Sister Mother

Chapter 5

Leo

My head was spinning from all that had happened in the last two hours. I could still feel Addie's mouth on mine, even if I couldn't believe it. Less than twenty-four hours ago, I didn't think I'd ever see her again. Now I was sitting shirtless on her sofa waiting for her to exit her brother's room with a condom.

I should have given her head. When I realized I didn't have a condom, I shouldn't have ended things so quickly. I wasn't even knuckles deep inside her, and I stopped.

I've thought about this a lot of times, and I am not going to mess this up. Regardless of whether Addie finds a condom or not, she will come.

"Oh!" cried Addie's voice.

I bolted off the couch in a momentary state of panic. My heart raced with adrenaline, until I remembered we were in the house alone.

Relax, Leo. He's not here.

I jogged up the staircase, dragging my sweaty hands along the banister, my pulse slowly dropping back down to a normal level "Hey, Addie, where are you?"

"Here," Addie said quietly, coming out of a room with a picture frame and a roll of condoms in her hand. Her eyes were red and puffy, with large tracks of tears sliding down her cheeks. "I found a condom. Want to go to my room?"

"Um—"

"My sister will be home from school soon," she mumbled, talking to the floor more than me. "We'll have to hurry." She led me down a hallway, her hips buckling even more than they did downstairs. The picture frame was clutched tightly against her chest.

I followed, half expecting her to collapse onto the floor either from pain, exhaustion or whatever emotions were going through her.

She led me into her room, and I had to take a literal step back. There wasn't a bare spot on the walls that she could reach. Every inch was covered in the first page of a research paper. Nearly all of them had the word Morquio in the title, and some of them had handwritten notes in the margins.

"Glad to see your dream isn't completely on hold," I said.

Addie let out a weak moan before climbing up onto her bed. It was so low that the top met my knees. She lied down and met my eyes. "I'm ready. Let's have sex."

Neither of us will like me anymore if we do.

"Yeah, that's not happening right now." I sat next to her, my weight cushioning the bed down so much that her body rolled closer to me. "What happened?"

She sat up by digging her wrists into the mattress and pushing herself up. Rubbing her left hip, she passed me the picture frame that she'd been holding. "Gabe had this in his room. I saw it and I just---my grief hits me at random times."

The photograph captured Addie and her family at the beach, all smiling warmly at the camera. Addie appeared the same age as when we first met. Her red hair was trimmed shorter, the ends just brushing the strap of her dark purple bikini. She stood to the left of her brother, who had thick black hair and striking gray eyes, and was about the same height as her.

Behind them stood Beatrice, the youngest member of the family. Her gray eyes matched her brother's, and her hands rested confidently on her hips. Though she was roughly twice Addie's size, everything about her spelled out the baby of the family. Her happy smile spelled out innocence, youth and peace.

The parents stood in the back, completing the cheerful scene. Mr. McKenna had one arm wrapped around his wife, who was laughing and pointing at Beatrice. The father shared the same gray eyes as Gabe and Beatrice, while the mother had definitely passed her red hair down to Addie. Surrounding them was the vivid backdrop of a brilliant blue ocean and pristine white sand.