Letters to Isabella

five.

Ross' POV

"Well... we're here man." I murmured to Rocky who had his head down on his lap in the passenger seat beside me. I gently nudged his arm and he jolted awake beginning to scan his surroundings. "Mom and dad's... we're here."

Rocky groaned and rubbed his eyes, shaking his head back and forth slowly to himself. "Damn... how long was I out for?"

"Half hour." I explained with a half hearted chuckle. I knew that my brother wasn't okay - not even in the slightest. But how could he be? I couldn't even begin to comprehend the pain that he must have been feeling and childishly I never wanted to understand it.

He shrugged his shoulders and popped his last piece of mint chewing gum into his mouth before turning to me and exhaling deeply in the small air space between us. "It felt like forever and now I feel gross."

I managed to smile and pointed to our parents house which seemed to have at least one of them vacating inside of it. "Look," I gestured to the porch and the small light that shone above it. "they never leave any of their lights on. Remember how dad always said it was a waste of electricity? They must be home dude."

"Yeah well... our old man was always tight with his money like that." Rocky hoarsely commented. He shook his head in disbelief and opened up his car door. "Come on then... we haven't got all day."

I gulped and nodded back to him. Although Rocky was my older brother I currently felt like the dominant one out of the two of us. We hadn't seen our parents for years and even when we had it had always consisted of a five minute conversation about how each other were before disappearing from our lives again. "Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?" I asked nervously. I was kind of hoping that he'd say no and we'd walk back to the car to go and grab some takeout or something - I was wrong.

"Ross... I've got to tell them now otherwise I'll get some random late night text from dad or mom when I'm in my forties asking why Bri and I haven't had children or invited them to our wedding. It's best for them to know now rather than later."

I nodded my head in agreement with his statement. He was right after all. Our family had little to no communication these days, the news about Brianna's passing wouldn't spread very quickly so it was Rocky's job to inform those closest to him about it before anyone else could.

With a deep breath, Rocky pressed his index finger to the worn out doorbell on our parents front porch and waited beside me anxiously with his hands in the pockets of his ripped jeans for someone to open the door to us.

"I don't think anyone is coming to answer the door man..." Rocky murmured. I could see his left leg shaking violently and with a sigh I wrapped my arm gently around his waist. "Thanks bro, I owe you."

Before either of us could make the decision to walk away or try to ring the doorbell one last time, it suddenly opened, revealing our mom who was stood timidly in the dim light of our familiar hallway. "Mom?" We both asked in confusion at the same time. It felt like I'd seen a ghost. She looked so sickly and thin. I'd never seen her look any less like my mother before and I couldn't quite put my finger on why.

"Hey boys... I wasn't expecting to see you two on the porch this morning. I'm sorry I look like such a mess. Do you want to come in for some coffee or something?" She asked before wrapping her light pink dressing gown tighter around her body.

Rocky and I both nodded in response to her as she opened the door wider for us to step inside. The familiar scent of home cooked meals and cinnamon filled my nostrils as the front door closed behind us and our mom took our coats to hang up on the wall beside us. "Oh look at you... you both look so great and healthy!" She exclaimed, although her voice had a strange sadness to it. Her eyes widened in confusion when she saw Rocky's hair. "Sweetie you cut your hair?"