Dream With Your Eyes Open

Chapter 5- Time To Face The Pain

"You hungry? I could get you something.", she quickly said, changing the subject. I was still a little bit confused, but I could see I wasn't going to get any answers.

"Um..I..No. I'm good, but..", I stammered. I tried to find the right words to ask what I wanted to, but I was scared. I was scared of the answer, but I needed to know. I needed to find out about my mom. She was the most important thing in my life, other than Macy. I cleared my throat again and faced my sister.

"Macy. I know everything is fine with me, I can feel it.", I started, not giving her time to argue,"There's something more important than me right now." I stopped, giving her time to think it over. i could tell she knew what I was talking about, because she started to bite her lip, something she does only when she is nervous. She glanced at Emily, and then back at me. I raised my eyebrows.

"Mace. How is Mom?", I asked. I was trying to keep cool on the outside, to not show how nervous this was making me. On the inside, however, I felt like I was about to throw up. I looked straight at my sister, who had turned pale. This was not a good sign, but I tried to keep positive. I repeatd my question.

"Macy, how's Mom? I need to know, just tell me. Pleae4", I begged. She looked at me for a while and then covered her face with her hands and started to shake her head. I grabbed her hands and took them into mine, causing her to look at me. Her lip quivered and I could feel her trembling.

"She's.. She's.. The doctor's said.. They said.. She's in a coma, Arianna.", she finally blurted out and quickly covered her mouth. My mouth fell open. Everything went hazy for a fw seconds. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I had just seen her the morning before school. She drove me to school, she didn't look sick. This couldn't be happening, it wasn't happening. I tried to convince myself, but as I looked at my sister and Emily, I could tell by the solemn looks on their face, this was real. My mother was in a coma. She might die. As it sunk in, I sputtered. I remembered everything I could about her. I remembered her smile, her laugh, the twinkle in her eyes when she saw us. I remembered our tradition of making hot cocoa and watching "The Last Song" during thunderstorms. That can't be over, she can't be in a coma. But I knew she was and I knew I couldn't do anything about it. All my memories of her passed through my head.

"Arianna?" I was shaken from my thoughts by Macy. She had a worried look on her face. I looked at her. I tried to say something, but nothing came out. A tear slid down my cheek. I hadn't cried in so long. I promised myself I would never cry in front of anyone. But I was broken inside. My heart hurt and the pain was greater than any physical pain I had ever endured. I started to cry, I started to cry and shake. I felt Emily and macy hugging me, I felt them crying along with me. We sat there, hugging and crying for a long time. All of us were hurt, upset, and desperate. We needed each other. Even Emily, who hadn't even known our mom, saw how much se meant to us. I sniffled and wiped away my tears. I sat up straighter, ignoring the pain. It didn't even compare to what I was feeling. Macy looked up. Tears filled her eyes and I felt so bad for her. I wish I could make her happy, because Macy didn't deserve to be hurt like this.

"What do we do?", she asked me. Her voice was so innocent, I wanted to take her and protect her from all of life's worst.

"I don't know. I don't know.", I answered and hugged her. Emily joined in.

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     "Sweetie, kick your legs higher.", my mom said. I wanted to impress her, so I kicked my legs and began to swing higher. Macy ran up beside my mom and giggled, pigtails swinging back and forth. She started to cheer me on and I smiled. I swung higher and higher.