Baseball Jerseys

Julia

Julia

"Bye, Chloe," I call out as I head out the front door. "I'll be home later, okay? I'm going to Jonas' house for supper."

Jonas Wills has been my boyfriend ever since he asked me out a week ago. Jonas has dark brown hair and a super shiny smile. He is super basketball obsessed, and loves all the movies I like. He is super funny and sweet, and has the nicest laugh.

I walked down the rocky street and rang Jonas' doorbell.

A tall, thin woman with dark long hair answers the door.

She smiles at me.

"Are you the girl Jonas was telling me about?" she asks. "Julia McArty?"

I smile back and nod my head. I spotted Jonas on the couch behind her.

"Uh-huh, I'm Julia alright," I confirm with a smile. Jonas rushes over.

"I see you've met Jule," he says. "But to me, it's spelled J-e-w-e-l."

I laugh and kiss him hello.

Mrs. Wills smiles and rolls her eyes playfully.

"Okay, you two can go hang out," she says. "I'll finish making supper."

I smelled the spaghetti cooking on the stove as Jonas led me to the couch.

"Yum," I say to Jonas, sniffing the amazing spaghetti aroma lingering in the air again. "That smells delicious."

"Yeah," Jonas replies. "My mom is a really fantastic cook."

"In my family, we usually have frozen pizza or burritos for dinner!"

We plop down on the sofa and start chatting about school.

I take out my phone from my jean pocket and try to turn it on.

"Darn it," I say. "My phone is dead. I guess I forgot to charge it."
"That's fine," says Jonas. "We can watch TV instead."
Jonas grabs the remote control and turns on the TV as I bent over to look through my bag for some lip gloss.

"Woah," Jonas says as I'm still not looking at the TV screen. "Two girls from this neighbourhood just got into a car crash. One of them died. Crazy stuff, you know?"

"Wow," I tell him, still sifting through my bag. "What were the names?"

"It says here Meghan McArty and Melissa McArty," he replies, reading off the screen. "Hey, they have your last name, Jewel. Do you know them? Meghan and Melissa?"

I freeze.

"Both of them died?" I ask, trembling as I sat to look at the screen.

"No," he says. "Just one of them.. Melissa McArty died. Why?"
"They're my sisters," I whisper, still in shock. "I'm sorry, Jonas. I have to leave."

Tears start dripping from my face. Mel had just...died?

I stand up from the couch and shuffle quickly past Mrs. Wills.

"Sorry, Mrs. Wills," I utter through tears. "I can't stay for dinner."

"Oh, that's fine. We will see you in future days. Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"Family emergency," I answer quietly as I slip on my shoes. "Bye."
"Oh...okay. Bye Julia," says Mrs. Wills.

I nod and step onto the front porch. I start crying; hard. I just couldn't believe Mel just died in a car accident.

I stumble down the front steps and start to walk home. A loud, sudden noise erupted from the bush next to me. I turned my head but saw nothing.

Just as I turned my head back to the sidewalk, something grabbed my arms and pulled me into the bush.

I screamed.

Until the world around me faded away into a dark cloud.