Park and Ani

It hurts

"See you Ani!"

Stepping off of the last stair of the bus I turn smiling and waving like a lunatic to Blake, Ryder, Liza, and Chan as the bus pulls off from my stop.

"Ready to go?" Eli questions, smilingly wide showing off his cute little gap between his front teeth hand outstretched for my own.

"Yup" I chirp joining our hands letting him lead us to my house.

He doesn't say much like usual, but he does constantly squeeze my hand before smiling at me. He finally broke up with that witch Heather and now it's back to Eli and Ani, the pair that our class swears is gonna get married one day.

I sure wish that happens.

We finally make it to my house and he pulls me into one of his bone crushing hugs that I love oh so much before making his way over to his own house that's in a whole other subdivision than mine.

"See you later Imani!" he shouts over his shoulder waving goodbye.

Calling back the same to him I finally turn to the house I've lived in since I was born and he extra car in the driveway instantly has a grin on my face.

Cedric is home, I'd recognize his friend Emmanuel's car anywhere. It's a miracle on wheels considering how old that thing is.

Running to the house I fumble with my housekeys, excitement making my hands shake until finally the door opens.

"Ceddy!" I wail running into the living room that I know he's in.

Except somethings off about him.

He doesn't shout his usual 'Ani' in return, instead he remains focused on the infomercial on the television screen. My smile drops and confusion takes it's place on my face as I make my way over to my brother. It wasn't until I was sitting right next to him did he make any movement to acknowledge my presence.

Blinking slowly, I can see his confusion on his face and he looks like he's struggling to piece together who I am. I expected him to smile and laugh it off as if it was a joke, but instead he just turns away from me giving all of his attention to the man droning on about how great this vacuum he's selling is.

Something's not right. This isn't how my brother acts.

He was first deployed a little over a year ago, and since then he always made sure to send home letters or even call when he got the chance. That didn't change until a couple months ago, mom and I just wrote it off as him getting busy, but after seeing him like this my suspicion is rising.

Standing up from my position on the couch I follow the hushed mummurs in the house into the kitchen where a glossy eyed mom and a somber Emmanuel sit.

"Mom what's wrong with Ceddy?"

At my question tears fill my mothers eyes as her face contorts with pain. Sighing Eman gestures for me to sit down before turning to face me.

"Ani, I know this is going to hurt, hell it hurts me to even talk about it, but something awful happened to Cedric in these last couple months."

He pauses, clearly choking up on his words and his hesitance isn't doing anything to help lessen the panic I have for my brothers well-being at the moment. After letting out a shaky sigh he clears his throat to continue.

"We were on a mission and got tricked by one of the victims we were supposed to be rescuing and long story short, Cedric was one of the several men to be kidnapped in the mission."

Sucking in a harsh breath my body runs cold. My brother, the boy who I consider my closest friend, was kidnapped.

"How long was he missing?"