Cold War

27

"We are here today. To celebrate the beautiful life of Winter. She was a daughter, a sister, a niece, and a friend...who was taken away too soon, but God makes no mistakes." Winter's father spoke as he held back the tears in his eyes.

Elise comforted him as she rubbed his back and spoke soft words into his ear.

Winter's funeral was packed with family members and some of her friends. Amontae sat in the far back trying to hold himself together. He didn't want to attend the funeral, but he also didn't want to regret not attending it.

"I always seen something special in Winter. Since the day she was born, she always had that sparkle in her eye. She always use to tell me how she wanted to make it somewhere in life and make us proud..." He then paused and wiped a few tears.

"Y-you made us proud baby." He choked out.

"It's okay baby." Elise whispered to him while also keeping herself together.

Amontae looked around and noticed Winter's little sister, Cadince who was being comforted by her grandmother. Her little mind didn't really understand what was going on, but she did know her big sister was gone.

"Fuck." Amontae whispered before rubbing his face. This was surreal to him.

After Winter's father was done with his speach. A few other family members spoke their favorite memories about her. Amontae wanted badly to say something about her, but he didn't have the heart to. It was too broken.

Amontae listened to the stories until he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see some light skinned girl.

"Yeah?" He asked not knowing who she was.

"Aren't you Amontae? Winter's boyfriend?" She asked.

Amontae simply nodded his head before turning his attention from her. He wasn't in the mood to talk.

"I just wanted to say she has told me a lot about you. Thank you for treating her right, you showed her real love." She said.

For some reason, that made him feel better. He then looked at her trying to see if he had met her before, but her face didn't ring a bell.

He didn't bother to ask her name, instead he turned his attention back to the service.

"You know Winter's favorite song in church was Hang On. She used to sang her butt off to it." One of Winter's aunties spoke making some people laugh.

"So, imma sang it in remembrance of her." She said.

She then cleared her throat and a man by the piano began to play the instrumental.

"What you gonna so when your back's against the wall? How you gonna smile when it seems all hope is lost.." She sang beautifully into the mic.

"Sang it Reina!" Some lady shouted encouraging her.

"Tell me what you gonna do when you need a little more grace. How you gonna respond when they try to test your faith...

"Hang on, in there."

"Hang on, in there..."

For some reason the song spoke to Amontae, maybe God was telling him something. Maybe he was telling him to not give up on him.

After the funeral, Amontae made his way to Emily's house. He needed to keep his mind occupied from Winter.

"You hungry?" Emily asked before popping a grape into her mouth.

"Nah, I'm good." Amontae said as he laid in her bed with Ayden on his chest.

Ayden was knocked out since he just had a warm bottle.