Mini Reids

15

Songs:

Hey It's Delilah~Kallista Rowan

Wrong Side of Myself~Ashe

"Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future."

Paul Lewis Boese

~Em's POV~

Distant. That's how I felt every morning. I woke up in a room by myself, ate breakfast alone, then rode to school in silence. I had driven a wedge in the family and I could only hope that someday I would be strong enough to fix it.

Everyone had always told me that lonely days were much like pouring molasse into a cup. Slow and boring, little did I know they were not exaggerating. Days come and go, every night without mercy, and slowly, all sources of happiness are running out. Honestly, I don't know how much longer I can take this.

As I forced my feet to make contact with the cold hardwood flooring, a chill ran up my whole body. Regardless of the fact that I hadn't taken a real shower in over a week, my mind wouldn't let me do anything more than throw my hair into a messy bun. I paused to examine my appearance in the bathroom mirror, I looked like I had gotten hit by a train. And I guess I had. That is if said train was a metaphor for crying yourself to sleep every night, sleeping for three hours, barely eating, hardly ever brushing your hair, rotating between three hoodies, and doing it all over again. Day in and day out.

Regardless of the fact that I, in fact, looked like I had gotten hit by the metaphorical train, I made my way downstairs so I could force the daily apple into my stomach. Apparently, I was up early today because my dad was still having his morning coffee at the table.

"Why are you up so early?" He questioned, more confusion lacing his voice than I anticipated.

"I'm not up that early," I responded, my eyebrows furrowed as I took a seat next to him. He stared at me for a few moments before a small smile found a way onto his face.

"You do know that it's Saturday right?" His eyes danced with amusement as he awaited my response to the question.

"Oh," I paused, the apple inches away from my lips, "no" I responded quietly. He chuckled while raising the mug to meet his lips.

"Well, I've got some good news for you," I stared at him, interest filling my face. What could possibly be good news.

"Really?" I questioned, still not seeing the possibility for anything good to happen. Nothing is ever good when you've been hit with a train. Metaphorical of course.

"Reese is staying with Penelope and Sky today so it just me and you kiddo," He grinned at me. While I was happy that I'd get to spend some time with my dad today, I knew why he wanted that time with me. I knew that he was worried about me. I knew that the whole team was. And honestly? They had every reason to be. I mean I did get hit by a train.

I stayed quite but I could tell that he was expecting some sort of a reaction.

"Umm what are you planning us on doing?" I asked him. He sighed slightly before responding, we both knew that it wasn't exactly going to be a day full of fun.

"Well I was thinking that we could start by cleaning your room together, maybe do some laundry, then get ready and go to dinner or something,"

"So you're saying that my tasks for today are to clean my room and take a real shower," I looked down, we both knew that taking care of hygiene was really difficult for me right now.

"I just want to help you Em. We can turn on some music and dance. We'll make it fun but you really can't keep living like this," I looked down at the apple that I had only taken two bites of, knowing that those were the only two bites I would take.

"Do we have to?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, but first I need to talk to Reese and walk her next door," I nodded softly.

"Dad?" I felt tears making their way into my eyes. In an effort to hold them back my throat began to feel very sore. Almost like it too was being hit by a train, trying to prevent the contents from spewing out upon impact.

"Hmm?" He hummed, coming back to sit after putting his coffee mug in the sink.

"I'm sorry," One tear slipped, a few others followed and before either one of us knew it, I was sobbing into his shoulder.

"Don't be baby," Was all he said as he rubbed circles into my back for what felt like hours. Once I had calmed down he pulled away.

"Now how about that shower?"

...

~Reece's POV~

"Reece it's time, you need to apologise," My dad finally said. We had been talking for about 30 minutes now but the last five have been silent.

"I know," I sighed. The truth was I just didn't know where to go after the apology. This had torn us apart to the extent that an apology wouldn't fix everything and both me and my dad knew that.

"Do you remember our rule about mistakes?" He asked me, it's almost like he could sense what I was thinking.

"Mistakes happen and that's okay it's just important that you learn to fix them when they do," I recited the quote I'd heard far to many times from my childhood. We sat in silence again and I tried to let the message sink in.

"This isn't like a spilled glass of water dad, I can't just clean it up. I don't know how to fix this one," I said quietly. For the first time, the true extent of this mistake finally occurred to me.

"Well that's what you have to figure out then isn't it?" He pulled me closer from where we were sitting side my side on my bed.

"It's not going to be easy Reece but she needs you right now,"

"I think she needs you more then she needs me," I sighed "After all, I am the one that caused this whole mess. Why would she want me?"

"That's exactly why she needs you. She needs your support. She needs you to let her know that it's okay. She needs you to tell her you love her. And yes she needs me too. She needs both of us if we're going to make this work. So here's the goal, tonight I'm going to help her get through some important changes. Tomorrow when you come home you're going to do everything in your power to fix this. Sound good?"

"Sounds like it's important." I responded. What I wanted to say was 'No, that doesn't sound good. It sounds hard and I don't know how to help her through this when I'm the cause' but I didn't.

"Alright. Let's walk you over to the Garcia's then," He said, looking at me with a crooked smile.

"Let's."

"Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness but because you deserve peace."
Jonathan Lockwood