Sairah was walking up to her front door later that afternoon. Her dad had taken the bus with her and walked her to the gate and when she had been allowed in, she'd seen Marcy parking their car in the distance.
Marcy moved behind Sairah as they both walked up the stairs. Her hand was on Sairah's back. She had called the girl again a little later and Sairah had told her that she was on her way home. So Marcy had finished up whatever she was working on to go home so she could see about her daughter. Sairah had not sounded like herself over the phone. She's been behaving a lot differently of late but I just thought she was reflecting on everything that happened. But her call with Sairah revealed that the girl was a bit confused. "You okay?" She asked gently as they arrived at the door.
Sairah's hands were in her pockets and she seemed completely out of it.
Marcy rubbed her back. "Sairah?"
Sairah snapped out of it to look at her. She started inspecting her surroundings. "Aye I'm home. Do I have teleportation or something?"
Marcy frowned. "What th- what were you thinking of?"
Sairah looked to her feet. "Nothing- wait. I just remembered the last conversation me and my sister had. Not Leigh-Anne. Sierra. You know the last before she killed herself? Sometimes I think about it. Dr. Jung says I shouldn't blame myself for what happened but it's hard for me to not do that you know? I know I wasn't the entire reason behind her suicide but I gave 'er a hard time a lot. Damn I miss her. Wonder if she'd be able to help out now. I know I seem like a social butterfly-"
"Uhhh . . ."
"But she was way better at peopling than me. Yeah it's true. She gave me advice when I got into deep shit back at the neighbourhood. She always knew how to settle arguments and stuff. I mean, mainly the trouble I got into was-"
The door to their house opened and Leigh-Anne was standing before them. "Sairah," she stepped out and noticed Marcy here too. "Oh hi Mum." She waved.
Marcy waved at her with a brief smile before resting a hand on Sairah's shoulder. Sairah was still talking. "Your sister's having a hard time."
Sairah stopped speaking and nodded at Leigh-Anne. "Hey Leigh. Uh . . . I'm back."
Leigh-Anne nodded back. "I can see that. A-are you okay?" After she and Sairah's call had ended, she'd been thinking a lot about the changes in she and Sairah's relationship. Everything seemed more or less fine but as she thought more and more, she realized that Sairah progressively went from being her regular self but with more of an awareness of her words to . . . whatever she was now.
"I told you over the phone. I'm depressed." Sairah wondered if she had accidentally said that to someone else. "Didn't I say that? I spoke to so many people man-"
"We should go inside to talk about this." Marcy rubbed Sairah's back.
Sairah shrugged. "If you say so." She entered the house and started walking towards her room.
"Sairah where are you going? We have to talk about all this." Marcy stopped her.
Sairah stopped on the stairs and looked down at Marcy and Leigh-Anne.
Leigh-Anne was playing with her fingers. "If you don't want to talk then we don't have t-"
"I think we have to at this point. She blatantly said she's depressed." Marcy faced Leigh.
Leigh gulped. "But she only said all those things because she was scared that if she didn't something bad would happen. Right Sairah?"
Sairah was looking into Leigh's eyes. "I . . ." She came down the stairs. "We can talk in the living room."
