It's Just Me and You, Kid.

yet another tragedy.

I woke up that next day, my body was aching from my dream prior and I honestly didn't feel much like going to school. It was easy to miss though, Ma doesn't care much about waking up in the mornings and making me lunch no more and Pop's leaves for work early in the morning. I ended up building up the courage to go through,I figured if I stayed in my bedroom all day that the id end up falling back to sleep, having to face those nightmares once again.

I made my way down my creaky wooden stairs, not a peep came from the kitchen nor the living room. Everything sat so still. I walts over to Ma's bedroom but to my suprise it was empty with nothin but her wrinkled up bedsheets and the smell of fresh lavender perfume. I didn't hear no sobbin from the backyard, which was quite unusual. No squeaking counter tops, no nothin. I turned around eventually to see Ma standing behind me in the door frame, dressed in the same silky black dress she wore to Jenson's funeral.

"Ma, what are you doin wearing that ole' thing?" I asked, she looked pale and saddened and I hadn't a clue in the world as to why.

"Your great grandfather had a stroke, passed away last night." She said in a bare tone, she was almost emotionless and went to grab her purse. "I know you didn't know him very well, so I won't force it upon to you to go. But, id appreciate it for you to pay your respects, understand?" She added on, this time you could clearly see the tears bubbling up in her tear ducts.

"I got school today, Ma. Don't chu remember?" I gathered my bookbag from off the floor beside the banister and looked up at her.

"Ah, yes. Silly I am to forget, I can drop you off on my way it's quite wet outside." Her emotion shifted unsettlingly, I don't blame her for feeling so off though. This is the second death in our family in the past year.

"No, it's okay Ma. Wouldn't want chu to to be late for the funeral, y'know." I swallowed and put on my dirty white high tops and opened the door. She gave me this weird half smile before looking down at her black high heels.

"Ma? You alright?" She looked up and smiled warmly now, "couldn't be better."

"Oh okay, well, good. Bye, I love ya." I walked out and treasured through the ten minute walk to school. Kicking empty pop cans, listening to the sound of the train. Every morning since the incident, I had seen my friends walking out of their houses, glancing at me, I smiled at them every so often. They're probably wondering why I haven't talked to them in months, especially my bestfriend Buck. He was the only one that ever smiled back at me, better yet he was almost always the one to smile at me first. We've kept in touch more so than the others, mostly because he's a family friend and Ma likes to invite them over for dinner every one in a while. But even then, we never dared mention what had happened that day.