He found Rosemary sitting in an empty classroom, a blank look on her face as she stared at the blackboard.
"Rosemary," he whispered, his voice breaking, and his sister looked up. Her facade broke, and tears slipped down her cheeks.
"Will," she sobbed, and they hurried to each other, Will's face burying into her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
A week since Charlotte's death.
A new routine had developed; every lunch, the two Millers would find each other, talk about Charlotte, and cry.
Rosemary never asked how Will knew her. She just know he did.
"Me too," Rosemary whispered, a hand brushing over his hair. She held him tightly. "I still can't believe she's gone..."
"I know," he said, and he choked back a sob.
"I'm going to visit her today," Rosemary said after a pause. "Do you want to come?"
Will shook his head, trembling. "Not now," he said. "It's...it's..."
"I know," Rosemary soothed, and her voice broke. "It's..."
Will knew what she was trying to say. It's okay.
But it wasn't.
It would never, ever be okay.
---
Punch after punch.
A kick.
A groan.
Will hunched over as Jackson loomed over him, a smirk playing on his lips. "I heard your little sidekick left," he said. "Now will you break?"
The energy was drained from Will. He couldn't fight. He wouldn't.
He knew what would happen.
"Why are you doing this?" Will hissed through the throbbing pain in his ribs. "Just because I hit you?"
"No, because you made a fool of me," Jackson corrected. "A measly middle schooler, beating me? Do you know what it did to my reputation?"
Mistakes led to bad things.
Will wished he had never hit Jackson, all those weeks ago.
"See you, Miller." Jackson turned and stalked away, leaving him alone in a deserted hallway of the school.
Will pushed himself up, biting on his lip as he stumbled into the nearest boys' bathroom.
---
Rosemary sat in front of Charlotte's grave, her fingers twisted together. Tears slipped down her face, though she didn't realize it. She cried so much these past days that it was normal.
We were supposed to do everything together. Go to the same college. Share a dorm. Start our own pharmacy.
She remembered Charlotte's bright smile, and how she always insisted on buying Rosemary Starbucks, especially after Rosemary woke up from the coma.
"I'll pay you back," Rosemary remembered telling Charlotte.
She hadn't.
But now she could never, because Charlotte was gone.
Her smiles. Her laughs.
Her kindness and how she had always protected Rosemary.
And she had tried to, the day the car had hit Rosemary, sending her flying into the air and hitting a pole in the head.
YOU ARE READING
𝙳𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝙵𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚝...
General FictionA game against time. A story of sibling love. Would it be all right at the end? At twelve years old, Rosemary Miller had been part of an accident that had sent her into a coma for two years. Two years later, when she woke up, she wasn't the same...
