Time. It's funny how one moment you're crawling out of bed on a Monday morning, unwilling to get to work, school, college. Then it's Sunday, you're lying in bed all day, enjoying the nothingness of your existence. Or maybe questioning it. But at least you're in bed.
Time. You get into a new relationship. The love and the butterflies are constantly there. Then, two years later, you get happily married. Or happily break up, because they were toxic for you and you couldn't walk away. But, damn, you got the time to stand on your own feet and walk away.
Time. You just gave birth. You hold your baby for the first time and it's new and scary and beautiful. Then, your kid is eighteen and leaves you for college and start their own life.
Time. One minute you're hugging the person you love the most in the world. The next minute they're gone.
One minute your mother is there. And then it's her one year death anniversary.
Time. It's funny how it works. How fast it disappears. And how much time we waste trying to reach... time.
One year. It had been a whole year since Natalie Turner died. Amber's mother. Iris' and Sam's mother, that they only knew from pictures. Mark's wife, the love of his life. But that's not what the day was about, because Sam was turning one. And they needed to celebrate life. That's what they had agreed to do.
But that morning was a little too hard for Amber to wake up, even if Iris was there trying to get her big sister's attention. There had been a few months since the day Amber finally got the courage to write that letter to her mother. And it had been a little bit easier since then. She had moved back to Seattle, she was constantly with her family. She had even gotten a job at a bookstore. She was just trying as she gave herself time to figure out what she was seeking from life. Would she still want to be a social worker in a month? Would she end up writing a book? Would she just drop everything and travel the world? She wasn't sure. But she knew she needed the time to decide.
What you want from life isn't a decision you make overnight.
"Amby!" Iris exclaimed as she pushed Amber's body with her tiny hands. Amber had been ignoring her sister for the last minute. She couldn't bother to even talk to her. It was extremely hard for her to wake up that day. She needed to skip it so she wouldn't feel that awful ache she felt the first days after her mother's death.