Cassandra's Dead Sister's Bucket List ✔

-12-

 ·Katie·

My bones crack loudly—but I still haven't exploded. I twist my aching back to one side and the other, invoking a sense of relief. My butt adjusts to the aluminum stool below me. The hot coffee numbs my tongue and it only adds to the pains I am feeling this particular morning.

"And that's why you shouldn't drink on a school night." Ulysses smiles cockily at me while he drinks some yogurt from the other side of the kitchen island.

"Can you lower your voice?" I beg him, pinching the bridge of my nose.

He shakes his head in disapproval. "I thought you've learned your lesson. Tobias isn't a good person now, and his so-called friends are even worse. Did you lose your memory or have you forced yourself to forget?"

The flickering lights from last night mix with the lights from that night I have tried to ban from my mind without success. I swallow thickly, my tongue still feels numb. I wish my mind could feel the same way.

"Dad's not home, Ulysses. Shush it," I complain. My head is killing me, but at least I pushed the flashback away.

He exhales sharply, disapproval shouting through his gestures. "That chick isn't a good influence on you," he states.

"Good morning to you too," Cassie greets us.

My head turns to the entrance, and I see her standing under the kitchen's doorframe.

Ulysses nervously shifts his weight on the stool. "Good morning." He clears his throat.

Did Cassie hear him saying that? I hope she didn't. Ulysses means well. He's just overprotective and he has his reasons for being so.

"Here's some coffee." I slide a mug closer to Cassandra as she sits next to me.

Loud music fills the room making us wince in pain.

"Jon, I beg you. Lower that thing." My eyelids wire shut to lessen my headache.

"Please." Cassandra smiles at him and he immediately mutes the ironically small speaker in his hands. "Thank you," she mutters, sipping her coffee.

I smile at her politely, trying to make up for Ulysses' uncool behavior, but my smile fades away when my eyes are set on what she's holding in her hands.

"How did you- Who? When?"

"Oh, you mean how did I find my dead sister's bucket list under your pillow when I ended up sleeping in your bed last night?" she asks, sarcasm lacing her tone.

A stuttering mess. That's what I have become. "I-, um- I-."

"What's happening here?" Ulysses asks, craning his neck to have a look at the bucket list.

"It felt wrong to throw it into the trash can. I had to do something," I explain to her, ignoring my older brother.

"They found Cassandra's sister's 'before I die' list," Jon fills Ulysses in with the missing gaps. "And then Cassandra tore it apart as if it meant nothing to her. It was damn scary to watch. I wouldn't even try hurting this girl's feelings, brother. She will haunt you, bro." He chuckles loudly.

That comment right there scares the hell out of me. How mad is Cassandra at me right now? And how mad will she be if she finds out what I did?

She stands up, towering over me and sliding the stitched-up bucket list so that it's right in front of me.

"Somehow..." she trails off and then continues, "you felt entitled to put back into one piece this old, glitter-filled paper, and you kept it under your pillow all of this time." Her eyes could be burning me right now.