incompetents | l.h.

three

that's the problem with being

the strong one.

no one offers

you a

hand.

~

"Sam?" I called for my sister from the kitchen, wanting her to come outside her room for dinner. "Sam, dinner's ready."

During the whole day, after that argument we had in the morning, she closed herself in her room, only coming out once to go to the bathroom. I also avoided going there, I assumed she wanted space because if it was me, I would want everyone to give me some time by myself. Besides, I wouldn't know what to tell her. I got my heart in my hands when she cried in front of me explaining what she felt about me and the situation with us. I didn't know what to say to her because I'm not used to this. I mean, of course, I almost turned into a shrink to her when our parents died. We talked about everything, I tried to comfort her over the fact that we both had lost our parents, and although it wasn't easy for me, I had to. But now, this was a different thing. Her issue was with me so it was quite hard to find the words to tell her.

I decided to make her some mac & cheese for dinner to see if things got a little better, since that's her favorite food. At least, this used to help a lot in the past so I was hoping it was going to work out this time. But of course, she had to come out of her room in order to make it.

I was putting our plates on the table when I heard her bedroom door cracking. Her slippers hitting the ground meant she was coming and that only made me turn my attention towards the sound.

When we locked eyes, I swear I felt my heart tightening in my chest. Her eyes were puffy and red like she'd been crying all day. Her ponytail was all messed up, her hair flying everywhere. It only took me a second to take in that image before I ran to her and wrapped her with my arms. She was a little hesitant on hugging me back but she did and I felt myself wanting to cry again. She was fragile, so small. I'm her suit of armor and I wish she could understand how sorry I am for failing on her.

"Sam, I'm so sorry." I spoke next to her ear and she loosened up her grip on me and pulled away, her vision turning watery too. But the look in her eyes didn't match the smile she was showing me.

"It's okay, Mi, I'm sorry too." she said quietly, her eyes diverting down to her feet.

That only made me smile widely. She was calling me Mi, which is the name she always called me, and she wasn't mad at me, at least that's what I could take in from her words. And she also apologized to me, which is good, it's a start. She really didn't need to apologize, though, the things she did were only an alert for me to recognize that she needed me and not just for a few hours, she needed me most of the time.

"Oh, Sam." I caressed her cheek and stroked her hair, tucking a few loose strands behind her ear, "I really never meant to hurt you in any way, I was just doing this to help us. Hope you understand." I told her, looking into her green eyes that I envied so much.

"I know," she smiled, "and I'm sorry I did that with your alarms, I just wanted you here, I don't want to lose you too." she uttered, and I could feel the pain in her voice coming back all over again.

"You won't." I tried to smile over the tear running down my face, "I promise you."

-

I felt she sunlight hitting on my eyelids as I had my eyes closed and that obviously made me open them. I saw that the curtains of my room were pushed open and there was a little figure standing next to the window.

"Sam, what are you doing?" I asked as I sat up on the bed, "What time is it?" I rubbed my eyes while I searched for my phone in the nightstand.

Sam jumped on my bed and sat down with her legs crossed under her, looking at me, "Let's go do something." she said, cheerily.

I finally reached out for my phone and checked the time. "But Sam, it's 9am." I groaned and fell back onto the softness of my pillow.

It's been a week since I got fired. It was a hard week to go through because I spent most of my days searching for a new job, with Sam helping me, and no one accepted me. Of course, I was already expecting that. I'm only 17, no one wants me, I'm not even legal yet. After a week I gave up searching and just decided to fix some papers all over town for tutor lessons. Being good at maths is really the only thing I know how to do, so why not try and see if someone needs a tutor.

"It's sunny outside, we should enjoy the last few days of summer." She exclaimed, pouting at me. She was kinda right, though, I shouldn't be lying in bed with such a beautiful day outside. I know that the fact of being ignored by everyone upset me a lot and only made me want to sleep for days but I couldn't let that affect me. Luckily I had this cute little ray of sunshine to uplift me.

"Ugh, fine, you got me." I threw the other pillow at her and pulled the covers off of me, "Let's go get ready, you dummy." I told her, already feeling my spirit gain some strength.

-

After we both got ready, I was thinking of a place we could go. We couldn't spend much money and I was sure Sam was aware of that.

"Where do you wanna go?" I asked her, holding the door open for her.

"Uh, I don't know. I really just want to enjoy the sun." she said and I could feel her smiling. I closed the door and locked it before I put the keys in my bag.

"So, to the park?" I suggested, and she looked over her shoulder to me.

"Yeah, I guess that's fine." she told me but I knew that wasn't exactly what she wanted, I could feel it in the way she spoke.

We both walked down the stairs and out the building and the light outside was so bright. It sure was a beautiful day.

"Wanna go get breakfast first?" I asked Sam, realizing we had to eat something before walking to the park.

I turned my attention to her and she was now doing a ponytail with her hair and looking ahead of her to the opposite side of the street. She seemed really focused so I was curious to know what she was looking at.

There were four guys walking out of the coffee shop in front of our building with cups in their hands and they were laughing and messing around. They didn't notice me and Sam staring at them, which was good, but then I felt a shiver running down my spine when I caught sight of a certain someone. That messy dark blond hair was familiar to me and when I caught a glimpse of his face I could recognize him.

Ashton. The guy I bumped into the other day. I suddenly felt the urge to turn my face away, hoping he didn't see me standing there. I didn't want him to notice me, he would come talk to me if he did and I'm just too embarrassed of what happened to even manage to say a word to him again.

"Sam, let's go." I told her, placing my hand on her back and pushing her further.

"Calm down, I know how to walk!" she protested and I shushed her right after because she spoke too loud and I didn't want to get Ashton's attention.

When I thought I was safe from him, I huffed out and smiled, looking down to my little sister. But then I heard something. Or better, someone.

"Miranda!"

My fucking god.

-

very short chapter I know and I'm sorry