One House Behind | ✓

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬

Shelly

I scoffed before going inside myself. With my phone plugged my phone in, I closed my door while grabbing my remote, and then threw myself on my bed. I was glad that we were only a family of three. I flipped and turned the T.V. on.

"So, today we are going to see if we can get-"

"Honey?" my mom said as she popped her head in.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, I thought you were asleep."

She opened the door wider and walked in. I moved over on the bed so she could lie down. As soon as she did, she wrapped an arm around my waist and cuddled me. I laughed like a little kid. I wanted to know how she was going to live without me when I went to college.

If I could even leave to see it.

"I feel like I don't see you even if you live in the house," she laughed.

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

"What have you been up to?"

"Nothing much, it's more like what have I not been doing because that's a long list," I sighed.

I felt like I had been doing that a lot; sighing. I turned in her arms so we were facing each other. She smiled as I looked into eyes that matched my own. On my mom's side, dark brown eyes were a trait that carried at least once. I had gotten it, she had gotten it from her dad and he had gotten it from his mother. It carried down like genes normally do but to me, it felt like everything.

Like I was a part of some greater thing despite us being a small speck in the universe.

"Have you and Dad been to the store?"

"Yeah, we have. It's crazy, everyone is rushing around and some people walk too close," she said scrunching her nose.

"Some people never knew personal space, this just kind of shows it."

"No, they didn't."

"Someone should teach them," I giggled.

"Yeah, the world thought they were."

We fell into silence as she lay with me. I was the only child and got all the attention. It was lovely and yet sad at the same time. I didn't like being alone without anyone to talk with. I knew my friends had tons of siblings and I hadn't been able to get another. My mother couldn't have any other children.

I had been her miracle baby.

So she had been cautious with me. Since birth, I had been watched like a hawk. And now that there was this deadly illness being thrown into the mix, I wasn't going to get out easily. It wasn't like I wanted to either as I didn't want to die. I was a homebody anyway.

"I love you," I said for no reason.

Because there was never a reason to tell a loved one that they were loved. My family always did that. It was at random times that people deserved to be told that. It wasn't like they had to prove their love, we would just reassure them.

"I love you too."

She squeezed me before we settled in a mix of embraced limbs, one arm over another and legs twined together, while I took an afternoon nap.