Auburn

Before ( chapter 1)

She said I'd never drown. Not in the lake. Not in a shipwreck. Not even from stumbling drunk into someone's bottomless backyard pool. She'd say I could hold my breath for minutes at a time. But if you heard her tell you, you'd think she meant days, even years. Long enough to live down there, skimming the bottom looking for pieces of lives that had once been lost and ever so briefly looking for rescue lights that might never come. It was impossible and you wouldn't believe a word unless Lilli told you. My sister could tell you anything and you'd believe it, some would say she was hypnotizing, too beautiful for eyes to function they'd say. If they asked me I'd agree, after all she was almost perfect.

All that time she spent talking me up with statements she believed were true. She was right. The body i found that night wouldn't be, couldn't mine.

We had no idea, No idea how much the lake could take from a person.

This was all before sirens wailed in the distance. Before spotlights cut through the trees and landed on the glistening waters. Before frantically grabbing our stuff and making a break for it. Before running through the large pines that surrounded the lake. Before the unforgiving ground cut our feet. Before hearts threatened to break through ribs. All while wondering, 'Is this really happening?','Is she really dead?'

Before all this, all my sister wanted to do was throw me a 16th. So that i wouldn't feel invisible, so that i wouldn't feel like I wasn't always living in someones shadow.