FICTION posted by onlysecond

Today is the day my life will change forever.

I’m staring at the ceiling as I lay in bed, listening to the house wake up. Mom is running back and forth outside, trying to remember any more last-minute tasks I’d forgotten to do. Such faith in me, Mom.

I’m reluctant to leave the warmth and comfort of my bed on the last morning I’ll ever spend on it. I finally get up and trudge to the bathroom. A mutant outside–my cousin, I’m guessing, yells to everyone that I’m finally up. Yup, it’s goodbye silence.

For the next two hours I’m bathed, dressed, styled, and fussed over, my family’s excited chatter swirling around me like a familiar veil. Then someone mentions your name and it’s as if someone pressed MUTE; and the whole world seems to just fade away. You’ve always had that effect on me. You probably always will.

I remember bits and pieces of us throughout the years, from the time you stole my lunch freshman year (you big bully) to when you held me under the bleachers in college when my professor published my paper as his own, to when you treated my entire office to coffee and donuts just to get my out of my PMS funk, to when you helped heal the rift between my sister and me… more…