| highest rank: #214 in short story |
piece by piece, leaf by leaf, and as each season passes me by, I will follow her into tomorrow
cover by the wonderful @eunxia-
Visiting the hospital every day was the hardest thing.
It had been months, but it felt like years.
As the snow melted into the earth and the grass gave life to flowers speckled by delicate bugs of red and black polka dots, Sicily slept.
She slept in a hospital bed, her hair growing longer and longer as the months past.
She slept and did not stir each day I came and stroked her cheek, telling her how much I love her.
Telling her how much I need her.
Undeterred and merciless, time passed.
Sicily missed our graduation.
Her name wasn't called on the stage and she didn't throw her cap in the air.
The Martins came, in place of my dad, and cheered just as loudly as the rest of the proud families.
Still, there was a vacant seat, a diploma not yet received, and a girl sleeping in the hospital back on the 6th street of our little town of broken dreams and people longing to be seen.
Cameron and Aine laughed, holding onto each other during the graduation pictures and I felt a bittersweet sensation creep through the veins of my neck and spill into the nerves alongside the tear ducts of my eyes.
My vision blurred but I continued to smile.
Cam finally had someone to keep him company.
To fill his heart.
Just like Sicily had filled mine.
Aine, a fiery girl with a sunny smile with a sadness deeper than the cuts along the slender curves of her body, fell.
Caleb Finnickin, the boy who disappeared, left her in ruins.
At first, she would fold herself over his grave and cry, asking questions no one could answer.
She was a shadow of who she was and carried herself like damaged goods; she was fragile yet nothing would fix her broken mind.
But Aine picked herself up with dignity and faced the world, meeting the eyes of my brother.
She met the eyes of the boy that had been hidden by the shine of the king, ready to be a knight.
Cam didn't have armor or any really notable abilities besides being able to make delicious muffins, but he captivated the attention of the girl he had loved since fifth grade.
She fell delicately and slowly, untrusting.
And Cameron caught her, warming the ice along her heart and kissing every scar along her body.
The went to college together, some school in Texas, far enough away to forget about everything and everyone without truly erasing the past.
I didn't go to college.
I stayed working in Midnight Cafe, writing online and teaching soccer lessons to make money.
I didn't need the money.
I needed to get my mind off of things.
I needed to get my mind off of Sicily.
Nothing was as warm anymore.
Our home stayed empty and lonely, only warmed by the body of a broken boy waiting for a girl to wake up.
After Sicily's eighteenth birthday, things got even more frigid.
Ice and desperation.
The touch of calloused hands on sleeping skin.
Tears, hot and wet, dripping on the white linen of the birthday girl that couldn't even get her presents.
The doctors wanted to pull the plug but I was paying the medical bill.
I refused, unwilling to give up.
I heard the whispers, the questions, and the pity behind my back.
"Shouldn't he be in college?"
Yes, but how could I go when I can't even think alone without wanting to cry?
"Poor thing was the star athlete and valedictorian, why is he wasting his time on some girl?"
I'm not wasting my time, I'm begging time to slow down and let Sicily wake up.
"Maybe he thought she was pregnant."
Nope, but if she were, I would've raised my child and waited for its mother to wake up.
"Poor boy."
Not poor, just broken.
"He should just move on."
How can I move on when my world didn't turn without her?
How can I move on when every time I close my eyes, I see her smiling, waiting for me?
How can I move on when I can't even let go?
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