Natasha Howard was in the car when it happened, when her family died. They were on their way to a party, her little sister was there, but they never made it.
Flashlights blinding her and smoke filling her lungs was the last thing she remembered, ne...
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6 ᴍᴏɴᴛʜꜱ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ
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Tasha pulled her two suitcases behind her as she led her younger sister through the Colorado airport. Jackie had elected to get a luggage trolly to put her suitcases on but the eldest was happy lugging hers about. It was still strange for Tasha, to be the eldest. She'd always been a middle child and now? Now there was no one older than her in the family, apart from uncle Richard of course but did he really count?
Tash stopped pulling her bags over by the wall, turning to her sister who had her AirPods in. "I'm gonna see if I can spot Katherine and George, you stay here with the bags, yeah?"
Jackie did a small nod, she was practically shaking with nerves as she looked up to her now seventeen year old sister. Tasha wasn't that much taller than her, but she always wore boots with a heel so it made her seem much taller to her sister who only wore flats and was still below the 5'3 mark.
"I'm gonna check in with Uncle Richard anyway," Jackie said pulling out her phone.
Tash nodded and smiled sympathetically, they'd both been much closer to their uncle than before. Not unusual considering the accident but Jackie seemed to cling a lot more now to their last parental figure, understandable but Tash did worry about how well Jackie was coping.
Tash was devastated of course, and she didn't think the pain in her chest would ever go away, but after four months of recovery and sadness, she'd decided enough was enough. She was still allowed to be sad, and often was but Tasha didn't want it to control her life. And she was pretty sure her parents wouldn't want the girls to waste away too.
That was what Uncle Richard had said anyway, when Tash was too tired to go to her check ups. The damage to her lungs had been pretty bad after all the smoke inhalation in the car, they'd had to go in and clear her airway. And when she had struggled to breathe they'd had to intubate her and open her up to fix the damage to her lungs. Tash now struggled with wearing bikinis, or anything revealing really. The scar down the centre of her chest was a constant reminder of what she lost.
Sometimes it tingled when she thought about it. The doctors had assured her it would fade with time, but 6 months ago, Tash didn't realise that they were talking years and not weeks.
And whilst it took time, Tash realised had to live for her family now, she just hoped her sister would realise the same soon. But there was no rush, and the eldest Howard was willing to wait as long as she needed. They'd always just have each other now.
Tasha walked away and scanned the airport, getting closer to the exist where she saw a tall couple enter, a ginger woman in a nice summer dress and a man who followed her dutifully wearing a baseball cap and a flannel t-shirt. The seventeen year old had seen pictures and even though she'd never met them, Tash was so grateful that they hadn't backed out of taking care of them.
