Falling Into Bloom

(03) Alexandria

I was anticipating getting home. The smell coming from Heidi’s food was making me hungry, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten breakfast.

I sighed in relief when I saw the modern white beach house cottage that had three levels, slate patio pavers, a white outdoor sofa, and a grey brick winding driveway that led to a 4-car attached brown garage.

My mother parked the car in the driveway, and after murmuring a goodbye to her, I grabbed the food and got out of the car. Then, I tried to balance the trays while digging for my keys in my jacket pocket. Luckily, it was easy to find them since my pockets were empty—except for my phone and aforementioned keys.

“I’m home!” I shouted before closing the front door and making my way to the kitchen to place the lasagne and cheesecake. “Hello, you guys!”

I groaned, not knowing if my sisters couldn’t hear me or if they were ignoring me. Walking up the stairs, I took off my jacket. The heat was a lot to bear, and I could only imagine how worse it was about to get since it was only midday.

I passed both my sisters’ rooms and saw the doors open. With a sigh, I made my way to my room, knowing that they were both in there. I was used to them spending a lot of time in my room. It was something they started doing after Anita passed, and it got worse a few months ago.

It sometimes felt like they were doing it to keep an eye on me. Despite me telling them numerous times that that night was an accident, they still felt like I was high risk and was going to do it again.

Or maybe I was overthinking it. And they were spending more time around so that we could repair our relationship. We had spent the last two years being at odds with each other, the ramifications of our older sister passing.

Anita’s passing pulled us closer but also created a wedge between us. We all dealt differently with her death, and at the time, I was also in recovery from the accident, so it was hard for us to be able to relate to each other. While Rosana and Liliana mourned the death of our older sister, I was mourning my sister’s death and trying to recover. It was hard to feel as if they understood where I was coming from. Being in that car with Anita and seeing her take her last breath caused me pain that I couldn’t explain or make my sisters understand. Therefore, I felt alone and then began isolating myself.

For months, my sisters and I had been at a crossroads. We wanted to be close, but our pain caused a wedge between us. It wasn’t until three months ago that things changed. The incident opened our eyes, and it made us realise that mortality was a real thing. That gave us the push to fix things, and now we were back to being as close as before. But there was still some lingering tension that I couldn’t explain.

The space in our relationship had been hard to process. Rosana was the oldest, I was the second oldest, and Liliana was our youngest. Therefore, for the sake of peace, I was willing to ignore the tension and pretend as if it didn’t exist.

“Do you guys ever spend time in your rooms?” I asked, opening the door to see Liliana lying on my bed.

“Come on.” She looked at me. “Your room is prettier than mine and Rosa’s.”

That I couldn’t argue with. My room had a white wingback bed on a grey and blue rug with a white bench at the foot of the bed, a white nightstand lit by a clear lamp, and a sitting area with white accent chairs and a white accent table. There was also a sliding door that opened to the balcony that had three armchairs and a small round table. My room was the only one with a balcony since it faced the sunset and Mrs Castellanos’ beautiful flower garden.

I tossed my jacket at her. “Try another lie.”

“Your room has the perfect view of the Castellanos house,” she answered, sitting up straight. “And I wanted to see if Mrs Castellanos is okay. I didn’t see her walking around her yard today.”