Reasons To Stay

TWO

So I know I didn't post last Sunday... I had my last exam but now I am fully free and to make up for it you'll get two parts today instead of one :)

Enjoy!

***

"I'm hungry," Ro yelled as soon as we were inside our house.

"Me too," we heard our aunt Rae yell from the kitchen. I could smell the delicious scent of pasta and red sauce from the doorway, and I immediately felt hungry myself.

The four of us walked into the kitchen to find our aunt wearing an apron and stirring the sauce.

"Since when do you wear an apron while cooking?" I asked dumbfounded as I took a seat in the kitchen's island table.

"Since I have an important meeting today, remember?" She said as she kissed little Jenny and Ro on their foreheads.

"What about me?" Trish said, acting hurt.

My aunt smiled and kissed sixteen-year-old Trish too. "What about you? Do you want a kiss too?" Rae asked in my direction, her eyebrows raised.

"I think I'm fine, thank you," I replied while trying hard not to smirk.

Aunt Rae shook her head, but her smile never left her lips. "Ungrateful children."

While Rae finished cooking and five-year-old Jenny and twelve-year-old Ro left to wash their hands, Trish and I set the table. After everything was ready, we all sat down and began eating. Even if all the way through the meal I was smiling, I couldn't help feeling my stomach in a knot at the thought that that was going to be the last dinner with all of us there for quite some time.

"Mrs. Goode will be here tomorrow morning. Now, girls, I want you all to promise me you'll behave, okay?" My three sisters nodded. "This is a big chance for us. If I do this right this time, you girls could get all of the opportunities your parents wanted you to have."

"We know, auntie Ree," little Jenny said with that bright smile of hers. "We'll be good. We promise."

My throat was swollen and I really wanted to leave the table before I began to cry.

"Sloan?" I looked back at my aunt. She was frowning and her lips formed one thin line. "Are you okay with this? I mean, if you really don't want me to go I can..."

"No. No!" I replied quickly, faking a smile that wouldn't fool anyone. "Jenny is right. We'll be all right." And I really hoped we would.

"Okay, then," Rae said, still worried. "Let's clean up these dishes."

What I wouldn't tell Rae, or any of my sisters for that matter, was that I wasn't upset by the fact our aunt was leaving us for the rest of the summer or that a housekeeper would be taking care of us during that time. I was upset at the thought that there was a slight chance our aunt wouldn't want to come back.

***

Jenny had soccer practice every weekday for the rest of the summer and I had, for some unknown reason, decided to volunteer to take her. That meant that I would be waking up at seven a.m. five days a week for the rest of the summer. Well, at least that meant I'd have two full hours to draw everyday as I sat down waiting for her.

The walk to her school wasn't very long, and all the way there little Jenny kept telling me how exited she was to play soccer because many of her friends were playing too, and so did the boy she liked. Well, she didn't really say she liked the boy, but I could tell by how she blushed every time she said his name and refused to answer my questions about him.

Even if we talked all the way, my mind was caught up in something else entirely. I was worried. Worried about what our lives would be like for the next three months. I knew aunt Rae had hired Mrs. Goode to take care of us, but there was this fear creeping inside of me, fear that maybe Rae would be so happy in New York that she would not want to go back to us when summer was over. And where would that leave us? In New York with her? With some other relative that would, out of charitable sense of duty, come to live with us?

When we arrived at the soccer field, Jenny run to meet her friends without so much as turning to look back at me. I smiled at her excitement, took a seat on one of the side benches, and took my tablet out of my bag. I spent ten minutes trying to draw Jenny, but she was running around too much and all that movement made it impossible for me to draw her properly at all.

"Stay still for a second," I growled at my sister under my breath, even if she couldn't hear me.

"Sloan?"

The sun hurt my eyes as I looked up to see who was talking to me. Noticing this, the person moved a bit to the opposite side so that I could see him properly. I was looking up at Lance, who stood with his eyebrows raised in amusement and that mischievous smile of his. He was wearing the same uniform Jenny's soccer coach was sporting and a whistle hung around his neck.

"You work here?" I asked, bemused.

"Yeah," he replied and took a seat next to me in the bench. "It's my summer job. I do it every year."

"You are not even in the soccer team," I said, still skeptical.

He smirked. "No, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to play," he defended himself and then looked at me by the corner of his eye. "Or teach little kids how to run behind a ball."

I laughed. "Of course."

"Why are you here, though? Trying to get some sketching in?"

Again, just as the day before, I couldn't help but feel somewhat perplexed by the fact he actually seemed to want to talk to me. And the fact that I was actually replying.

"Kind of. Mostly, I'm here because my sister decided to run behind a ball for the whole summer."

"Jones! Hurry up, you're late!" Jenny's coach, who also happened to be our high school's soccer coach, Mr. Poller, yelled in our direction.

"First day and late. Great," Lance mumbled, but he was sporting that playful smirk of his. He stood up and began running in the kids' direction, but not before yelling a "See you later, S" over his shoulder.

I had no idea where that "S" had come from, but it made my stomach flutter. Since I had given up on drawing Jenny, and Lance was standing and giving directions, I decided to draw him instead.

***

Lying in my bed that night, I struggled to decide whether or not to open the letter. If it had arrived at any other point in time, were circumstances were different, were aunt Rae hadn't had to leave for three months, I would have torn it apart to see if all my efforts had been worth it. But as things stood... well, I didn't really want to know if they had, because, whatever the outcome, I wouldn't be able to go anyways. I had my sisters to take care of.

I sighted and sat up in my bed, my eyes focused on the picture frame on my desk. A man and a woman stared lovingly at each other, a little baby girl between them.

A tear rolled down my cheek as most of the memories I had from my parents rush through my mind. I missed them. I missed my mom's soft lips on my forehead, my dad's strong and rich laugh, my mom's beautiful red hair that she would let me braid every time I felt sad, my dad's jokes that always made long rides feel like the best adventures... I missed absolutely everything about them. But mostly, I missed their ability to always make everything seem easy and simple.

I focused my eyes once more in the white unopened envelope. Then I opened one of the drawers of my desk and threw it inside.