Cornelia Street

five

V. I HAD A FEELING SO PECULIAR THAT THIS PAIN WOULD BE FOR EVERMORE

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JO DID NOT expect to wake up in Peter's bed. Initially, her plan was to stay with him until he fell asleep, and then go home as to not worry her parents when she wasn't there the following morning. Clearly, that didn't work. Her best guess was that she had fallen asleep before he had and ended up spending the night there.

From the ages of four to twelve, Jo or Peter staying at the other's house over weekends was not a rare occurrence. During that time period, her parents had little to no concerns. However, once seventh grade started, sleepovers between the two were completely prohibited. For a short time, she was thunderstruck due to the ban. After taking sex ed the first semester of that year (although completely disgusted) she understood her parent's concerns. The day she discovered why sleepovers had been banned, she felt ill to her stomach. She didn't talk to Christine or David for a week.

Now, as she slowly sat up from his bed, she cringed at the thought of what they might say when she walked through the front door. His alarm went off a good thirty minutes after hers did, so she couldn't even crawl onto his floor and wish for death before she walked across the street. Jo frowned, and although she was not in the slightest bit religious, she prayed that both of her parents missed their alarm.

Peter woke up beside her, lifting his face from his pillow with a small smile before it twisted to one of extreme worry.

"I gotta go," she almost laughed.

"I see that."

"Mhm. Yeah. Bye," she stuttered awkwardly. She gave him a genuinely terrified smile 

When she got home, they were both waiting in the kitchen, the same serious look on both of their faces.

"Good morning..." she forced the best smile she could. "Right now I'm really hoping that May texted one of you about what happened last night."

Even though Jo's smile was so fake it was obvious to people who didn't know her, it faded, and her eyes glossed over just remembering it. She waited for a response, but they were both doing the exact same thing. They were waiting for her to explain her absence from the house that morning. They did not know.

Trying to stay as calm as possible, she muttered four words that neither of them ever thought they would hear: "Uncle Ben was shot."

"Oh my god." Christine stepped backward, grasping for a chair before she even knew his fate.

"Someone murdered him last night." Jo maintained her composure as she trudged up the stairs. When she got to her room and everything was finally able to sink in for herself, she started sobbing. She cried as she changed into her clothes and tugged out the hair tie at the end of her braid. Then, she fell to the ground with her back against the door and her body shook.

The man who stepped in as a father when David was at work or when he was on a business trip for a week was gone for eternity. Every single memory she had with any of the Parkers now featured a ghost. She hadn't seen his body that night, but she could imagine in vivid detail what it might've looked like and that thought made the pain worse.

She cried against the door until her father called her back downstairs to take her to school. She just slumped into the car, unbothered to put in her earbuds. She could tell he had also been crying over the recent loss. His nose was the shade of pink it goes when he's upset and his eyes were raw at still watery. The news was devastating to everyone close to the Parker family.