"Lucy," Scar called me from downstairs. I quickly finished getting dressed and put my wet hair up in ponytail as I went downstairs.
"Yeah? What's up?" I asked, frowning when I saw the look on her face.
"It's AJ. I don't know what's wrong with him," She answered, pointing out the open front door. Barefoot, I ran out to the car and saw AJ sitting still, face a mixture of white and dark green.
"He came with me to get some food. I left him alone for two minutes and when I came back he was like this. He hasn't said anything," Scar explained, worried.
"AJ," I tried to get his attention but he seemed as if he was in a trance. I snapped my fingers in front of his face but he didn't even blink.
"Help me get him inside," I told Scar, grabbing AJ's arm. It took a while but between the two of us we were able to carry a semi-limp AJ up the stairs and onto his bed. He sat, frozen still just staring off at nothing.
"AJ," I called out to him again.
"Has this ever happened?" Scar asked me.
"No," I said, shaking my head. I wondered if I should call Nana but I quickly shot the idea down. The last thing we needed was for her to freak out and come up here. Instead, I slipped AJ's shoes off and laid him on top of his bed. I sat beside him, waiting for a sign that he was coming out of this hypnotic state. Every so often I'd check the time but even after almost an hour AJ was no sooner to emitting a response.
"I saw him," He finally said as I was drifting off. My eyes snapped to his but he was still staring off into space.
"Who?" I asked, wondering who he could've seen that would cause this reaction.
"I recognized him. I thought I was seeing things but he had the same dark blue eyes and shaggy hair with that one blonde streak on the top" AJ explained. I frowned, wondering who he could've been talking about.
"I saw him Lucy. I saw Austin," AJ continued. My eyes widened and I immediately straight up. The name rang in my head repeatedly.
"That's not possible," I stressed to AJ.
"I saw him. I know it was him," AJ replied, still dazed. I stood up, stepping away from AJ. He finally snapped out of it and turned to look at me. He sat up, looking me straight in the eye.
"Don't," I said, interrupting whatever he was about to say.
"You can't avoid this anymore," AJ told me.
"Don't," I repeated more firmly.
"What's going on?" Scar asked, coming into the room and looking between us.
"Princess denial is upset she has to hand over her crown," AJ responded.
"What?" Scar asked, confused.
"I saw Austin," AJ clarified for her.
"What?" Scar gasped.
"Stop," I said loudly.
"Stop what, talking?" AJ asked, standing up and advancing towards me.
"Just stop," I said, barely breathing.
"Wow, she's actually showing some kind of emotion other than fake bliss," AJ mocked me.
"I am not listening to this," I muttered, turning towards the door.
"You can't keep running from this. You're going have to acknowledge what happened soon enough," AJ called after me as I slammed the door to the bathroom shut. Climbing into the tub, I let the cold porcelain cool my skin. As I lay there, I couldn't stop my mind from racing as the memories flashed.
It had been months since our parents death. We had moved in with Nana and grandfather but every week Austin would take me to our house. AJ was too young to care about anything except his toy leggos so it always just us two. It was an ordinary Tuesday when Austin decided he wanted to go for the second time that week. As usually, I said nothing but I followed him out the car. Driving there always seemed to take hours when it was only half an hour. Every time I stepped through the door of the house, my mind would go back to the day I had found them. Austin hated himself for not being there. I never asked him where he was. I had my suspicions but that wasn't important. I followed Austin upstairs to the bedroom. It had been cleaned and everything was covered with white sheets. I climbed onto the bed and laid down, as usual, and stared up at the white ceiling. Normally Austin would lay beside me and we would remain quiet as we stared away.
"I'm sorry," He said this time.
"What?" I whispered. I turned my head and saw he was standing a few feet beside me. I sat up and watched him curiously.
"I hope you can understand in the future but I won't blame you if you hate me for awhile. I just can't do it anymore. I need to do something," Austin mumbled. I said nothing as I watched him remove a black metal object from his waistband. I continued to watch silently as he pressed the shiny object to his temple.
"Is breá liom tú," Were his last words before a loud bang echoed through the room and his body fell. My eyes never strayed from the limp body on the floor or the blood that oozed from his head. I think I sat there for an entire day, just staring until I saw the body being covered by a black, plastic tarp and Nana took me away. I had watched my own brother kill himself right before my eyes. But instead of crying or feeling depressed, for some reason I felt content for the first time in almost four months.
"Lucy," I heard as I focused back on my surroundings. The room had become dark and I was still laying in my bathtub.
"Are you okay?" Scar asked me as soon as I opened the door.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Really, great actually," I replied, smiling at her.
"Of course she is. When isn't she fine? She's like a damn robot. Sometimes I wonder if she killed him herself," AJ said angrily. A hard slap echoed across the hall as my hand made contact with AJ's cheek.
"I guess that theory just went out the window considering you saw him and all," I growled, shoving past him.
***
"Come to practice with me," Mason suggested as we walked from Econ together.
"Yeah, I don't feel like going home anyway," I agreed.
"Are you okay?" he asked, pulling me closer to him.
"I'm fine. Just don't really want to be alone. Scar is at the library," I explained.
"You can go sit on those bleachers over there," Mason said, kissing my forehead before running off to join his team on the field. I sat on the metal bench, shivering as the coldness spread through my clothing. I wrapped my sweater tighter around me and leaned back as I watched the boys practice. My mind went back to yesterday. AJ had claimed to have seen our dead older brother, which was obviously impossible. But oddly, in the back of my mind something felt wrong.
I felt eyes on me from across the field. I thought it was just Mason checking on me but when I looked up, light blue orbs were staring at me. They looked so familiar, especially with the shaggy dark hair that surrounded them. I sat up immediately, leaning over and narrowing my eyes to see better. The guy turned around quickly and began to walk away. I stood up and on impulse, and I went after him.
