I watched Adam closely. His gaze was still trained on the same spot for the last 5 minutes and I was growing worried. I mean, I was worried but I was going to dive into a panic attack if he doesn’t move soon.A few hours ago, the hospital called Adam to inform him that Carla passed on. The news broke him. A lump was lodged in my throat ever since, I wanted to cry and grief with Adam but I knew I had to be strong for him. He needed a support and between the two of us, he was the one who lost his mother and I was the only one there that wasn’t sobbing their eyes out so I was currently comforting the whole Jones’ family.Pio was seating on my lap, his head tucked under my chin and I could feel the tears dribble onto my shirt softly. I couldn’t bring myself to care though, the crying little boy was the only thing in my mind right now and I couldn’t be bothered about anything else than to be a line that this family could cl
I shut the door of my car and walked in the cafe, ordering some overdue hot chocolate and took a seat on one of the booths.A minute passed, then it was two, three and soon, half an hour.I tapped my nails impatiently on the wooden table. Where the hell was this guy?Probably banging some chic; typical.Jealous? Hah. Not a chance. Don’t sweat it y’all, I’ve got my eyes on some hot piece of ass and it was definitely not the man- whore you were thinking about.The bell above the door chimed, signaling someone’s arrival. By then, I was already on my phone playing piano tiles 2 with an ear bud stuffing my left ear. A hand landed on the table and jolted me back to reality and made me lose focus. My finger slipped and tapped the wrong tile, causing the song to end.Goddamit.That could’ve been a new best! This guy needed to learn some things about manners. I couldn’t wipe my annoyed expression even if I wanted to.
He rang the doorbell. My dad rang the doorbell. Someone get me out of here.“Dad, let’s not do this right now,” I begged him while tugging the sleeve of his shirt but my mom squeezed my shoulder and stopped me from uttering another word.“Nonsense sweetie, we need to offer them comfort. I mean we did go through all the trouble of preparing this fruit basket for them on a last minute’s notice. We can’t just leave, it would be rude for us to-“My dear mother was cut off by the door being opened. Pio stood there, on his tip toes, trying to pry the door open and caught a glimpse on the strangers that were ringing the doorbell for the past 5 minutes.At first, the little guy wasn’t able to see me from where he stood behind the door. The only thing he saw was probably the intimidating stare of my dad who was having a hard time softening his features as to not frighten the boy into slamming the door on our
Today was the day of the burial. My parents decided to join me and show their condolences by attending the funeral. We were already on our way and the whole car ride was silent. The funeral was held in a town a couple of hours away, where Adam moved from. Her family wanted to bury her with the rest of her ancestors so we had to sit in the car for a two hours straight.I kept my eyes trained on the trees that whizzed by as we drove and I was trying really hard to keep my mind off the fact that we were going to bury Carla’s body today. Everyone knew that a funeral came with heartfelt eulogies.Jerry requested me to make a special eulogy for Carla. Although I tried preparing myself and wrote what I wanted to say in a piece of paper, nothing sounded enough to express how much of a wonderful woman Carla was so I ended up crumpling the papers and then, I had a room to sweep.In the end, I had to drop everything and rest, leaving my mind to wing it
It didn’t take long for me to rush to the body’s side and roll him over to see if it was who I thought it was.God no, please don’t let this be real.A sob forced its way out of me when I saw his face before rushing to check his pulse. It was faint but I could feel the beat that was weakening by the second. Blood soaked the blades of grass under his head.No, I won’t let him die on me. I promised Carla I would take care of her family. I won’t let this happen. Not after what just happened with Carla.Preston, you bitch. Don’t you die on me now, you insensitive jerk.A tear leaked out from the corner of my eye and it didn’t even take me a second to dial the hospital. I couldn’t even think about manners right now. Not when the brother of the dude I love was severely injured.“Please send an ambulance to St. Andrews Graveyard as soon as possible. There’s a cut on his forehead, his heartbea
“So you were the one who slid those envelopes into my mom’s hospital room to help pay her bills?” I winced when I saw the look in his eyes but nodded slowly.“Case; what were you thinking?! You could have died! We could have found another way to pay her bills,” I couldn’t help myself at that. I tried to bite my tongue so bad that I tasted a slight metallic taste but that was the last straw.“And then what? Watch her die slowly on that white hospital bed and see you grieve even worse because you felt guilty for not being able to prolong it for a little while until we found enough money to fund for her operation? I saw an opportunity to at least try to help buy Carla some time and I took it. That winning prize could’ve funded her whole operation if we just had more time.” My last words were accompanied with a sob.Time; that was our true enemy; It wouldn’t stop to let us catch up with it. E
It was Friday and I was sweating a river. I couldn’t seem to have a much needed break. Even from school; especially from school. It was surreal.“Ms. Johnson, please report to the dean’s office immediately,” the voice from the intercom announced. I gulped ever so subtly. Not good.Come on, Johnson. Breathe. As long as you’re not in the wrong, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I was helping Adam out in that brawl and I was just trying to keep those guys from beating him to death.Okay, I may have put a fellow schoolmate in a gullet-in choke but hey, he was asking for it.Seriously, let’s face it, he was beating Adam up! Did you know how many girls would’ve killed them even if I didn’t jump to his rescue? I was doing them a favor by handling it myself and preventing them from getting trampled by enraged ‘fangirls’.Okay, I may have made that up. I didn’t really know if the dude
“Dibs on the remote control!” I yelled out while racing Penny to the couch. I jumped over it and landed on my butt with both hands raised.“Incoming!” Penny shouted behind me and I didn’t think twice before rolling over to the far end of the couch to give her room. She did a small flip and landed back first on the sofa, having the breath knocked out of her in a huff.I grabbed the pillow and threw it at her before grabbing the remote from the coffee table. My parents were out on a dinner, dad’s been talking about it the whole day. I heard they were going on a candlelight dinner on a ship or something; oh well.“Case, some help?” Adam’s voice came from the kitchen and I excused myself from Penny, hauling my ass off the comfy couch and made my way to the kitchen.“Yo, what do you need help with?” I greeted him unceremoniously, leaning on the door. We were having a sleep over to celeb
The car had toppled over and had landed on its side. Casey was under me. I could feel the liquid that drenched my eyelids, preventing me from cracking my eyes open. I felt the pressure on my arm that laid under Casey's head to protect it from the jostling that happened as the car swerved and fell sideways. I couldn't feel my lower half either but from the movements that Casey made under me, I knew that I've successfully cocooned her.Through the blinding pain, I heard Casey's cries and screams over a faint hissing noise. Every movement she made that nudged any part of my body would flare a new set of pain that threatened to knock me out. But amidst the unbearable pain, I felt relief in my heart.My little sister was okay. She was alive. She was moving.That was all I needed.
I pulled up at the spot where I dropped Casey off earlier and got out of the car. I jogged to the front door where Casey stood, one of her friends hanging a few feet behind her with what looked like my sister's purse in her hands.I locked eyes with Casey and she started walking. I couldn't read her expression as she looked straight ahead and power walked towards me. I slowed down, ready to spread my arms to give her a hug, but she stepped past me and walked towards the car instead. I turned to look at her back as she continued walking before turning back to her friend, handing me Casey's stuff.Casey's friend gave me a look and shook her head, tipping me off on how bad it went. As I took Casey's bag from her and ran after my little sister who was already walking towards the car, I watched the drag in her steps, as if they were the heav
"Yeah, just drop by any time you feel like it, Bryant. I've got no plans tonight so I'll probably be home. I'll text you my address." General Reeves said through the phone."Thank you, General. I'll call you when I'm on my way there." I spoke into the phone before hanging up.It's been a few days since I last heard from Dom. If our fight the other day didn't happen, I wouldn't have thought much about his silence since we weren't the kind of friends who had to talk to each other every day to stay close but how we left things off the last time we met made me worried.I checked his social media account to see if he was active or had made any posts lately but found nothing that eased my worries. Maybe I was too hard on him..But wha
I shut the front door and locked it before taking off my shoes. Casey was laying sprawled on the living room couch in her pajamas, covered by a layer of blanket. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, head resting on a pillow propped up against the armrest and hands holding a spoon and an ice cream tub. The TV was playing one of the episodes of 'Salvation' on Netflix.When she heard me stroll into the living room, she raised her head and craned her neck to look at me. "You're home early," she commented, looking at the time displayed on her phone screen.It was only 6 p.m. so technically it was early. After staying for a few hours in the park, watching the sunset together, I told Maddy what I was planning and she understandingly agreed without any objections or complaints. I was lucky to have a supportive and understanding girlfriend.
I tilted my head up with my eyes closed, trying to just absorb the fresh air and let it cool my insides and help me relax.I opened my eyes and watched as the wind shook the branches of the tree we were sitting under. Fall was already here and winter was just right around the corner, approaching fast. The branches were already balding, giving it a bare look, making the tree seem almost naked without its green. The leaves that managed to stay on the branches had already turned colors, pulling different shades of orange, yellow and sometimes even a beautiful bright red. The sight made by the tree branches reaching out and creating a web right above us, mapping across the space between us and the sky, was entrancing, at least to me. I could never get enough of it.The sun was nowhere to be seen today, hidden behind some clouds. The air aro
"Leaving?" Casey asked me as she stirred her cereal and milk in a bowl for breakfast."Yeah, I'll be back by 10 p.m. tonight." I told her over the jiggle of my keys as I pocketed them. "Do you have any plans today?"Casey shook her head, "Get home as late as you'd like, I'm not a kid, I'll be alright. I'll just be chilling inside, binge watching netflix and enjoying my ice cream."I didn't want to argue with her about going home later. It was more for my peace of mind than anything else. For the past year, I've tried very hard to never let Casey be alone. Especially in an empty house late at night. Of course she didn't understand where my worries and anxiety was coming from but that's alright. I'll do the worrying and being the anxious one, she can live in blissful ignorance that comes
"You haven't forgotten what day tomorrow is, right?" Casey asked me while she dumped her things on the foot of her bed.I plopped on my bed beside hers and rubbed my eyes tiredly. I hummed in response to her question, laying my arm over my eyes to block the light streaming in through the window by my bed.When she didn't continue speaking, I raised my arm slightly and took a peek at her.Casey stood over me, staring me down with her hands propped on her hips."You totally forgot what tomorrow is, didn't you?" She asked again.I grunted in annoyance, prompting her to stop speaking in circles and just get to the point.I felt a slap l
I rang the doorbell and waited for a few minutes for Dom to answer it and let me in.I had the urge to look around to check if anyone was watching me while I was waiting but I didn't want to tip off the people watching if there were any. I didn't want to give them further reason to suspect that I was hiding something.Because I was, and they're not supposed to know that.It was a Saturday afternoon and it was way too shiny than I'd like it to be. The sun was beating down my back and it was starting to get uncomfortable, so I knocked on the door to rush Dom."Coming! Hold your bloody horses!" Dom cursed from behind the door as the door jiggled and swung open. Dom stepped aside once he saw it was me and let me in. "You're here."
We stepped into the restaurant and told them we had made a reservation under Johnson.A waiter led us to a table where a man in a collared shirt sat, talking into his phone.When he saw us approaching, he waved and said a few words into the phone before hanging up and stashing the device away, smiling widely at my parents."I thought you stood me up!" He joked, standing from his seat to warmly greet my parents with hugs.Dad slightly turned his body to let the man see Casey and I clearly."This is Bryant, my oldest." I smiled as Dad made the introductions, stepping forward and offering my hand.He took my hand and shook it firmly. H