Moon Tower

14.

this chapter has been edited and updated. enjoy!xx
luz

Niall's birthday was today, a Friday, and he was having a huge house party to celebrate. He'd done this the last two years I'd known him, and each time I invited my Tico as my plus one. It was a day, or night, I suppose, that we got to see each other that wasn't at our parents' house for family dinner or some other family party.

But before I could think about the festivities that awaited me tonight, I had school. Classes went okay. I went early this morning for my business class, followed by a class on ethics and medicine. Since it was Friday, our professor gave us a fun activity where we partnered up and pretended to be patients with varying forms of health problems and had to recommend a treatment plan accordingly. It was supposed to be fun, at least. My partner seemed to recognize that I had a famous boyfriend (I mean, those were her words not mine, he's usually just Harry to me) and kept peppering me with questions about my relationship instead of the pretend knee injury she was supposed to have. I tried to be as polite as possible, trying to focus on the task at hand, but she kept circling back to Harry. She finally quieted down when our professor cleared his throat and gave us a pointed look, but I felt awkward the rest of class. I could tell this girl, she didn't even tell me her name, just started firing question after question, was itching to talk to me after class, so I shot her one more polite smile then booked it out of class.

I drove to the other side of campus where the school gym was to work out for a bit before heading back to my apartment. My last class left me feeling disoriented, and I was hoping some time at the gym would take care of it. I got on a treadmill and worked my way up to a run, losing myself in the monotony of my feet beating against it. I may have spent a little too much time running, feeling the familiar pull in my right hip. Sighing, I lowered the setting on the treadmill so I could do a cool down walk, then stepped off and to the side so I could stretch my tired muscles out. Grabbing my gym bag from one of the communal lockers, I headed back to my car.

On the short drive home, I called my sister, having noticed she tried to call me while I was at the gym. When Sara greeted me in Spanish, I knew two things: she wanted to talk about something she didn't want her present company to hear (most likely her kids), and what she wanted to talk about was a touchy subject. I was right on both accounts, I just didn't realize how right.

She thought her husband was having an affair.

Now, Sara and her husband Cory's relationship was somewhat of a whirlwind. They'd met a couple years back, dated for a few months, then got married when they found out Sara was pregnant with their son Dean. I liked Cory just fine, I suppose. He was nice enough, and Sara had always had a good head on her shoulders, so the fact that she was so in love with him won him some points in my book. But now with the bomb Sara just dropped, I didn't know what to think.

"Sara, are you sure?" I asked her. When she spoke to me in Spanish, I felt like I had to do the same. It felt odd when we were speaking to each other in two different languages.

"Yes, Luz. I was going over our budget for this month, a-and I saw that he opened another credit card. He made purchases at a lingerie store, Luz. I-I don't-" Sara was never one to lose her head over anything, and the little sister in me was scared at how frantic she sounded. Part of me thought it didn't feel right that I was the one doing the comforting, but she'd done it for me all these years, and now it was my turn to shoulder her burdens for her.

"Shh, Sara, take a deep breath." I didn't tell her it was going to be okay because I didn't know for certain if things would be. I didn't even know what "it" would even refer to. "Are you going to leave him?"

I heard my sister inhale deeply for a few seconds, then exhale. When she spoke again, she sounded a tiny bit more together. "I don't know. God, I just never thought I would be in a situation like this."