Fan to Family.

Wrapped Mind.

~Josh~
Jordan hasn't even gotten through his sentence and I'm already shooting out of my seat.

"WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S MISSING?!"

"I MEAN I'VE CHECKED EVERY ROOM IN OUR ENTIRE HOUSE AND CANNOT FIND HER AT ALL AND IM REALLY FREAKING OUT!" Jordan yells back. We both wordlessly decide to search outside, sprinting to the front and back doors, flinging them open.

I can hear him shout her name from the front yard and my voice cracking every time I call it out, louder and louder.

After 35 minutes, neither of us have found her and all of the property we own has been searched.

"I think we should stay together, the sun is setting, so it'll be dark soon. It's not a good idea to split up in the dark. If there is one thing horror movies have taught me, it's that," Jordan says. He's freaking out along with me, which both makes me happy and ebbs more of my calm and patience away.

We head down the driveway to the street, walking in the direction I feel will be most successful. We call out her name, trying to find where she went.

"Liz!"                                    "Liz?!"                              "Liz are you there?!"



"Liz?!"


"Liz?"                  "Liz?"                 "Liz?"              "Liz?"    "Liz?"

"LIZ?"              "Lizzzzz?"                                 "Liz, please, please, Liz?"



"Tyler, I can't find her, she's gone. I'm freaking out. Tyler, help. I don't know what to do. We've been looking for an hour and a half."


"Liz?"




"Liz?"



"Liz?"






"Liz?"




"ELIZABETH?!"


The words fade away into the distance, I jump when I hear it.


"Josh!?" "Jordan?!"

We both sprint toward where we heard it come from, finding Liz sitting in the grass. I feel myself relax instantly.

She sees me, "JOSH!" I hear pain in her voice.

"Liz, are you okay?" I ask. She shakes her head, the light barely in the sky. I can make out tears rolling down her cheeks. "What's wrong? What happened? You had me worried half to death!"

"I-I Dylan called and we started arguing. I didn't want to argue around you guy, so I went for a walk. When Dylan hung up, I couldn't remember how far away the house was, or which direction. Then this kid was running, and we didn't see each other, but I got hit and skidded across the road. Josh, it hurts!" She cries, grasping her leg. I can see blood dripping from it, the road having scraped it up really well since she's in shorts.

"Jordan, help me get her up," I say, getting closer.

Her tears seem to come faster, "No, I can't stand. I already tried that, Josh! It really hurts, I don't feel good! Josh!"

I panic, not being able to hand seeing her in this much pain, and scoop her into my arms, not caring about getting her blood on me. We run back to the house, Liz's eyes fluttering- but in more of a fitful way.

"Josh, is she going to be okay?" Jordan asks between breaths.

"I hope so."

Not long after that we've arrived back at home, Jordan throwing the door open. With lights on, I can see that Liz's chin, right shoulder and leg, and left forearm are torn from her fall.

"Josh," she mumbles, still fighting for consciousness.

"Help me lay her on the floor, flat," I say to Jordan as we get into the bathroom. He takes her legs, laying them as flat as possible on the tile. "Deep breaths, munchkin, deep breaths," I remind her, fumbling for a first aid kit. The very first thing I do is clean her chin, and then block her vision of the rest of her.

"What are you doing?" Jordan asks.

"She has syncope. She passes out at the sight out blood and with large amounts of pain. Go grab lots of ice, and a cup of water."

"It hurts, Josh," Liz reminds me, for what feels like the millions time. I can hear Jordan's feet running in the kitchen and then ice moving.

"I know, but don't think about it, okay? It's not that bad. You'll be okay, I promise. Jordan is getting ice, and I have some medicine right here."

She nods, letting me clean her up without any protest. Mostly because she's drained of most of her energy from nearly passing out.

Jordan skids back into the room, handing me all of the ice and water. I help prop Liz up enough to take the pills, and then he helps me bandage her scrapes and put ice on her arm and shoulder as I pick her up.

I carry her to my room, laying her on the bed and placing ice on her leg.

I kiss her forehead and head into the hall where Jordan is anxiously waiting.

"Is she going to be okay?" He asks. I nod.

"She's fine, Jordan. She'll be just fine."

"Then why were you flipping out so much? I could see it in your face."

"She was missing for 2 hours and then I found her in near darkness on the side of the road, all bloody. I was in protective father mode. And, I knew that that much blood and the pain she must have been in could easily make her pass out. She could've stood, but the pain from it would've been past the point where she would stay conscious. I've never really had her pass out on me before, but Tyler has once and she doesn't recover from it easily. She quickly seems normal again, but her body takes a beating from it. Even just fighting drains her and leaves her feeling crappy. Tomorrow might be a little rough."

"So she's okay?"

"Yes, Jordan, she's okay. You can go hang out or go to bed, or whatever now. I'm going to make sure she falls asleep okay."

With that, a now content Jordan heads to his room.

I go back and lay beside Liz, moving hair from her face.

"Do you guys know how to whisper?" She asks, in her strained whisper.

"You aren't asleep yet."

"Can you sing to me?" She asks softly, squinting at me.

"What?"

"To sleep?" She asks.

"But I don't-"

"Please?"

"I don't-"

"Can I have a drink then?"

Jordan pops in with her favorite Gatorade, clearly listening to our conversation.

After drinking about half of it, she's no longer sleepy.

~Jordan~
I can hear Josh insisting on sitting at the table with Liz as she plays cards, so he can 'make sure she is okay and won't pass out.' She argues, saying that she'll be fine. The compromise on Josh watching a movie in the living room.

"Jordan?" Her voice asks, causing me to spin in my chair towards the door instead of facing my laptop.

"Yea?" I ask, reading her expression.

"Do you have a notebook I could use?" She asks, peering down the hall, seemingly making sure Josh isn't watching her.

"Yeah, sure," I say, spinning back around and grabbing one from a drawer. "Is everything okay?" I ask when I turn back around.


She nods, "Yeah."

With that, she brings the notebook back out to the table with her. After spinning around for about 10 minutes, debating weather to go join her at the table or not, I get up and stride to it. I slide into a chair beside her.

"Whatcha writing?" I ask, peering over at a sheet filled with paragraphs and dialogue. Her handwriting is predominantly a cursive-print mashup of crunched, scrawled words with letters blending into one another, making it so I can't make out 75% of the page. That means I cannot tell what she's writing about.

"Shhhhh," she says harshly, glancing up at Josh. He's still intently watching his movie. "It's nothing," she adds, going back to scrawling down words I can barely make out.

"Are you writing a story?" I ask, watching her number the bottom of the page and flip to another.

She glances up at Josh, who smiles at her. "Just don't tell Josh, please," she asks, closing the notebook as Josh walks toward us.

"What are you two up to over here?" He asks, moving a few strands of host from Liz's face.

"Just making some small talk," Liz smiles back and then asks, "When can I have more pain stuff?"

Josh laughs a little, "um, tomorrow morning."

Liz frowns, inspecting the white gauze wrapped around her arm. "Did I really need gauze?" She asks.

Josh sits down on the other side of her, shaking his head. "Not for severity, just for surface area," he explains.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this. Around my brother basically being a father to a girl only a handful of years younger then me. Around the fact that Tyler is also her guardian. Around her in general. I, personally, am fond of her already, but that's not the case with my whole family. I heard the whispers and saw the glances they gave her today. They didn't take to well to the idea of her. And, to top it all off, my father isn't too keen on the idea of her being around. He thinks Josh is being irrational and stupid for doing this all. She is a very kind, intelligent, funny girl, but her flaws seem a bit.... Extensive. I guess they may just seem extensive due to the amplification of an entirely new situation that she wasn't prepared for at all, but I still wonder. I don't want to sound insensitive, because I understand that she's gone through a lot and I try to show that I'm here to help support her and that I care. It's just all odd to try and think about. Especially when you factor in that Josh kept her from us for about 5 and a half months.

"Jordan, are you okay?" Josh asks, breaking me out of my flooding thoughts. I look up.

"Uh, yeah. Just... thinking."

"What about?" Josh asks, doning his concerned big brother face.

"You. Her. All of this."

His eyebrows furrow, "What do you mean?"

I shrug, saying, "I'm not really sure. I'm just, I'm trying to wrap my head around it all. It hasn't really fully sunk in yet, and I'm just trying to make sense of everything. So much has happened in the past two days, and I don't know what to make of any of it. I somehow find myself wondering about Christmas, thinking 'does this mean Josh isn't going to come home for the holidays? If he is coming, will it be different this year?' I just, I don't want to seem rude or something, I am very accepting of all of this, I'm just- I'm trying to figure it all out, if that makes sense."

Josh chuckles, "Don't worry, Tyler and I had a pretty hard time wrapping our heads around finding out about her too. It's normal. We are still feeling things out and figuring new thing out. It's okay. She understands too. It's pretty jarring for her as well. Right, Liz?"

She nods, "Hey, I was thinking about Christmas too. And thanksgiving- which is in like two months by the way- and just about everything I thought I knew about life right now. I've lived in four different houses in the past 6 months. I've met so many new people who I'm supposed to be related to or something recently that I'm seeing double and my head is swimming. Do you know how insanely appalling it is to find out your brother is one of the two kids you've had tapped to your ceiling for years? All of this is insanely odd for me. Hell, I bet it was weirder for me to meet you then you to find out about me. I was just getting used to what I had going on, and then bam, entirely brand new side to the coin you thought you had memorized. So, if you need someone to remind you that you aren't the only one feeling crazy, I'm your girl."

I can't help but laugh a little.

"So, do I call you my little sister, or my niece?"

"If I have to call you my uncle, that means I have to call that dork my dad and that will never happen," she laughs, jabbing her thumb at Josh.

I nod, "so, little sister, I'll add that to the list of odd things I need to get used to."

Josh starts making faces at Liz, proving that he really is a huge dork, and making both of us laugh extremely hard.

"And that my friends, is how you lighten the mood."