Everything we touch

Round 16: April 2026

Rianna Midlock is 56, Anthony is 52, Sara is 17 and Jesse is 13.

(Gabriel is 26, Eve is 25, Emily is 18 and Freddie is 16.)

Narrated by Sara.

I love weekends. I get to sleep in, I don't have ballet lessons and I can just unwind. Jesse and I both usually sleep late and then drag ourselves downstairs to have breakfast in our pajamas.

Mom and dad wake up early so they've eaten breakfast long before we get downstairs. They usually just sit in the living room and talk while mom reads and dad watches basketball on TV.

Saturday is also my date night with Freddie. We see each other during the week sometimes but on Saturday we have a lot more time because he comes to Exmoor for the whole day. My parents are ok with me dating although dad did start cleaning his gun when Freddie visited for the first time officially as my boyfriend.

Freddie got a job a few months ago at a grocery store so now we can actually go out on our dates. Nothing fancy, just the diner or the movies but we have fun anyway.

I have to be home by midnight on weekends and mom and dad usually just say goodnight and head off to bed right away. They'd kill me if they knew that Freddie sneaks in after they've fallen asleep.

We usually end up making out - and then some - on the living room sofa. I can't really sneak him into my bedroom because I'm afraid it would wake up my parents. Frieda almost died laughing when I told her that I had my first time in our living room while my parents were sleeping upstairs. Dad would probably shoot Freddie to the spot if he found out.

Freddie's just awesome and I love him so much. He's a year younger so I don't know how we'll handle the even longer distance next year but somehow we'll make it.

I was lying on my bed on Sunday morning because I was so tired. Freddie had stayed until 2 am before he had to go. I knew mom had invited Eve and Emily over but I just wanted to lie down for a few minutes longer.

Apparently mom had told Jesse to wake me up because all of a sudden he was banging on my door and yelling for me to come downstairs. Sometimes I wish I was an only child.

When I got down Emily was playing chess with Eve's boyfriend Gabriel. He's been over a few times and he's really nice. It's easy to see that he cares a lot about Eve.

Dad's so excited about becoming a grandpa. At first he was really shocked and probably went through some middle age crisis because he kept saying he's too young to be a grandfather. We were all really surprised when Eve told us that she's pregnant - I think she was too - but we've gotten used to the idea now.

It's nice when we're all together. We're all so busy that we don't get to do this nearly as often as I'd like. And next year I'll be away at college so it'll happen even more rarely.

Emily and I were so close when we were kids but after Ethan's death it all went to hell. We didn't really talk to each other for a long time but we've started to mend things now. She's a lot less psycho after she started getting therapy.

We still don't talk about everything like we used to but it feels good to have my sister back again.


Notes:

• Title reference: Everything we touch by Say Lou Lou.
• Yup, Sara came home from her date with Freddie after everyone else had gone to sleep. And then I was like "oh, you're just gonna do the deed on the sofa.... alright then". Teenagers and their hormones!
• This was Sara's last update as a teen, she'll move to university next year.
• I was home sick for a couple of days last week and played quite a lot between naps so expect to see a few more updates in the somewhat near future. I'm scheduling them to go online once a week to keep a steady pace but I might publish more often if I have enough updates lined up.