Your Loss

Trying To Sleep

     I wake up to the sound of a helicopter flying over us! Gabbi, Jackson, and Ada grab their stuff as a ladder lowers from the helicopter. The wind from the helicopter is blowing our food wrappers all around. The ground starts to shake as the helicopter gets closer, I feed my little siblings up the ladder first. I can feel it now, the building is starting to tilt from the force of the wind.

     First I send up Ada, the twins are next Jackson pushes Gabbi onto the ladder. His feet start to slip as the building collapses. He tries to make me go up before him, I push him onto the ladder at the last second. As he grabs onto the ladder the building collapses under my feet, I start to fall.

    I hear the screams and shrieks of my little siblings as I fall, they scream my name. I watch/ the helicopter get farther away in my blurred vision. I think that this is the feeling my parents had as they fell, as they fell they yelled their final I love you. I try to do the same, but nothing's coming out. I'm blacking in and out of consciousness, as I feel something catch my hand.

~~~~~~

     I wake up, my eyes blinking open and closed occasionally. I roll over to look outside of the helicopter that I realize that I'm in, and I see our home. I know it's our house because I can see the new mango tree we had planted a month or two ago, still in the ground with the ribbon wrapped around it. One ribbon for the each of us; Purple for me, Green for Jackson, Blue for Gabbi, and Pink for Ada.

     But what I also could see was the pink Barbie boots on Ada's tiny feet. I sit up so I could get a better view, I see my three little siblings kneeling in the rubble of our home crying. I hop out the helicopter, running towards my siblings kicking up sand with my rain boots as I run, they turn their heads. I slide to a stop on our used to be kitchen floor grabbing my siblings into a hug.

     We cry and cry for what seems like hours, it's only been about 30 minutes. I look up, I can see the smeared mascara on my face that I did the morning before for school in a dented pan on the floor, I look a mess. My curly hair thrown around my head, my mascara all on my face, my lips now dry and cracked. I look down at the others, their curly hair doing the same, Ada's being the longest hers is the messiest.

     I pull her hair into two braids down her back and Gabbi's into one. This let me see that Ada has a bruise and a few scratches on her face from when she fell multiple times yesterday trying to keep up. Gabbi's eyes are puffy and red, her face flushed and her cheeks scraped from sleeping on concrete. I comb my fingers through Jackson's curls, even though they aren't as long as ours doesn't mean that they aren't a mess.

     I look into my little brother's eyes, he has the type of eyes that hold all of his emotions, one look and you'll know everything. He'll probably get better at hiding his emotions as he grows into a real teenage boy. I know Jackson though, inside he's crumbling thinking that the weight of the world is up to him to carry. I hug him tight squashing his curly headed mess into my rain jacket. He pushes away, Jackson knows his eyes show his emotions so he tries to stay guarded, but I know he appreciated the hug.

     I watch as little Ada picks up her Build-A-Bear, it's drenched in water and covered in sand, she picks it up and hugs it. Gabbi looks through the rubble only to find that her books are all wet and soggy, her heart breaks as she sees the picture of us in Disney shattered on the floor. She breaks down in tears as Ada hugs her dragging her bear behind her. I go over to where my closet once stood and I find a picture book, my mother and father's wedding picture tucked in the front cover. I pull it out and stick it into my back pocket, I feel a tear roll down my cheek.

     I turn around only to see an unfamiliar face standing on our property. I recognize the girl though, she was in the helicopter when I woke up. She looks a little over my age, maybe around twenty I'd say, and there's a boy around my age standing next to her. I look at the girl and she's standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. Her brown wavy hair flowing in the wind with her army jacket, her hiking boots firmly planted into the ground. She looks like she's going to take the world from Jackson and carry it herself.

     The boy looks at me with friendly eyes and a smile, his brown eyes almost as dark as the storm brewing above us. For some reason he looks really familiar, I'm not sure why. He gives me a little wave and then sticks his hands back in his pockets. I wave back, he smiles bigger this time even showing a little teeth. He seems nice, I don't know about his companion though. Maybe they're dating and she thinks that I'm gonna try to take her boyfriend, maybe I should tell her I won't.

     I stand up dusting the glass shards and wood splinters off my skinny jeans. I stumble over some bed sheets on the ground. I look up at the girl and boy, the girl looks at me and the boy chuckles. His laugh warms me up on the inside, the warmness spills out of me in a laugh. I look around at my brother and sisters, they start to laugh a bit too. I see smiles on everyone's face for the first time in hours, I look back up at the boy and he's still looking at me with a smile on his face.

     I walk over towards them, the girl seems fine. I just hope she doesn't think I'm a threat. I mean, I don't look like a threat considering my makeup has just about melted off my face and my hair is in a messy ponytail.

     "Hi, I'm Kade and this is my sister Bella!" He says cheerfully.

          Oh, thank goodness she's only his sister, that's a relief! At least she won't kill me for talking to her boyfriend!

     "Oh um, hi I'm Mabel and these are my little siblings!" They all scurry over lining up in age order.

     "This is Jackson, Gabbi, and Ada Delgado! I'm seventeen, Jackson and Gabbi are thirteen, and Ada is five. How old are you guys?"

     "I'm twenty and Kade is seventeen." Kade looks at me with a face full of surprise.

     "I KNOW YOU!!! YOU'RE IN MY AP LITERATURE CLASS!!!" He yells suddenly taking us all by surprise. He covers his mouth with his hands and looks around as if to check if he actually said it that loud. As he takes his hands off his face I notice that he's blushing. I'd be embarrassed to if I said something that loud...

     "Oh Yeah, you're the one kid that sits two seats in front of me!"

          You're that cute kid that sits two seats in front of me, that I text my bestie about when you raise your hand in class, got it...