Dawn Hollow

XXXII

Erica was quiet, minding her own on the hard cement stairs to the school's front. Her lemon dress was growing cold against the concrete, dirt from the stoned-and-ignorant's footsteps getting all over its color, but she didn't even notice. Her mind was so far in the clouds. Her nails got shorter with every nervous bite. The text she sent to her sister was still fresh in her head, the words reading themselves aloud, which made her second-guess every letter of it.

Was it too direct?

Too blunt?

Too out of nowhere to even catch her attention?

What if she thinks it's a prank?

Maybe she'll think Erica's number had changed, and this was just someone messing with her?

What did it matter?

Ella wasn't going to answer anyway. She probably deleted all of her family's numbers years ago and just rode off her text as a wrong number. Why would she agree to help them anyway? After all these years, what would she do now?

Her shorter fingers unzipped the front pocket of her backpack, pulling out her small phone. She reread the text through her own eyes this time.

Hey Ella, it's Erica. I really need your help, and it's work-related. Please, if you can, get back to me ASAP. It's an emergency.

She nodded her head, definitely too direct.

While putting her phone away, two hands settled on her shoulders and made them spike upon instinct. With a small yelp, she whipped around with fire in her eyes and years of self-defense kicking. But when she saw Joseph's soft and scared face with his hands up in surrender and Noah laughing behind him, she immediately grew calm.

"Oh geez! Sorry, Joey, I was really deep in my head!"

"I can tell, mijn liefje," Joseph replied sympathetically. He gave her a small kiss on her cheek as he sat down and joined her on the steps, Noah sitting next to his brother as well. "Any response from your sister?"

"Not a word. It's honestly starting to scare me a little bit."

"Erica Clark, nervous?" Noah dramatized playfully, "I don't think I've ever heard you admit you were nervous since when you gave an opening welcome at that Pride Parade we all went to sophomore year!"

"Yeah, well, that was a completely different kind of nervousness too! I knew I wasn't going to see any of those people ever again. This is....this is way different."

"Not to downplay your fears but, what's the worst that could happen, you think?" Joseph asked.

"I-I don't even know! It's like... I'm afraid she'll just think I'm trying to use her for this, and she'll get even more upset with me and my family. In all honesty, I'm hoping that maybe this entire situation will be a way to get our family to come back together. A way that, maybe, she'll forgive me."

"Forgive you for what?"

"For making her feel like she had to move out so abruptly. I feel like I pushed her away and out of our family, which isn't what I wanted. When she started coming home from work every day, so skittish and afraid, I kept asking her about it. I was wanting and willing to do everything I could to help her! But, one day, she snapped, and it all ended in a big fight between us. Which, obviously, resulted in her leaving us."

"What did the rest of your family think about the whole thing?"

"Elijah was still kind of young and didn't exactly understand where she was going and what was happening. But my dad said that I was just trying to help and that Ella would calm down in time. But that never happened."