Forever and Always | ✔️

5 | Picture To Burn

"Ezra, can I help you?"

I get no response, the brunette simply staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Look, if you're not going to talk you should go, I've still got to get—"

"You still have that one dimple." He interrupts.

My chest halts, panic rushing to my head as I let him scan my face. I haven't heard him talk in six years.

He sounds less mature than his two older brothers, his voice slightly higher and more playful.

"Uh.... Yeah?" I frown, confusion laced in my low tone.

"But your hair is different. It's darker, more straight. I like it." He adds, still as a statue.

I'm not quite sure where this is going.

"What was it like?" Ezra was pushes past me, entering my room uninvited. "Those six years, did you have fun?"

I stay still, rooted in confusion as the boy is suddenly standing inspecting my room intently. I catch a melancholy flash in his brown eyes as he stares at a few photos of my friends I'd put up.

Ezra looks like he wants to speak up, a nervy expression apparent on his interested stare.

"I haven't been in here since the day you left. Caleb would sleep in here, sometimes everyone else would just come here to think. Not me." He sighs deeply, "I could never bring myself." Ezra mumbles, his back turned to me.

"I hated it when they redesigned it last month. I knew they had too, you weren't coming back as the same little girl." He sighs sadly. "Still, somehow you coming back felt like I was loosing you further."

My heart slightly breaks, lurching to heal my older brother. It's all my fault, i'm the reason he's upset and I can't even fix it.

I should've stayed gone, he never would've felt like this. Guilt floods through my senses, catching my breath in the blink of an eye.

I need to say something, it's too quiet. I try to speak but my throat runs dry, words clogging my airway.

"I guess I thought maybe you'd be in here. Maybe you were just sleeping like usual. If I came in here and you weren't lying peacefully in your bed, it would've all been too real." He admits, running his hand over my plain duvet.

His fingers were littered with rings, all silver in a range of different shapes and sizes. Unlike his brothers, I had noticed that Ezra was totally tattoo free.

"It was.... different." I start, unsure how to explain the six years. "I made friends, started a new life."

He barely nods in response, a small smile on his lips. It wasn't full, he wasn't happy. "That's good Izzy."

We stand in silence for a few moments, I wasn't sure if he came in here to talk or if it was just a sudden urge, either way I'm embarrassed to admit I'm happy he's here now.

I continue, "Yeah, it was good. I was happy."

When I'm again left with quietude, I choose to walk over to my brother, lightly touching his shoulder in attempts to turn him around to face me. "Ezra." I say, barely above a whisper.

"Don't." He says quietly. "This is all my fault." His voice lightly cracks, however he quickly covers this up with a small cough.

My heart breaks.

"You were 13 Ezra. None of this was your fault, I had to leave and you couldn't have done anything to stop it." I reassure the dejected boy, my chest pumping heavily.

It was true, I could never hate him for letting me leave. He was merely a child. He lightly shakes his head in response, slowly turning allowing me to see his glossy eyes.