Falling Into Sunday

4- I Am Reuniting

“Vi,” I hear somebody say while shaking my shoulder. “Venice, get up.”

I groan tiredly and shake my head. “Too tired.”

“You have company,” Emmett informs me.

“Who?” I ask, flipping over in my bed to see Emmett standing there beside my nightstand that now has an alarm clock thing on it and I can see that it’s eleven in the morning so I guess it’s time to get up now. I sit up with a long stretch and a loud yawn.

“Find out for yourself,” He laughs, turning and leaving the room. “She’s downstairs when you’re ready.”

I glare at his back for being all mysterious and then I get up out of bed. I don’t know who this company could be, so I quickly get dressed in jean shorts and a blouse and then brush my hair and teeth. The whole ordeal takes only about ten minutes and then I’m trotting downstairs with another yawn. I hear Emmett talking to somebody in the living room, so I go in there and I pause in my path when I see the familiar raven haired girl standing there in my living room.

“So like, how is she?” She asks Emmett, unaware of my presence in the room.

“Lex?” I croak, seeing my (ex) best friend standing there, shaking in her shoes for some reason. I’ve missed her so much that I just want to leap into her arms but I don’t because I don’t know if she’s here to shoot me or to beat me up or something. She might be mad about me leaving or she, like Emmett, might be just relieved that I’m not dead.

When I speak, she spins and sees me. Her brown eyes go wide under her adorably bushy eyebrows and then she starts to wail, running towards me. “Oh my, God, you’re not dead,” She wraps me tightly in her arms and starts bawling in my arms.

“Don’t fret,” I say, hugging her back as tightly as I can. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see her again and if I saw her, I didn’t know if she would ever forgive me for leaving like I did. I hug her and I release all of that relief that I see her and she doesn’t hate me and that’s wonderful. Lexi and I were best friends since elementary school and we’d always shared everything with each other, until that night when everything changed. She doesn’t know about any of that stuff because I left right after it all happened and I didn’t say goodbye or anything to anybody, including Lexi. “I’m still breathing.”

“I’m going to go pick Natalie up so you kids have your reuniting or whatever,” Emmett announces before grabbing his coat from the wrack and leaving the house. “Remember that Mom and Dad will be here in a few hours.”

“I thought you were dead,” She mumbles, pulling away from me with her face smothered in a slick sheen of tears that she quickly wipes away. “I- my fucking jeebies, I thought you were dead, Vi.”

“Well, I didn’t think that you were dead, but it’s still nice to know that you’re not,” I say, trying to joke but I know it’s not the time for jokes. That’s just what I do in situations like this, I joke. Not that I’m in this situation often or anything though.

“What happened?” She asks me. “I mean, one minute, we’re planning the world’s best summer ever and then the next, you’re a missing person and there’s memorials and I’m best friend-less. What the hell happened?”

“My brother happened,” I say with a long sigh. I take her hand and take her towards the stairs. “Come on, I’ll try to explain it the best that I can.”

She follows me upstairs to my disgustingly girly room that I need to paint if I’m going to be staying here and then we both sit on my bed. She’s still looking at me like I’m a ghost or something, but I’m sure that will wear off soon. At least, I hope so. My first instinct is to just tell her everything about what happened with Eli and my mom and then I want to tell her what happened in Billings with Mr. Erickson. My first instinct is to just tell her everything, but I know that I can’t do that. I want to, but I don’t want to bring it up again or to talk about it or to remember it any more than I already do. I want to forget about it and I know that if Lexi knows what happened, she’ll tell people who will try and do something to get justice for me or something. I appreciate it, but I can’t handle that at all. I decide to tell her what happened but I’ll make it faceless so that she doesn’t know who was involved in it.