She woke up in the morning, getting up from the bed so enthusiastically. She did the very first thing after waking up, combing her curly hair carefully. And then after that, she opened her curtains, and the beauty of the sunshine surprised her as it shone at her face.
It was another beautiful day. She opened the door, then went out still yawning. In the whole room, no one was really there. She was wondering, because every time she goes out of her room in the morning, she was either being greeted or she was greeting her parents, sometimes having their breakfast, or even watering the plants outside. Watering the plants, she told herself. After closing the door behind her, she was tempted to eat right before looking for them, but she had successfully ignored it.
She walked pass the kitchen, but someone had suddenly stood from their couch. "Andy, why are you here?" She asked, because it was his first time to visit the house this kind of early. "No, I just wanted to be with you." He shook his head. His emotions were palpable enough to convince Cassie that something was wrong—he wasn't the usual Andy who always greeted her every time they see each other, and the absence of his enthusiastic grin. "C'mon, I'll be showing you something." He said, went to cling to her arm quickly as he walked to the door. "Wait, wait. Why are you such in a hurry? I haven't had breakfast yet." She said, stopping. "Look, there are many foods there in the place. Just please, come with me and I'll be showing you something."
She couldn't do anything to resist when it comes to another discovery. They've walked going farther the house without making any noise at all from their mouths, but it was suddenly broke by Cassie. "Have you seen my parents?" She asked him, holding Andy's hand. "Who knows, maybe you've seen them since you've got in our house." She murmured. He didn't immediately respond, like his mind was flying. She looked at him, and he was sweating, eyes moving from side to side as they walked, like he was deciding about something Cassie couldn't read. "Th-they're in the Mullen's house." He oddly stuttered, it meant that those words were said forcibly. "Why are they there?" She asked, giving Andy a confused look as she stopped from walking.
"I... I shouldn't be telling this to you." He said in a low voice, refused to respond on her gaze. "Wh-why not?" Her eyebrows wrinkled. "Tell me, Andy. Please tell me what the hell is wrong." She begged, holding his hands. "Your eyes." She said as she took a closer look at his eyes that was clearly becoming wet. She moved his head facing the other direction with her hand, for him to look at her. She narrowed her eyes as she gazed at his eyes. She had heard him sob.
"Wh-why are you even crying, Andy?" She asked him curiously. "Please, please tell me what's wrong, Andy. I'm your best friend, you could tell me anything, your problem." She seriously begged, with her eyes even getting wet to have tears. "It's Chris-" Right after he mentioned the name of her grand father, she spoke. "Wh-what's wrong with Chris?" She was shaking his both hands.
"He's dead, Cassandra! Chris is dead!" He yelled with his tears beginning to stream down across his face all at the same time. After hearing those last three words of his sentence, she looked away from him and she froze. Her eyes staring at blank space, every part of her almost was paralyzed, letting go of her hold to his hands. Like all of those words devastated her all along, that easily. When she was frozen in place, tears then came falling. Soon after, she was caught sobbing, burying her face in her hands as she stood in front of Andy. And he was comforting her, crying with her. "I'm sorry, Cassie." He whispered in their tight hug.
"What were you planning to do?" She suddenly yelled, backing herself away from the hug. It shocked Andy. "What were you planning, let me be oblivious to the death of my own grand father just by doing a run-away to this forest?" She uttered.
"No." He said, and was barely heard because of the deepness of his voice. "You're a liar!" She yelled. "What if I didn't ask where my parents were? We'll be so far from the house. Then I'll absolutely be unaware to that. Yes, I'll be." Her voice was gradually getting softer, until it remained a whisper to the last statement. "Whether you'll follow me or not, I'll be going there to see him." She pointed her finger hardly, then turned to her back and began walking the opposite direction. "I'll be going with you, Cassie." He said, footsteps were heard jogging towards her. "No, stay there. Besides, you didn't want me to see him." She said rolling her eyes. "I did that because I didn't want you to cry, to be sad." He defended. She faced her. "And what, you're gonna hide that forever?" She snickered. "No, of course not. It's just a brand new morning, Cassandra. I don't want to destroy your day, we could go and visit his body in the afternoon or at night." He shrugged his shoulders. "But, you already had destroy my day," she said and turned to her back once again. Began walking away. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I didn't know what to do."
She ignored that thought until she arrived at the house. Everyone was certainly there inside, silent. But, when they've noticed she was entering the house alone, they were watching her walking briskly. "Cassie." She heard some whispers of her name.
"Where's grandpa?" She asked everyone, but was looking first at Jake. "Go on, take a look at him in his room." He replied, gesturing his head. She nodded her head, and continued walking, no time for giving a grin as a sign of thanks. She entered his room, the bed occupied by a body covered with a plain white, full blanket on it. Then, Elizabeth was there, sitting down by his side. "He is really dead." She whispered, leant her head on the framework of the door and began crying. Her grand mother looked at her, and then just nodded. She entered the room, and went to hug her. "I don't know what to do, Cassandra. I don't know." She whispered while hugging her, then repeated those three words over and over again until the hug finally has ended.
She stood beside the bed, went to uncover the blanket from his face, and saw his poor, sad face. And there was suddenly a voice whispering to her ears: Goodbye, my dear Cassie. It devastated her heart, it crushed to pieces, but it was in a different way. This time, it won't ever come back, it won't ever be healed. She ran going out of the house, trying to run away from the anguish and grief she was feeling inside. And it hurt, it hurt her heart.
She was crying too much, she stopped from running and went to stand in front of the peaceful lake. Andy was walking to see her, he held her shoulder and then pulled her into a hug. She put her elbow over his shoulder while hugging, to cover her wet eyes. "Andy, what happened?" She whispered, her voice barely able to understand, her voice mixed with some stutter and sobs.
Andy wasn't so sure about what she meant in her question, either way, he thought of apologizing. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I'm just so sorry about what happened. I swear, I didn't know what to do." He said with his eyes closed.
She let go of the hug. "It's okay, it's okay. I do understand." She said, sobbing as she wiped her tears. "Jeez, thank you so, so much. I didn't actually expected for you to accept it." He replied, sighing.
