In your shadow

Chapter one

"Get a grip!" Melissa rolled her dark hazelnut eyes right at me before half heartedly closing the last of the cardboard boxes "It's not like I'm never coming back, just chill out"

She wasn't wrong. It was only for two years.
But after all, the two of us never spent any time apart. Ever. She was my big sister. Maybe not by blood but it still meant just as much.

I let out a deep sigh and gave her a defeated look before proceeding to fall onto the bed which now stood in the middle of an empty room, that was filled with dozens of pictures and memories just hours before.

„Easy for you to say," I then mumbled under my breath before she gave me a reassuring smile while slightly shaking her head before she carried the box out to the car.

Mel and I had spent the better half of 20 years being inseparable. I was completely stuck on reminiscing the past few years before her shouting tore me back into reality. A reality I'd rather prefer not to face.

Time to say goodbye.

I quickly gathered myself before walking towards the front door to see her off. I waved the whole way until her blue Chevy was completely out of sight.

And then that was it. Just like that. She was off to travel Europe and I was back to small town life, doing shifts in the local restaurant and trying desperately to keep the house from falling apart.

As I stepped back into the small house I began to notice how empty it really was. I guess I never payed attention to how little stuff I actually had until all of Melissa's belongings were gone.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous - I envied her for having this  but I was happy for her too. When it came down to it, we we're complete polar opposites. Especially when it came to luck and money, she was always the shining star and I was the stupid jester in the background.

It'd have to be my But I was happy, and stable and lived my simple life and maybe that was enough for me.

The more I stared at the sparse spaces in my small house, the more It aggravated me how little I had to my name. Quite frantically, I began moving all the furniture around, probably only making more of a mess than anything else but it gave me comfort. Keeping myself busy was my go to distraction, and it always seemed to work.

After a good few hours of excessively moving each piece of furniture around in circles, stubbing my toe sixty times and getting absolutely no where I sunk to the floor, defeated and exhausted I leaned my head against the sofa and closed my eyes.

Being completely alone was more difficult than I thought, and I didn't like it a single bit. Because eventually the distractions would wear off, my mind would begin to wander and soon enough everything would crumble around me.

And there was nothing I could do about it.