The One He's Not

Goodbyes & Repetitive Apologies

Goodbyes & Repetitive Apologies

KAT

When I was about seventeen years old, I would say that I was considered a rebellious teenager. I know, I still feel like one today, even though I am twenty four years old, but when I was seventeen, it was more stereotypical.

I would yell at authority (even more than I do now, it’s a shocker), and I even had my fair share of skips in school. I wasn’t into drugs or parties, but that was mostly because I was never aloud anywhere near that stuff. I was a sheltered kid in a palace surrounded by guards and gates.

And along with the stereotypical teenage personality, I got annoyed by my younger sister Ella. Not only did I hate her during her first few years of life because of the reasons she was created, but she also found ways to get under my skin as soon as she started talking. She would follow me everywhere and with her supersonic speed, it was hard to get her to stay away. She would want to hang with Karina and I all of the time, which at the time, annoyed the hell out of me.

As I lay on this worn down bed with my ratty blankets on the floor, I thought about how much Ella and I’s relationship had changed. I loved the kid to death and she was the only family member that I could trust. She was innocent and that’s what I loved about her. She was pure.

“Kat! Wake up!”

My peaceful thoughts of my sister shatter with a high pitch squeak to my ear. I sunk into my thin pillow with a groan and winced at the sudden pain in my ankle. I popped one eye open and flinched at the unexpected sight of Ella’s face really close to mine. She giggled at my expression and sat cross-legged on her side of the bed, as if waiting for me to do some sort of magic trick.

“Did you have a good sleep?” I whispered, still kind of out of it.

Ella quickly bobbed her head up and down. “Yeah, you just talked in your sleep a lot. I wanted to wake you up, but it was funny watching you.”

My face paled as I thought about what I could have possibly said in my sleep. My dream with Noel was… intimate and for a ten year old to hear the specifics? I couldn’t bear to imagine the possibilities.

“What did I say in my sleep, Ella?” I asked and then gulped down a dry lump in my throat. I sat up from my lying position and rested up against the head board. If I wasn’t fully awake before, I most definitely was now.

Ella tapped her lip with a delicate finger. “I think you said something about nice blue eyes and warm lips on your-“

To embarrassed to hear anymore, I covered Ella’s mouth with my hand and hugged her body to my chest. As a distraction, I pulled the blanket from the floor and draped it over top of us, creating darkness. Ella squirmed in my grip and I laughed playfully as I tickled her in hopes to distract her thoughts from my sleep talking.

Her high pitch shrills of laughter rung in my ears, making me loosen my grip on her slightly. That was a big mistake because the moment my hand loosened around her waist, Ella was up and dashing out of my arms and out of the room. The force of her speeding out of arms was too powerful and sent me rolling off the edge of the bed.

 Stunned and confused, I hit the floor with a loud thump while the torn blanket was constricted around me like some sort of straightjacket. My ankle throbbed as I tried to sit up and peal the blanket off of me. With success, I used the edge of the bed to pull myself up into a standing position. I saw my crutches in the corner of the room, but they were too far away for my arms to reach.

I bit my lip as I tried to put weight on my injured foot. Surprisingly, I felt no pain, but just a slight throbbing. I took another step with my good foot, thinking that I was as good as new, but I came up short when I stepped back onto my hurt ankle. Like electricity, pain shot up my body, sending me face first to the ground again.