Dear Dahlia // B1

[24]

My day at school is boringly average. Tyler and I talk about our projects, since he is mostly photography based and I am mostly sketching based, we decided we would both do one of each of those and then the third project would be whatever we wanted. I decide that it would be best for me to create an oil painting. Out of all the paint in the world, oils are what I have the most experience with.

I walk through the open garage door and flop onto the couch.

"That was a little dramatic don't you think?" Luke asks, pulling his guitar strap over his head.

"Well, you'd know all about being dramatic," I raise an eyebrow at him. "And what do you think your doing with your guitar? You know you can only play when Julie's out here. People can still hear you, you know?"

"Yeah, they can probably hear you too," he laughs. "Out here just talking to yourself all the time."

I small laugh escapes me, "I always have my head in my sketchbook anyway. I'm sure people expect me to talk to myself."

Luke walks over to me, still cradling his guitar. "I -uh- know this probably isn't a great time, but what happened?"

"To what?" I ask.

"Your mom," he clarifies. "And just tell me to back off if it's too painful or anything."

"No," I shake my head. I move into a sitting position on the couch and pat the spot next to me. "First of all, I'm glad you asked me and not Julie. She would... not take it well."

"I figured," Luke says, taking a seat and gingerly setting his guitar down. "But what was she like? What happened to her?"

"She was," I search for the right words. "Well she wore a lot of hats. Between music and her job and just trying to raise Carlos and I. I just don't know how she did it all. I guess, I could only compare her to Julie now. They had this connection. And I was so jealous growing up. I remember Papa and I would always go out and buy me a little disposable camera every week and I would fill them with all of these pictures of Julie and Mom. Most of them out here, at the piano."

"That sounds," he pauses. "Sweet."

"Yeah, I guess," I shrug. "Everything started changing after she got sick though," I stop and try to catch my breath. "It got hard to be around her. Especially since Julie didn't see the things that I saw. And if she did, she did a good job at hiding it."

"You don't have to explain," Luke says, attempting to reach out and put his hand on my knee. It phases through my leg and a look of frustration comes over his face.

"It's okay, Luke," I nod, pulling my arms tighter in my lap. "I guess, after the cancer spread and Mom lost, it seemed sudden to Julie. But I expected it, I had already cried most of my tears by the time she had gone. Julie had just started. And that was when the fighting started. And well, the rest is sort of history."

"I'm so sorry," he says under his breath.

"Well," I take the attention off of myself. "What about you? What were your parents like?"

"Oh," Luke's eyebrows pull together briefly before a wide smile comes over his face. "You know what sounds great right now? The beach."

"Wait, I didn't mean any-" but the whooshing sound of Luke vanishing cuts me off.

I put my head in my hands and sigh. Why do I have to be such an idiot?

A.N.

Hi...... *but sheepishly and doing the Debby Ryan Radio Rebel hair behind the ear tuck

Soooo it's been almost a week?

I'm sorry bout that. I'm back in school (in person) now so it's hard to try to keep up. But I'll try harder I promise.

I hope you didnt mind this little filler (even though it's pretty important)

Hope everybody had/is having a wonderful morning/day/evening!

💀✌🦋😘❄😳🐍😎🏳️‍🌈🤠🥁

-Redd