Wishing Upon The Stars ; noah centineo

four

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Wishing Upon The Stars
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four: I Never Really Liked Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwiches Anyway
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Losing my parents at the age of 14 hadn't been something I'd expected to happen.

It was like war, you see it happening around you, you know of people who have experienced it and you don't expect it to happen but somewhere far in the back of your mind you know it could. And when it does, you aren't prepared for it at all. But then again, is one ever able to be prepared for war?

The wound that my parents death had left hadn't healed but it wasn't exactly fresh either. I'd come to terms with what had happened, accepted it. And over the past four years the wound had slowly started to heal. I found that now it was simply a scab, one that stung every so often as a reminder that the wound was there but nothing that I couldn't handle. I'd stopped myself from picking at it, from pulling it off and now, slowly but surely, it was healing, closing.

Cole was the one who'd been most affected by my parents death. Being the oldest, he'd been forced to grow up and become an adult at the age of 18. He took on the role as the adult figure in both Corey and I's lives but Cole knew that I was okay, that I was able to help myself. So we helped each other. We'd had to, for Corey's sake.

Corey had been three years old when the accident happened. He hadn't understood what was going on, didn't know why it was all of a sudden Cole and I changing his nappy and feeding him and making sure he was okay. He'd always asked and Cole and I had tried to explain as best as we could and even though Corey would nod, we knew he didn't truly understand. It was something he wouldn't understand until he was much older.

Even now at the age of six he would still ask if we'd be seeing our mom and dad again, brown eyes wide and full of innocence. My heart would grow heavy as I told him that yes, yes we would and he'd hold out his stubby pinky finger and whisper, "Promise?" I'd intertwine my own with his, heart lodged in my throat as I whispered right back, "I promise."

"Gosh, Sophie, that's hectic," Mia said, setting her mug down to give my arm a squeeze of comfort. It was a Friday afternoon and me, Hannah and Mia were in a little coffee shop having decided to catch up after I'd reconnected with Mia at the party and I'd just finished telling her about how my life had changed after primary school. "I'm really sorry."

"Hey, don't be, it wasn't your fault," I said, the ghost of a smile on my lips.

"If you don't mind me asking," Mia began, "How did it happen? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to of course."

"No, no," I shook my head, my shoulder length hair falling around me in waves. "I don't mind."

I looked to Hannah who gave me a comforting smile when I met her gaze. 

"We were in the midst of a storm," I began, playing around with the teaspoon that sat in my mug of earl grey tea. "And for some reason we were on the road. My parents, Corey in his little carseat and me beside him. Cole had been by Noah's house that Friday night so he wasn't with us. We'd stopped at a traffic light at a four way stop. The roads were wet, it was misty so it was difficult to see. A car was turning and the driver misjudged the distance or must of lost control because they crashed right into us."

I swallowed, my throat suddenly feeling as if I hadn't drunk anything all day.

"My first instinct had been to protect Corey so that's what I did. I managed to block him from the impact somehow. The paramedics told me if I hadn't then Corey would have cracked his skull or injured his spinal cord but he was only left with a few stitches in his forehead from a gash caused by the broken glass. I was pretty much the same, a few bruises and scratches here and there but nothing that caused enough damage to still be seen now.