Curing the Broken

ideas & airplane rides.

It's been a year since the whole incident. Caroline sits by the window in her room. She's never forgotten that day. The memories just flow through her mind. She sighs and stands up from her seat by the window and walks out to the living room she now shares with Christopher. She sees him sitting on the couch watching tv.

"Hey Chris," Caroline says softly, sitting next to her brother on the couch.

"Hey Arrow. How are you holding up?" Christopher asks his little sister.

Caroline's eyes start to tear up and she shrugs. She never knows how to answer that question. She doesn't know how to feel. Her mom had died because of how bad her dad had hit her and her dad had got shot after shooting a police while trying to escape jail. She sighs, wiping the tears sliding down her cheeks. She chuckles softly at herself.

"I never know how to answer those types of questions," Caroline says honestly, "I just feel like people will always say 'everything will be okay,' but is everything really going to be okay? My parents died before I could even finish high school and my brother is going to go off to college soon. What do people want me to say? Because for the past year I've felt so many different emotions."

Christopher pulls his little sister into a hug, rubbing her back. He starts to softly hum Caroline's favorite song and shortly after she stops crying. Caroline breathes in and out softly and pulls away from her brother. She looks at him for a minute, an idea popping into her head, and she smiles. Christopher looks at her confused. Caroline giggles, getting up from her spot on the couch and rushing over to the kitchen table to get her MacBook. She rushes back to her spot on the couch and logs into her laptop. Christopher moves closer to his sister and sees that she is buying two tickets for a flight to California.

"Arrow. I-I don't know about this," Christopher tells his sister.

Caroline looks at her brother and smiles.

"Come on Chris. It's only for a week. I mean it's not like we are going to move over there. It's our little getaway after everything that's happened in the past year. I'm done sitting at home being sad all the time. Come on. Please for me," Caroline states.

Christopher sighs.

"Fine. When do we leave?" He asks.

Caroline runs over to where she sent the tickets to print. She looks at the date and time, smiling. She walks back to her brother.

"We leave today. In four hours," Caroline says, "you know what that means. We got to start packing."

The two siblings rush to their rooms and started to pack.

(*)

Grabbing everything they need, the siblings walk out of their shared apartment and walk towards the elevator. They walk over to the elevator quietly. Once the reach the elevator, Caroline presses the down button. They wait for the elevator doors to open. Caroline looks over at her brother and smiles. She's finally letting go of what happened. The elevator dings, signaling that it reached the siblings floor. The elevator opens slowly and the two walk in quietly. Christopher stands next to his sister and looks at her. He grabs her hand, causing his sister to look up at him. She sends him a small smile and he returns it.

The elevator doors open to show a swarm of people in their apartment lobby. They walk out of the elevator and straight to the front door. They walk out the front door and to the Uber that had been waiting for them. They put their luggage in the truck and get in the car. They sit there quietly, neither of the two wanting to say anything. The driver asks where to go and they quickly respond the airport.

(*)
Christopher and Caroline finally arrived at the airport. They quickly grabbed their luggage, thanking the driver and rushed into the airport. They were going to be late for there flight. They quickly rushed over to security, thankfully with no one in front of them. Soon after that, they rushed over to their gate and handed the flight attendant their tickets. Once the attendant gave them back their tickets, they walked on to the plane and walked over to their seats. Christopher put their small luggages in the headboard above them, while Caroline took her seat by the window, laughing at her brother struggle. Christopher finally puts their luggage in the headboard and closes it, then walking into the aisle and sitting next to Caroline. Getting comfortable in their seats, the siblings fastened their seatbelts and fell asleep as soon as the plane took off.

WC: 796 words