While You Were Away...

Tori

Maddie and Zach didn't speak to each other very much at dinner, but I think mom and dad were oblivious to all of it... "so we have a gift for you" I said and handed her an envelope... we had given clues and small little gifts but this was the main thing "oh my gosh... thank you guys" she said and hugged all of us... and within the next few days she was gone... and I thought the hardest day of my life was when she went off to Stanford... even then she came home on the weekends and would always text me during school... and ten the next year I was there with her so it didn't really matter...

"Have you talked to Maddie recently?" "she's been gone for a day... calm down" Zach said "yeah but I don't think I've ever gone this long without talking to her" "I think it may be good for us to be apart..." he said getting up from the chair "wait so we can't talk either?" I asked freaking out "no but, we should just have some space between us" he said "what is wrong with you? your so cranky and..." "and what Tori? we've spent our entire life's together, don't you ever wonder what could of happened if we branched out a little?" he asked "just leave" "tori I'm just saying..." "I don't give a fuck what your saying... just leave Zach!" I said pushing him out the door and then he drove away...

The next day Henry and I went out to dinner and then over to his place "what's wrong?" he asked as we sat on his balcony and he held my hand "just some stupid fights with my brother" I said "do you want to talk about it?" "no" "do you need to?" "probably" I said and we went inside and started explaining everything "he may be right... everyone needs their space every once and a while" he said "are you sure you aren't a psychiatrist?" I asked and he laughed "yes I'm sure..." "then why are you so good at... the whole sibling thing..." I asked "I have three younger brothers... we weren't exactly close and always fought and just didn't get along... and so about five years ago... our parents were in a car accident... both of them died on impact" "I'm so sorry... if you don't want..." "its fine" he said "my two youngest brothers were 16 and 17 and since I was the oldest I had to take them in and help them... I didn't know them, I left the house when they were 11 and 12... but I found a diary that was my moms and besides skipping all the parts I didn't want to read I found a page that said she always wished we had just got along... I cried... and I don't admit that... but I cried and they came home from school and found me crying... then my other brother came over and I showed them the page and they cried also... we realized we didn't have anyone but ourselves, Ryan and Garrett didn't get to have our parents see them graduate... Steven didn't get to have them see him graduate from college..." he said and I saw a tear run from his eye "the point is we didn't know anything about each other really and all of a sudden we only had each other... your close with your siblings and you take advantage of that... you don't realize how lucky you are to have that... if I had that when they died things would of been so much easier" he said "I don't know what happened between Maddie and Zach... they've always got along" "maybe you should ask them" "I can't get a hold of Maddie she didn't want to talk to anyone while she was gone... and made that very clear" "then ask Zach" "he doesn't really want me to talk to him either" "so ask him" he said again "but he doe..." "ask him"... he said kissing me