Callie's Sister

Chapter 6

Cam and his mother took me home. I wanted to be alone, but Diana made me sleep over at their house. At that point, I was so exhausted I couldn’t resist.

I woke up before them and went back home. The house was scary quiet, like it knew.

Memories of Callie flew past me, down the stairs and out the door, late for a date. No, never late. Callie was always prompt. Her friends teased her about it all the time. “Queen Perfect” they called her. She laughed, but loved it. It was exactly what she was trying to be.

I was drawn to her room, floating up the stairs and opening the door. Was she ever going to come back to this room? Would she flop on her bed and pull out her cell and call her boyfriend, Mike, or Sarah or Nydia or any of their other friends? Her laptop was perched on her desk. I pushed the on button and it flickered to life. Callie’s Facebook page was up. She and her friends spent hours on this—posting pictures, silly statuses, every thought that popped out of their heads. Facebook was meant for Callie—she could totally control her appearance of perfect here, only posting what she wanted the world to see.

Hungry to see pics of Callie, I clicked on her page, her profile pic grinning out at me. It was the picture I took of her at Columbia when she went to visit. She was standing on the quad and you could see her pride and hope for the future in her eyes. Callie was pretty, with dark brown eyes and dirty blonde hair. But it wasn’t that. She was sunshine. I used to work so hard to get her to smile at me because when she did I felt like I was the most special person in her world.

Glancing down at her Wall, I was stunned. There were over a hundred new posts. “Hugs. You can get over this,” read one. “Sending you positive vibes,” read another. “If anyone can beat this, you can. Fight it, babe,” read the next. And on and on and on. From names I recognized and ones I didn’t. Every time I hit “refresh” another three appeared.

I read every post. And then I read them again.