A Light in the Dark

A Sibling in the Drug Business

27: Kaitlyn

Recap: …he pressed play on the television, he must have recorded the news to show me this.

“I was just watching it again when you walked in, so I paused it…Kaitlyn, our mom is dead.”

 

            “Wait so you’ve known about this for how long?”

            “Since about a week after mom showed up.”

            “And you didn’t tell me?”

            “Ah… no. I’m sorry Kaitlyn it’s just-” I started laughing. I have to admit, that may have not been the perfect time to be laughing, I mean my brother just figured out our mom died.

            “Kaitlyn, you’re scaring me.” I tried to calm down a bit so I could explain myself.

“Ronnie, that’s just around when I found out too. Mom had been the anonymous person who paid for dad’s surgery and hospital stay.”

“Wait, so you knew?” I nodded and hugged my little brother. “You knew and you didn’t tell me?”

“You didn’t tell me.”

“Touché. What are we going to tell dad?”

“I say we don’t.”

“But Kaitlyn-”

“They got a divorce. Mom didn’t leave, they split up. Dad just never told us.”

“What? How did you-” The front door then opened to reveal my aunt.

“Who’s ready for dinner!” I quickly grabbed the remote from Ronnie and turned the TV off. Aunt Grace then walked in carrying two large pizza boxes. “You’re dad said he’ll be home in five minutes so by the time we get everything set up he should be here!” It was so relieving to hear her say that. It made me smile and then help her with the kitchen; Ronnie and I would have to finish our conversation later. By the time I had gotten out the cups and soda for everyone, dad walked through the door with a large sigh. He hugged Ronnie and ruffled his hair.

“Hey!” We were all laughing and I just felt so happy for this one moment with my family despite all that had been going on.

“I just had to deal with three cavities on one kid and we’ve been swamped at the office all day. I’m starved, let’s get dinner started!” My dad was a dentist for our town. He was the only dentist in town, actually. I mean, he wasn’t the big dentist who earned way too much money per year, but there was no other dentist office in town. We all sat down together and had pizza from Marco’s (ever since Mason introduced me to the place, I started getting pizza from there).

“So Kaitlyn, how was your day today?”

“Way to show favoritism dad,” Ronnie said and dad just chuckled.

“Well I had work earlier, but I had fun last night.”

“Right, the sleepover at Brandon’s.” Dad smiled at me and it hit me just how much I missed having a family. Even if my mom wasn’t there, she never was. A random pang rang through my heart, it was different knowing she was dead. But I had my dad, he was here and having dinner with us. He was okay and our family could pick up where it left off…. Right?

***

Monday was a nightmare. The first day of exams was always the slowest. I had English and physics exams right next to each other. At least Mason had to suffer through it with me. Afterwards we met Dani and Curtis at the cafeteria. We all walked to school that morning from Mason’s so we had to walk back there to get our cars, thank God it was a half day. Ronnie had to take the bus home, unless Marina’s parents picked them up. The four of us made our way out of the school, but someone grabbed my arm as my friends kept walking. They stopped when they realized I had stopped. I looked to see a pink-manicured hand wrapped around my wrist.