Nothing Lasts Forever

⭐CHAPTER ONE⭐

15.2
Big thanks to @HannahStarshine for writing with me. 

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There is something nice about knowing we are all going to die, one way or another. But sometimes death comes quicker for others. Others like my father, twin sister and older brother.

It can be tough to accept but its the truth, a hard one, but the truth nonetheless. When they died, I was at home on my phone texting my boyfriend at the time, Jason Blake. Oblivious to the fact that while I was texting away, Posie, Marcus and Dad were probably bleeding out in the middle of a motorway.

When me and my mother were informed if the accident, it was too late, they were already dead. Gone, just like that, without a goodbye. Never again will I have one of my fathers hugs nor will I ever hear my brothers laugh. Never again will I stay up late with my sister in our room giggling about crushes and gossip.

I don't really remember much about the funeral or what happened before or after but I know that when they died, I lost a piece of myself that I am never getting back.

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Two days after the funeral, we arrived at a small house in an even smaller town, 4 hours west of our old home, that Mum had decided to buy in a wave of grief. I disagreed and wanted to stay so I could visit my family. She tried to leave them behind, and I will never forget that.

Mum wanted to get away from the ghosts that haunted her. But she didn't realise they would follow her here. I also had ghosts, but a different way of dealing with them. My life revolved around my new school, homework and as many after school activities as I could join, while she stayed at home, unemployed, with endless one nighters and her stash of alcohol, that got topped up every week with our dwindling supply of money.

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Posie and I were born 7 minutes apart. She was older, and never let me forget it. We were best friends, and shared everything.  As identical twins we were mistaken for each other daily, until we developed our own style. I was more of a crop top sort of girl, while she preferred jeans and over-sized jumpers that occasionally belonged to Marcus. When she died, I decided to adopt her style, in a feeble attempt to keep some parts of her alive. What we used to do when we were kids was when one of us were having a bad day, we would climb up to the top bunk, and stay with each other all night. Our parents would often have to wake us up together as we would snuggle into each other.

Marcus was 3 years older. He graduated from high school as valedictorian at the age of 17. He went to Harvard as soon as he graduated, on a full a scholarship for medicine, a plan he'd had since he was 8. He was always the top of the class, always present in the halls, and a star on the football team. He also gave himself the role as my protector, offering to beat every third person up for the petty crime of looking at me 'wrong'. 

Dad was more lenient than Mum. His favorite way to show me and Posie that he loved us was to give us $5 each and tell us to spend it at the ice cream shop with our friends after school. He didn't really understand the basics of modern day high school, so he would give us fruitless advise about how he got his first girlfriend, and what we should do to be noticed by the boys. He enjoyed telling our friends embarrassing stories of our childhood while we were in the bathroom, leaving us to come back and find our friends in peals of laughter, and Dad animatedly re-enacting a horrific event that we had tried to block from our minds. He would then shrug at us innocently and quickly leave the room. 

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I sighed as I reached the mailbox. Mum called me Posie, but she was always too drunk to answer why. I wondered how far gone Mum was now. I had checked on her not even 1 hour ago, but I could never know for sure. The second term started the next day, and I was worried about her, as I wouldn't be able to check on her every hour and a half. I had started in the middle of term one at my new school, 4 days after Posie, Marcus and Dad had died. I still had no friends. There were plenty of rumors about me, and I wished for Marcus to come back and protect me in the halls, or Posie to come and comfort me and sit next to me in class. 

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I walked into the house, surprised to not see her sprawled out across the couch, manky and falling apart, covered in wine stains and takeout grease due to Mum practically living on it. I called out to her, not expecting an answer. I walked around the house, and couldn't find her. I couldn't call the police, I didn't want to risk being taken away. I was now my Mum's only family, and I was responsible for her well-being. If I was taken away, Mum wouldn't be able to handle the world. She couldn't cook anymore, let alone pay the bills and live independently. I knocked on the bathroom door. No answer. I tried to turn the knob, but found it locked. I ran downstairs, thinking the worst, and grabbed the key to the bathroom out of the top kitchen drawer. I ran back, and looked at my shaking hands. I unlocked the door. I slowly opened it, and saw my Mum slumped against the wall, lying in a puddle of what looked like a mixture of vomit and whiskey, with a spilt bottle and an empty pill container beside her. The room reeked. "Mum?" I said hesitantly as I knelt down beside her, I shook her trying, and not succeding to wake her. I reach for my phone I had placed in my back pocket, and shakily dialed the emergency services. I tell them our address and what had happened.

The rest of the night went by like a blur, the ambulance arrived many people came and went, leaving me to ask police and any others hanging around what was going on with her.

When the people had left and assured me that she will be ok, I left to the bathroom to take a breather. Upon entering I saw a small piece of paper lying on the cabinet, and reached for it.
 
To my love Bryan,

I read. I retched in my mouth, and stuffed the note in my pocket. Bryan was one of my Mum's first out of many boyfriends here. He was a long time ago, a one nighter, but Mum had been hooked on him ever since.

I hear a buzzing on the ground and see my phone where I left it, when I had called the ambulance.
I answer, and hear the news I was dreading, my vision blurs and my legs collapse beneath me.

Shes dead.

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Thanks for reading!

-Lucille and Edith