A Family Podcast (english)

Chapter 44

Thea

"Thea, come over here for a moment," Noah called me from the garage as I had just arrived home from school.

With a sigh, I walked over to him.

"Here, take this." He handed me a huge box and nudged me towards the exit. "You can just put it on the handcart," he called after me before grabbing a box for himself.

"What is this for?" I asked, trying to hold the box in a way that I could still see something.

"Graduation party," my brother replied curtly as he walked past me and placed his box down.

"It's going to be super cool. We bought hundreds of balloons and confetti. Oh, and shaving cream, of course." He winked at me before taking the box from my hands and placing it on top of his.

"I don't even want to know what you guys have planned." Just a few more weeks until Noah wouldn't be going to school with us anymore. He had hardly been attending classes in the past few weeks, and we didn't see him at school very often anyway. Still, I suddenly felt a tightness in my chest. Why did everything have to change all the time? I took a few deep breaths as tears welled up in my eyes once again. Today just wasn't my day.

"It's for the best," Noah laughed. "Can you make sure nothing falls?"

he asked as he reached for the rope and started walking. The boxes immediately swayed, and I quickly held them steady while trying to keep up with Noah.

My brother stopped briefly as he was interrupted by a sudden fit of coughing.

"Are you sick too?" I asked, studying him. Jackson was completely out of commission. The good thing was that he wasn't at school, so he didn't witness what was happening.

"It's fine," Noah took a deep breath and continued walking. "My immune system is unbeatable."

I snorted because his raspy voice proved the opposite. I wished I had caught whatever he had so that I wouldn't have to go to school.

"Where are we even going?" I complained, because I really just wanted to go to my room.

"Just a quick stop at Jerome's. Don't be so difficult; you don't have anything else to do anyway."

I knew Noah didn't mean it in a mean way. But that didn't change the fact that I flinched at his words. What else could I do? None of my friends wanted to hang out with me anymore. How did everything go so wrong? I thought about what Risa had said. I didn't know if I could ever be friends with her again. It would never be the same as before, but that probably didn't matter because Risa didn't want to be friends with me anymore. I just didn't understand why I was the only one who didn't want to throw away seven years of friendship.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't pay attention to the path ahead and didn't see the curb. I tripped over it, and in reflex, I tried to hold onto the boxes. Unfortunately, that didn't have the desired effect, as I realized a second later when the boxes fell, along with me, onto the sidewalk.

Oof. I managed to catch myself somewhat before landing less than gracefully on my knees. One of the boxes had opened, and since I landed on one of the confetti packs, colorful shreds flew all around me.

"Fuck, Thea, watch where you're going," Noah cursed as he tried to gather the shaving cream cans before they rolled onto the street. I sat up slightly and stared at the mess I had created. Why did I have to get everything wrong at the moment?

Noah came back with the cans and threw them into the box.

"Come on, let's quickly pack everything up." He started gathering the bags, but I couldn't move.