Dancing In The Rain

one

I sit up on my bed and release the thick chunk of blanket I was tightly gripping on. My room is still dark, rays of moonlight shining through the gaps of my window blinds.

I had screamed myself awake. Again. My forehead is wet with beads of perspiration trickling down my face. I lie back down in an effort to fall back asleep but to no avail. 

I've been avoiding it but it always finds a way to haunt me. It visits me at night as nightmares, appearing like a dream at first. 

I turn on the fairy lights I taped on my wall last year with my brother, Adrian, before turning on my phone because, well...take care of your eyes, kids.

The screen of my phone lit up and it read "03:08". Great. Now how am I going to get sleep for tomorrow?

I turn off my phone to somehow try fall back asleep but right when the screen showed nothing but black emptiness, it lit up again.

A notification from Adrian. Without thinking twice, I tap on it.

*****

His message read; "Hey, Ash! I found this and I thought you might want to see it.  *one attachment* " 

Curious to see what he found, I open his attachment.

His attachment consisted an old picture. The background suggested that it was taken in our backyard. It looked very different. Toys were scattered everywhere and our fence was painted as a rainbow in the sky with clouds surrounding it. 

Now, our backyard is a clean area of green grass and flowers planted by the fence. The fence changed too, it's now a grey with a tint of blue.

In the picture, I think I was about eight or so. Adrian was wearing beige bermudas and a striped blue and white T-shirt. He was carrying me on his back and I was wearing yellow pants with a purple blouse. What was I even thinking? Wait, no- I was probably not thinking. 

Next to Adrian stood a boy. He was in jeans and a sky blue T-shirt. Jae. Jae Adams.

We all wore bright smiles on our faces but I remember how they were wiped off our faces ever so easily. That day is still fresh in my mind like as if it happened yesterday...

***

flashback

"DAAAAD! Are you done up there? You promised you would finish in five minutes thirty minutes ago!" Adrian yelled. 

"How would you know? You don't even know how to count what more how to read time," I said to him.

Jae gave a laugh and I chuckled. Adrian, on the other hand, was furious at me. He scowled and was quick to defend himself.

"NO, I'M OLDER THAN YOU! I KNOW HOW TO COUNT AND READ TIME! YOU DON'T!" he yelled and crossed his arms. 

"Sure, you're older than me. By two minutes," I muttered under my breath. 

"I heard that!" Adrian yelled again. At this point, Jae was holding him back from getting his hands on me.

"Uncle Brent! Are you done yet?" Jae asked, trying to pull our attention away from our argument.

"Yes, I'm finally done. You all can come up now," Dad said from inside the treehouse he built. We all forgot about our little argument and gave squeals of excitement. We then gathered at the bottom of a large tree.

We climbed up the ladder of wood nailed into the trunk of the tree leading to the treehouse in our backyard and gasped at the sight of the treehouse.

Sure, it wasn't fancy or anything, but it had what a small cabin should have. It was a room with a roof and glass paned windows. Yes, glass paned windows. Dad's an architect. He picked up building skills from Grandpa. 

We step into the house, our eyes wide. Our jaws dropped. It was amazing. 

"So what do all of you think?" Dad asked with a bright smile on his face. He was clearly happy our reactions turned out as he expected.

"Dad this is so cool!" Adrian exclaimed, although it did sound a little like a gasp.

"Yeah, Dad! This is so cool!" I exclaimed.

"Stop copying my lines!" Adrian frowned at me. I rolled my eyes. I didn't realise I had repeated his comment.

"Jae? What do you think, champ?" he put his hands on his knees so his his face was at the same height as ours.

Jae just looked at him and hugged him. Then, before pulling away, he said softly; "This is beautiful, Uncle Brent. I wish Father was as awesome as you."