What is love?

4

The weather became colder, and the leaves more colourful before they eventually fell to the ground. Everything turning brown, yellow and red. As the grass withered, the nature's colour scheme was firelike. A world on fire without flames.

Jackie stared at the world beyond as it all blurred past outside of the car. Her mind was numb and she tuned out the sound of chaos from the back seat.

Her brothers, now the age of 10 were definitely an afterthought from her parents' side. Max and George, in contrary to Jackie, was a nice mix of both sides. With their father's unruly straight dark brown hair and their mother's seafoam eyes, they, as the rest of the family, were freakishly tall for their age. They both shot towards the sky at a steady pace that annoyed their mother because she constantly had to buy new pants and sweaters, they seemed to grow too short within a few weeks.

At the moment the two firecrackers were playing some sort of road trip game. A pang of sadness filled Jackie as she thought back to the time before her brothers.

They did not remember him, their father, but she did. Jackie remember sitting on his shoulders, as he would run around the playground near their home. She remember him being her biggest fan as he cheered her forward during all her phases growing up. Jackie had done so much, and probably being a pain in the ass for her parents as well. She had danced, done horseback, sung, she played soccer for a while and even tried out for cheerleading in a moment of poor judgement. However, it had been swimming that she settled for; it was what she had fallen in love with.

They had been the picture-perfect family of three. Until just a few months after Max and George's second birthday. Her father had fallen in love with another woman. Angelíc. She was French, blond and her boobs were so fake it was laughable. However, Robert Morgan apparently loved her.

Jackie did not like remembering. She did not like to think about the father she did not have anymore.

Crossing her arms, she settled deeper into her seat and closed her eyes. Jackie liked road trips; she liked watching the landscapes melt in and out of each other. She especially liked how the city little by little shrunk and big buildings were replaced by small homey houses. She liked the way her mind just disconnected and she could just be nothing. Even though after a few hours her butt would turn numb, she liked the way a road trip was some kind of limbo between worlds and responsibility.

Staring at the road ahead, Jackie could not help the tap of her foot as her mother and brothers tried to sing along to the music on the radio. It was one thing they always did, somehow, no matter what, they always started singing. And it was awfully off-key.

Laughing, she tipped her head back and joined them, swinging her upper body in her seat in an attempt to dance. Her arms did strange moves in time with her brothers and the music. She loved family time.

***

The singing had soon evolved into "Who could rap rap-lyrics the best" and "who could sing the loudest" and "who could be the most dramatic singer". Sitting slightly sideways, Jackie looked back at the peaceful expressions on her brothers faces as they slept.

Jackie had missed swimming practice today. She would also miss the one tomorrow. Swallowing the lump in her throat as she was reminded of the anomaly in her daily routine she closed her eyes to try to quench the burning feeling.

Her feet were clad in fluffy blue socks. The kind of socks that you use to slide across the floor with, the kind of socks that are so soft you don't care that your feet are dying from heat inside them.

She was wearing one of her sweatpants where she had cut of the legs. This was one of three pairs and apparently, according to Ruth, Jackie looked "Dope as fuck" wearing them. Her fabulous outfit was topped off with an oversized band t-shirt she had dug out from the most inner corners of her closet.