Strawberries & Cigarettes

Chapter Fifteen

            Ella’s extremely cheerful today. It’s unsettling.

            Leighton eyes his younger sister as she busies herself around the kitchen cooking Friday morning breakfast.  She smiles happily as she loads up two plates with steaming scrambled eggs, a few strips of crispy bacon, and a couple fluffy, blueberry-studded pancakes. Setting the pans in the sink, she turns around and spots Leighton standing around the doorframe with a wary expression on his face. Ella’s gray eyes light up as a smile spreads across her face.

            “Hey, Leighton. Come eat! I made lots.”

            As happy as she was, Leighton could feel that there was something off about her. Then again, when was there not something off about her? Nevertheless, Leighton sits down at the small round table in the kitchen and digs into the delightfully delicious meal spread out before him. Halfway through breakfast, he notices Ella watching him with an apprehensive light in her eyes accompanied by an apologetic smile.

            “Why are you looking at me like that?” Leighton asks.

            Ella sighs and looks off to the side before looking back at her older brother. “I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating Moet.”

            Leighton’s left eyebrow cocks up in confusion. “Why are you apologizing to me?”

            Ella’s gray eyes widen and her brow furrows as she replies, “So you won’t be mad at me, of course.”

            He shrugs. “I’m not mad at you. I doubt Moet is either. I can’t really imagine her being hostile. Her personality is too delicate.”

            The two siblings eat together in silence for the next few minutes. Once he’s finished, Leighton rinses his plate and utensils and puts them in the dishwasher. Ella does the same.

            “Are you ready?” He asks, grabbing his car keys and his backpack.

            “Yeah, let’s go.” Ella grabs her bag as well as the two head out the door and into Leighton’s car.

            When they arrive at the school, Leighton makes a move to open the car door but a tentative hand on his arm makes him look back at Ella.

            “You love me, right?” She asks, looking at him with serious eyes.

            Why was she asking him this? Leighton thinks. “Of course I do. You’re my sister.”

            Ella bites her lip. “I did something really bad, Leighton.”

            “Okay,” Leighton responds. It was obvious from her evasive language that Ella wasn’t quite ready to tell him what her bad deed was, so he didn’t ask.

            “I need to know.” Ella pauses for a moment and swallows. Clearing her throat, and avoiding her brother’s gaze, she repeats, “I need to know that I’m not gonna wake up one day and see that you’re gone.”

            And all of a sudden, Leighton understood. This wasn’t about him. This was about the painful topic of their parents. “Ella... Mom and Dad died.” Ella remains silent. Leighton continues, “They didn’t leave us because they wanted to.”

            “Yeah, well, they did.” Ella snaps.

            Leighton hated talking about them. It made his breathing hitch a bit and his eyes water and every time he thought about them he felt like there was this gaping never-ending hole in the pit of his stomach. He hated it.