Dunkirk • H.S

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"Eggs?" My mother lies a porcelain plate in front me. She made them sunny side up, how I've always liked them since I was a kid.

"Thank you." I tell her. She dismisses my courtesy with a nod as she walks away from the table.

"The Lawsons' are coming over for dinner today," she fills a glass mug halfway with coffee strait from the pot. I watched as she wrapped her finger around the glass and brought the hot beverage to her lips.

I looked at her with raised brows. "Do you not want them to come?" I asked.

"It's not that I don't want them to come." She sipped at her coffee. "They're going to bring it up. How you and Lexa were taken away from me and that Lexa is gone, they will bring pity upon us." She sighs.

I take a bite from my eggs. Having actual food for days in a row is liberating. I was used to eating shitty sandwiches and water for so long.

"Then cancel the dinner." I say. Our family has grieved for the loss of Lexa for days. I've stayed up late on the nights I couldn't sleep from crying because Lexa wasn't in her room next to mine and I couldn't go and tell her to turn her music down anymore. And I miss how she would come to me for advice on the smallest things. She was so pure, so innocently new to the world.

My parents talk about it still in moments where someone brings it up but other than that they don't say much.

"I don't know..." she shook her head, dismissing the conversation.

I scarfed the rest of my eggs down, letting them fill my stomach for the day with a few gulps of orange juice.

"Would you want to go shopping today?" She asks, looking at me.

"For groceries?"

"Clothes, Blair. Do you want to go shopping for clothes?" I could see a smile tug at the corner of her lips.

"I have clothes." I state. "Why do you want to go shopping, mom?"

"Ever since you came home it's been different. I am thankful you're home, honey. I really am, but all the things we used to do together, we never do." I could see the smile that threatened to show itself vanished quickly.

I stood from the table, tucking the chair in. "Lexa was included with everything we did together."

"But she's gone now, you can't just stay here and exclude yourself from everything, hon." She walks closer to me.

"I'm not ready to go out and just expose myself to people who are hungry for my story." I roll my shoulders.

"So you ignore them. You'll be with me, I won't let anyone prode you." She wrapped her arms around me, giving me a hug.

"Fine, I'll go shopping with you." I give in.

●

"Do you like this?" My mother held up a terquise tank top that had a bedazzled pocket.

"Not a fan of that." I laugh and she shrugs putting it back.

"Your dad went to the police-" she stopped talking when she noticed my glare. "What? You don't think the girls and boys at that camp don't deserve any form of justice?" She whispers to me.

"What are the police going to do? Arrest the dead people? It's over, if anyone wanted to do something about the camp they should have done it before. The government was in on it anyways, mom. And I'm not going to let myself have you getting involved with the government or anything serious because you can't let this go."

"Because I can't let it go?" She scoffs. I give her a look and she shakes her head. "Fine."

"Are you ready to go, this place has nothing." I sigh.