Magnet Love

7. Sisterhood

LILY POV:
My parents were unsurprisingly shocked at the state of my shoulder the morning after the bonfire, and took it upon themselves to call Doctor Brown for an explanation of the damage, knowing that I would belittle the pain in an attempt to minimise their worry.

Madison also made an appearance on Saturday morning, demanding an explanation of my injury, but more importantly to continue our conversation about Alex. I loved Maddie to bits, but I didn't want her getting involved in whatever was going on between Alex and I. For all I knew, his charming actions that night may have been completely innocent and my romantic mind may have been looking far too much into them; however I knew that if I described all of the nights events exactly as they played out, Maddie would have come to the conclusion that Alex was undoubtably and undeniably in love with me; which I was certain wasn't the case.

I told her that it was in fact Alex who caused my eyes to linger in the cafeteria earlier in the week, but that we didn't speak at the bonfire and nothing more came from it - much to her disappointment.

I vaguely described how I slipped whilst kicking a pile of leaves and that's how my shoulder ended up in this state, with Alex driving past conveniently, and so providing a lift to and from the hospital. I missed out all of the details about his caring gestures and worry for my condition simply to protect him from Maddie's interrogation.

Maddie was hoping for a far more dramatic and romantic story once I revealed that Alex was my chauffeur that night. It felt comforting knowing that the only people who knew exactly what happened after the bonfire was Alex and I - that way the story shouldn't get twisted and neither of us should have our friends barking in our ears about the significance of the others actions.

It was now Sunday night and I had enjoyed the last two days in bed, watching Disney movies in the delightful company of 'Ben and Jerry'. My shoulder had bruised up considerably as expected, but thankfully the pain had subsided and I knew that I'd be fine to go to school tomorrow.

I hated missing school more than anything, my attendance record for twelve years was almost perfect, but I knew that there was a fairly high possibility that I would be missing school on Friday anyway, so missing two days in one week wasn't possible for me.

I hadn't always been the eldest child - I had an older sister, Emily who was three years older than me, however she passed away five years ago, three months after Mason was born.

Emily wasn't just my sister, she was my best friend and i loved her more than anything. She would take me everywhere with her and stood up for me when I was picked on. Emily was a dancer too, and a damn good one at that. We'd spend hours and hours every day together in the studio coming up with routines and my favourite thing ever was to compete a duet together every year at nationals.

It was a night in summer, I was 12 and Emily was 16. Her friends were all going down to the pier and although Em had invited me, I decided to stay home and read my new book. A freak storm arrived and a wave carried Emily away. She had drowned and it took three days for her body to be found.

I was devastated - no I was crushed. I blamed myself for not going with her that night; maybe if I had, she wouldn't have gone out into the sea and she would still be here today. The year Emily died was the last year I competed in nationals - but I didn't stop dancing because it was the only release I had. The studio also reminded me of all of the happy memories I had there with Emily. The other dancers and teachers at the studio were like our second family and they supported me the most out of anyone.

Jason, my teacher encouraged me to compete at nationals last year. He didn't want to push me because he understood my reluctancy to go back there without Emily by my side. I had initially agreed however a week before the competition I pulled out. I knew for a fact that Emily would hate it if she thought that her death had hindered my dance career - she was probably shouting from heaven for me to get my ass back up on that stage.

I had expected my parents to become ultra productive of my siblings and I after Emily's death, but they hadn't. Emily had a free and adventurous soul and a fun outlook on life. Of course my parents wanted to protect us all, but they wanted us to experience life the way Emily had, so stopping me from going out and enjoying my time would have had the opposite effect.

This Friday would have been Emily's 21st birthday. We had talked together about when the time would come that I was 17 and she 21. We wanted to have a party together at the beach. It broke my heart that here I was, eighteen years old and Emily never had the chance to make it past sixteen. She deserved so much more life than she was allowed.

I was flicking through my box of photos and memories of Emily whilst lying in bed. I had been referred to counselling for three years after Emily passed to help me cope and there I put together this box to look back on. Of course I had always been relatively quiet and nervous, but I completely shied away for years and refused to let go of the guilt I had for her death. I had come out of that dark period of my life now, but her birthday and anniversary of her death always hit me hard.

My phone chimed from beside me and I gently placed the photographs on to my duvet as I looked at my text.

From: Alex the saviour :)
Good evening little one. How is your war wound? X

I replied immediately.

To: Alex the saviour :)
Looks far worse than it feels. Thanks for asking x

From: Alex the saviour :)
Glad to hear it. Will I see you back in action fighting some more piles of leaves tomorrow? X

I chuckled to myself before replying for the final time.

To: Alex the saviour :)
Of course, the leaves won't kick themselves. See you tomorrow x

From: Alex the saviour :)
That's what I like to hear. Looking forward to seeing you protecting our streets from the evil autumn leaves once again Miss Evans. Sleep tight x

For the second time that weekend I went to sleep with a smile on my face thanks to the charming words of Alex Harper.