Match

24: Sasha To The Rescue

"Here we want to relax while reaching for our inner energy."

All of the lights have been turned off. Other than sunlight creating thin outlines on the curtains, the room is pitch black. Cole sits flat on the floor with his laptop a few feet across, the only source of light that somehow isn't an eyesore for him. He sits while bending his knees out, pressing his feet together, with a straight posture, and awaits the next command.

"Next we want to breathe in, hold, and breathe out."

He's following the instruction from one of his mom's videos on her YouTube channel. He hates to admit it to himself, but if cleaning doesn't calm his nerves, he tunes into one of her videos and does an exercise.

"Breathe in..."

With shut eyelids and relaxed shoulders, he takes in a huge breath through his nose.

"Hold..."

A head full of hot air anticipating to be expelled.

"...and breathe out."

He tries his best to not make it a forceful exhalation. Out his mouth, he exhales until his rising chest gradually deflates. Despite his effort in trying to calm down, the regret resurfaces: he lied to his friend, Jonah, in order to try and escape his feelings. The text from earlier inflicts his focus.

Hayden:

last text b4 i go to the airport! see u in like 24 hours lol.

And a few hours later.

Hayden:

our flight got delayed. so its gonna be ~35 hrs now. :(

All of a sudden, his doorbell rings. Instinct and fast reflexes make him shut his laptop. Who the hell could that be? he thinks. He grabs his laptop and places its dormant body on the desk, then peeks around the curtain. Although the front door light is turned off, the sun's rays draw an outline of a short figure with hip-length hair standing at the entrance. It's his sister.

He flicks on a lamp in the hallway while walking to the front door. Once he opens it, he's met with a large package.

"Huh?"

"Came by and noticed you didn't take this inside," she says, "I've seen packages stolen from doorsteps too many times."

"Oh..." he grabs it, cradling it in his arms. "Thanks."

He doesn't recall ordering anything online. His eyes scour the writing until he comes across Hayden's full name on it. Ah, of course. As he's about to shut the door, he's halted by Sasha's hand obstructing it.

"Hang on."

Cole raises an eyebrow.

She points to the light above them. "You turned the lights off. That means you're upset, right?"

Cole tightens his lips together. His eyes travel to the ground beneath, as if that was where he tried to bury his shame.

Sasha rests both her hands on her hips with a tilted head. "Remember when we would fight in mom's house as kids? You'd always stomp to your room, shut the door, and shut off the lights."

Like a tight mussel, his mouth remains clamped shut.

"Then after the angry steam settled," she says, "I'd knock on the door, and we'd talk about it. So tell me what's up."

Finally he breaks. He lets out a long sigh, then looks between her and any possible eavesdroppers.

"Let's talk inside," he says.