Fragile Lines

Everything went white, before slowly fading to black.

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"Audrey?" I groan and open one eye just enough to see my younger sister staring down at me from the side of the bed. I sit up and yawn, blinking the sleep out of my eyes.

"You good? I think you were having a nightmare."

Was I? I try to remember what I had been dreaming about, and come up with nothing.

"Well if I was having one, then it was about you," I flipped the hood of her black cat onesie, (that was too big for her), over her head as she laughed.

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, Mari draped herself on my back, her arms wrapped around my shoulders as I tried to stand up.

"Carry me,"

"No. You're too heavy." I stood up anyway but she refused to let go, so I just dragged her to our tiny kitchen to get breakfast.

I leave Mari laying in the middle of the floor and step over her to look in the fridge. Behind me, I hear her grumbling and a soft thump as she sits on top of the breakfast table. 

I turn around and mess up her ruffled black hair more than it already was before turning back to the fridge and grabbing the half-full milk carton.

"So what does the monster want for breakfast?"

Mari paused thoughtfully for a moment.

"The monster wants the blood of her enemies."

"Tragically, we're all out of that at the moment, so it's either cereal or nothing."

Mari laughed, her blue eyes lighting up as she smiled.

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Instead of having crappy cereal, we decided to go out for breakfast, which we didn't do often. Before we left the apartment, I had changed into dark jeans, a white tank-top with five colored stripes on the front, and thrown a light blue beanie on, while Mari had changed into a pair of pink jean shorts and a black t-shirt with a white flower design, her black hair piled into a messy bun on top of her head.

We sat in the booth at Denny's, flicking sugar packets at each other while we waited for our food.

"How's school been going?" Mari looked down and fiddled with the sugar packet she was holding. She mumbled something inaudible into her hot chocolate.

"What was that?"

"I got in another fight."

"What happened?"

"Well, Chloe and Sasha were being mean to Ally again. I told them to screw off but then Chloe started cussing at me."

"And?" Mari sighed.

"She was trying to pick a fight with me, and maybe I wasn't the nicest to her either, but then she slapped me." I nodded slowly, my eyes drifting to her cheek where she obviously had layered on tons of concealer.

"And then I punched her." I gasped.

"Mari, why didn't you tell me?"

"Cause I knew you'd be disappointed in me." I set my hand on hers, and held it.

"Mari, she hit you first, right? And besides, you're my sister. I could never be disappointed with you." She looked up at me, her shocked blue eyes meeting my forgiving green ones.