Let's Be Birds

Part II - Lay Me Down

Dinah couldn't believe a lot of things at the moment. She couldn't believe she got the girl. Granted, it only took her four years to confess her feelings to said girl and only two years to date but who's counting? She couldn't believe that they've been dating for four almost five years. What she really couldn't believe, however, was that the girl that she spent the last 10 years of her life being in love with, wasn't here anymore.

One minute she was here, then next there was an accident. There were technical terms and explanations and a low chance of survival. A 2% chance of survival, but she survived a lot longer than they expected. Long enough to fool you into thinking that she'd be well on her way to being fine. But the damage was irreparable. And people, so many people, have had to suffer because someone didn't do their job and missed the infection.

"Dinah," someone whispered in the softest of tones. She knew it was one of the girls, which one she had no idea. Everyone sounded the same, broken, slightly angry and just utterly defeated. They all used that soft voice with her and it was driving her insane. "Dinah?" She looked to her left, to the girl who was nudging at her softly and looking at her in concern. "Yeah Ally?" "It's your turn to go up there," Ally responded. Dinah just looked at her and took her in.

She looked a lot more tired than she has ever seen her, which is saying something because the twins were exhaustive. "I don't think I can do it. I don't know what Andrea was thinking asking me to do this. I don't think I can," Dinah said getting increasingly frantic after each sentence. "Hey," the girl located to her right said as she grabbed her hand. She continued speaking, "Breathe Di. You can do it, okay? We're right here. We're not going anywhere."

Dinah just looked at Lauren and Lauren looked right back. The girl then leaned over slightly and kissed her frantic best friend on the temple. Dinah has never been so relieved to be surrounded by her bandmates, her other family, as she was at the moment. She took a deep breath and stood up from her seat in the front row pew and walked towards the podium.

She looked into the crowd and took in everyone's face in the front row. Normani's parents looking as if their world came crashing down, and she could relate. She looked at Normani's older sisters and they looked like they haven't stopped crying in years, she could definitely relate to that. She looked at her bandmates in the section across from Normani's family.

Camila was at the left end. She can't seem to remember the last time she saw the older girl even crack a smile. Even with her fiancé kissing her knuckles in the hand he held, she hardly bat an eye. She looked passed the couple and looked at Lauren.

The young woman probably felt Normani's absence almost as equal to her own. She looked incredibly exhausted, which probably isn't good for the soon to be mom. Dinah would try to remember to check on her later since her husband was still deployed and couldn't look after his wife.

Then her eyes rested on Ally, the eldest of the group. This event honestly took the sparkle out of her eyes. The make up doing nothing to conceal the bags under her eyes. Troy didn't look any better nor did the adorable 3 year olds in their tuxes sitting next to their dad.

Looking at all of her family, hers and Normani's, the ones that they made and the actual relatives, Dinah realized that she just couldn't do it. And she said as much, "I was supposed to speak up here and tell you all about the person that we're going to burry today, but I can't. You guys know her, you knew her. You knew how amazing she was. How wonderful and beautiful she was. You guys knew how she would lean forward to laugh at something she found funny. Even though it was probably the most loud and boisterous laugh in the world, it brought a smile to your face. How she'd just make a face at anything that was remotely displeasing or uninteresting to her. How funny she undoubtedly was," Dinah paused in her ramblings, her eyes started to bother her. After rubbing at them for a second, she cleared her throat and continued, "So if you guys don't mind, which even if you did I probably wouldn't pay it attention, I'm just going to skip to singing the song."