Now You're Back

T.G.I.F

T.G.I.F

“Thanks for picking me up Grace,” Dylan said as he slid into the passenger seat. He smiled at his sister before waving to his friends who were still waiting for their rides.

“No problem little brother,” Grace smiled as she sped towards the highway. “So, how was your day?”

“It was okay, I had a free so I got to hang out with Molly,” he said. Grace turned to see an unbecoming blush begin to appear on her brother’s cheeks.

“Aww, my little bro all grown up and hanging out with girls,” she cooed before pinching his cheek with her left hand.

“Dude!” he moaned as he slapped her hand away. “Eyes on the road otherwise you’re going to get us killed,” he said playfully.

“Yes mister L-plater,” she teased after removing her hand and placing it securely on the steering wheel of her Yaris.

“How was your day then?” he asked, in an attempt to try to divert the conversation from Molly.

“Oh, I had an early morning lecture, caught up with Clara and then went to the hospital,” she said quietly. She suddenly remembered the doctor’s bad news and didn’t know how to tell her brother.

“Did Clara tell you the news?” he questioned. His blue eyes flicked to her face before staring straight ahead at the sky.

“How did you know about the news?” she countered.

Their family had always been close family friends with Leo, Nate and Clara’s family. Clara had an older sister and Leo and Nate both had younger brothers who were best friends with Dylan. Grace remembered her mum telling her how the four of them were romantics and wanted their children to have the ‘childhood sweetheart’ story, so they had tried to plan their pregnancies together. It had worked for Nate and Clara, they were high school sweethearts and nothing seemed to be able to break them apart. Grace thought back to when she thought that she and Leo would have that as well.

She was so lost in memory lane that she didn’t hear Dylan say “Tyler told me and Alex that his older brother was coming back from Sydney. We were at Alex’s place so Nate was there with Clara. Clara told everyone that no one was supposed to tell you, because she wanted to break it to you gently.”

“Huh what?” Grace asked, quickly snapping out of her musings.

Dylan sighed before repeating everything he just said. Grace’s frowned, making her small nose crinkle slightly on top of the bridge. Clara didn’t need to break the news gently to her. It had been two years since Leo.

“Well she didn’t need to break it gently to me, I’m perfectly fine,” she said defiantly as she parked on their driveway and then cut the engine.

“Obviously,” her brother snorted before opening the car door and heaving his backpack onto his shoulders.

“You’re such a dork,” she said, bumping his shoulder with hers. Even though he was only eighteen months younger than her, he was more than a head taller than his tiny sister.

“You suck,” he retorted as she slid her key in and let them into the house.

“You love me,” she shouted down as she raced up the stairs and into her room. After putting her bag onto her bed, she fished out her phone to see a couple of messages from Clara and the rest of her group. She decided to open Clara’s first.

It’s a Friday, we’re going to Civic and you’re definitely coming with us

Then one from Ellie