New To This

Siblings

Ziyah's POV

It's the middle of the night and I'm in Bree's room where she's knocked out and I'm tapping her because what I have to tell her can't wait. I just got back from Daya's and when I parked the car in front of my house I realized should've come straight home after seeing dad instead of going to my girl's place like some bitch ass nigga.

After a few light taps Bree stirs in her sleep, and her eyes open to look at me in confusion.

"What the hell Zi?" she says and clutches her pillow.

"Bree I have to tell you something," I say and sit on Bree's weird stool thing.

She finally sits up. "I already figured you were at your girlfriend's place Zi I don't care." The tiredness from her face leaves and excitement replaces it. "Oh did you get some is that what you want to tell me." If getting some means seeing your father after 8 years without contact, getting comforted by your girl before having another girl play footsie with you then yeah I got some.

"No." Bree narrows her eyes at me as I think of a way to say what I'm about to say. Bree already has enough going on with the rehab pamphlets sitting on her nightstand, but shit it's her dad too.

"Hello what is so important that you had to wake me up,"  she says and cocks her head to the side. It's like she knows I'm hiding some shit. "Zi-"

"Bree I saw dad," I blurt out. For a moment, her face is expressionless, but then her whole face scrunches up and our eyes lock.

"You what?" she mouths more than actually speaks.

"Earlier I dropped Lucas's phone off at his place I saw mom hugging dad in front of Lucas's building."  The image comes right back to me, and my words slap Bree right across the face like she's Johnny Fontaine.

"He was hugging mom? Mom knows he's back? She hugged him? Ziyah are you fucking with me?"

I shake my head. "No Bree, I saw him well them."

"How do you know it was him you haven't seen him in," she pauses and looks down at her feet. "You haven't seen him in 8 years."

"Bree trust me I know who I saw." You don't forget someone whose one action changes the shape of your life.

"And she hugged him? And Lucas's building is is," she pulls out her phone and begins typing. "Lucas's building is only three blocks away, Zi you're fucking with me." Her eyes are on the verge of spilling tears which isn't something that's normal for Bree who didn't shed a single tear when she broke her arm in seventh grade. She can say you're fucking with me all she wants, but the more we stare at eachother I know she knows I'm telling the truth.

"Bree," I begin, but she jumps out of her bed and opens the doors to her closet. She stands on the tips of her toes and grabs a box from the top shelf. She plops the box on her bed and opens it to reveal a bunch of old stuff like her American girl doll clothes, McDonald's kids meal toys, and photos. She rumbles through the box for a few minutes then reaches in to pull out a crumpled photograph. She rubs the picture with her hoodie sleeve and puts it only an inch away from my face. It's a picture of her and dad smiling, and Bree had a silver plastic birthday crown on.

"You saw him hugging mom?" She says. She has an extremely tight grip on the photo and her fingers are on the verge of shaking.

"Yes Bree." Tears begin to spill down her face, and I get up in an attempt to hug her, but I take a step back as her face turns the same way it was before Henry's shoes were bright orange. She runs out of the room and I'm two feet behind her until she makes it to the toilet, and I'm right behind her holding all of her curls. We stay like this for about 15 minutes as Bree gets rid of all the peta bread and hummus she ate. This shit is disgusting, but she's my sister and when her stomach is empty I hand her the cap of listerine and a napkin. When I febreeze the fuck out of the bathroom Bree slumps down on the floor with her back against the bathtub and I sit next to her as she stares at the medicine cabinet and junk drawer under the sink.