Act like a LADY, Think like a BOSS

Chapter 1: Gone With the Wind

Emma Roberts as Erin! :) Picture on the side as well as one of my favorite covers of Payphone by Alex G! :)

“Let us commend Trevor Burkley to the mercy of God,” Father Christopher stated as my beloved brother’s coffin was gently lowered into the earth. “We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life.”

I bit my lip and turned away from the scene, tears threatening to spill over my eyes. My brother, MY Trevor was dead. This wasn’t happening...

“Erin,” a stern voice faltered behind me, “Come back this instant,” I shook my head at my mother and slowly began to retreat from this nightmare, turning my back on the ones that said they would be there for me. Bull. the only person I ever cared about was dead...

I ran from the cemetery to the neighborhood playground six miles away. It was times like this when I thanked the lord that I was a cross country runner; distance was definitely my thing! I ran six miles in my heels too which was a HUGE confidence booster. Sighing, I squeezed into the rickety old swing where Trev fell off and broke his arm a few years ago. I couldn’t help but feel annoyed at myself, I could run a 5k in no sweat, I could endure intense physically pain unlike so many girls my age due to my experience with action sports, I was a strong person in nature no doubt about it, and yet; giving Trevor’s speech earlier today tore me apart. For just an hour before this happened, I was standing on the podium in church, struggling to deliver a speech how my brothers memory would forever live on in our hearts.

“Trevor was an exceptional person,” I had told the darkly clothed audience filled with close friends and family. I on the other hand was clad in white because it was Trev’s favorite color as much as he hated admitting.

“He was more than an amazing soccer player and straight A student, he was a mentor and friend, he was a cousin and a son, he was my big br-” my voice violently cracked. “Brother,” I finished, tears steadily flowing over my flushed cheeks. Taking a shaky breath, I continued. “We all knew Trevor was fighting a war within himself though, a war we hoped and prayed he’d win. A war against terminal leukemia.” I whispered the last part, I couldn’t believe it myself, I was being a wimp. “I remember the say we found out he wasn’t responding to his treatments how he came home with such a defeated look in his eyes because he was losing the battle. For as the chemo therapy was slowly killing the cancer, it was killing a part of him as well. So-”
my voice broke, “He refused to continue to take anymore treatment and urged my parents to let him live the rest of his life in peace and happiness. He was diagnosed at least two months to live, three if it was a miracle and he charged this with his head held high.” By this point, my body was violently shaking, my voice thick with emotion. “Trevor lived each and everyday to the fullest, he insisted on still attending school to maintain his educational career, constantly hanging out with friends and family on the weekdays while dedicatedly cramming on the weekends for the test he was going to take for the private school of his dreams. My brother wanted to go to West Montgomery Private School more than anything in the world. He applied with his best friend Riley Colton and they received their acceptance letter,” I choked back a sob, “Exactly a week before he passed away. I-”

I looked up from my disheveled paper, it’s edges stained with tear drops while the smearing black words slurred into one another. Unreadable.

I squinted my wet eyes as everything began to shift in and out of focus, like an old camera desperately trying to take a steady picture. The room started swirling as the world grew more and more disoriented. I could only make out one face in the entire room as my world started to shake. Riley Colton, sitting in the first row. His face a mask of concern and anxiety. His face. It reminded me of Trevor.