Tom and Walt were both exceptionally smart, and they managed to leverage their intelligence to get a full ride scholarship to Dartmouth. Tom went into Biochemical engineering, while Walt decided to double major in computer science and electrical engineering. As for me I wanted nothing to do with the sciences. I don't know where I got it from, but I decided to go to school for journalism. I researched for a while and found out that the University of Missouri had one of the best journalism departments in the country and went into massive debt getting my degree from there.
The physical distance between us seemingly sprung up overnight was incredibly tough to deal with at first. We were all broke college kids, so finding time or money to visit was all but an impossibility during the school year. As we all became engrossed in our studies we drifted apart and became individuals instead of the threesome we once were. In an effort to stay close Walt came up with the idea that we should meet up every summer and spend a couple of weeks catching up. We would meet up in the middle, and since