Touch The Sky | ✓

Nineteen

The next few days blend together: a jumbled mess of crying with Katie, making her meals because she just doesn't physically have the capacity right now and staying in contact with the rest of the family. Stephen was able to get the week off, but he, like Katie, is struggling pretty badly with the whole thing, understandably.

It is great to be there for them both, but it's selfishly almost a relief when the weekend comes, signifying the arrival of our parents and some extra hands around the house, as well as strength to borrow from others.

Despite his strained relationship with Mom, Terry flies out too. On Friday evening, I borrow Katie's car to pick him up from the airport.

I sink into his arms the second he approaches me at arrivals. His head rests on top of my chin and I close my eyes, squeezing him tight. 'Hey,' my voice is muffled against his chest.

'Hey,' he returns, stepping back, even though I'd stand like that forever. 'How are you?' he places his hands on my upper arms, looking at me in concern. 'You look exhausted.'

I smile tiredly, moving away so he's not looking at me so intensely anymore. 'I am,' I admit quietly. 'But it's fine, I'm fine.'

It's not that I don't want to be here, or that I don't want to support Katie where I can. It's just that being around grieving people is hard, especially when it's not really your loss in the same way and there's nothing to say. I'd choose to be here over and over again, but that doesn't mean I can't acknowledge the difficulty of the situation.

He grimaces but drops it for now. 'Thanks for coming to get me.'

'Of course,' I clear my throat. 'Mom and Dad arrived this morning,' I inform him, unsure about his reaction. I mean, he knows that they're here.

He nods, as we start walking towards the exit. 'Yeah. That'll be fun.'

I sigh, grimacing, because of course during this family disaster, we have to be having some kind of drama. 'This is about Katie-'

'I know,' he cuts in, before I can finish my sentence. 'I'm not that selfish, Cora.'

I roll my eyes, huffing out a breath. 'You didn't let me finish,' I protest. 'I was going to say that this is about Katie, so hopefully Mom will be on good behaviour. In fairness, she's been brilliant today.'

I don't miss him swallowing, his eyes casting over for a second. 'Right.'

I wince, wishing I could take back my words. This weekend is probably going to be hard enough already, and it probably doesn't help hearing how great Mom has been with our sister, but is so furious at him.

'Anyway,' Terry breezes on, his expression shifting again. 'I'm starving. Do we need to go to a drive thru or will there be food when we get there?'

Despite there almost certainly being a lot of food back at the house, I turn to my brother with a growing smile on my face. 'I mean, we could go for a takeaway. Just like old times.'

His expression matches mine, so I drive us to the nearest McDonalds.

We both order our old favourites and sit in the car in the car park, just like we used to when we were teenagers.

Somethings blooms in my chest, tugging at me fiercely. Life is far too short and precious to take anything for granted and this is something I want to guard with my whole heart.

The car journey back to Katie's is soundtracked by Joshua Hyslop and I smile as we both just hum along to the soft melodies.

While there is a lot to talk about, as there always is with us, we're both too tired right now. Any conversation can wait until we've at least seen everyone else.