Finishing Crazy

Finishing Crazy(2)

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Rachelle

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Bryan gets off of his bike and walks me to my door. It’s been a particularly hot day and we’ve cut our bike ride short to get out of the heat.

“I wish it wasn’t so hot outside. Then we could bike together longer.” He tells me.

“Me too,” I say. “But we’ll bike longer tomorrow. Thanks for coming.”

Unexpectedly, Bryan walks over to me and hesitantly hugs me. It’s not a long hug, or even a particularly great one, but I feel chills run up and down my spine.

He lets go of me and looks at me for a second. “See you tomorrow.” He says with an odd facial expression.

“Tomorrow.” I say, and he mounts his bike and heads home.

I stand there for a moment, trying to remember if I’ve ever seen him hug anyone. No one comes to mind, so I shake my head quickly as if that could get rid of the confusion. After I see Bryan bike past the corner to his house, I turn around and go inside.

The house is eerily quiet, even though everyone should be home about now.

I tiptoe to my bedroom to put my things away, and then decide to get clean clothes and take a shower as well. Whatever is going on will have to wait for a few more minutes. Still, once I’m in the shower I try to be fast and skip conditioning my hair. It never seems to make a difference anyways.

After I smell like Sweet Pea, and not sweat, I go to my sister’s bedroom to see if they’re home.

The room is vacant, so I continue the search for my family by heading to my mom’s room. My dad won’t be home, ever, so there’s no need to see where he is. He died a few years ago in Iraq, fighting in the war.

When I walk into my mom’s room, I instantly know something is seriously wrong. She’s on the phone, crying and talking to someone who sounds like a relative.

My two sisters are in there, too. They both look like they’ve been crying as well.

The youngest one, Lola, who just turned five, comes up to me and hugs my leg tightly. She looks up at me with her big blue eyes and wavy blonde pigtails, and her expression is so sad that it makes me feel sad too.

“Aunt Laura died.” She says, her voice quavering and tears spilling over from her eyes.

“Who?” I ask, even though I heard the name just fine.

“Aunt Laura. And Charis is going to die too.” Overcome with sadness, she slumps down onto the floor, still holding onto me.

"What are you talking about, Lola? Nothing's wrong with Laura." I tell her, even though there's a knot in my stomach that's telling me otherwise.

"She's sick!" Lola cries, shaking my leg.

"No she's not. She can't be." I tell her, but Lola just shakes it harder.

"Yes, yes, yes!" She cries, errupting into uncontrolable tears.

Karrie looks over at me, and I my pleading eyes beg her to tell me it's not true. But instead, Karrie just nods her head and softly whispers, "Lola's right. She's telling the truth."

Silent tears are running down her face.

My mouth goes dry and I can’t seem to find words, so I just sit down onto the floor, pick Lola up and hold her in my arms. She fights me for a bit, but then realizes it's just me trying to hold her and gives in wholeheartedly, wrapping her tiny arms around my waist and burying her head in my stomach, still crying.