(10)
"What's your favorite memory with your family?" He asks, moving us from the doom and gloom questions.
I smile, thinking back to all of the trips and things my family and I went on. "Well, my parents go all out when it comes to birthdays. For mine, since it's in January and always snowy, we go skiing and snowboarding at this resort my uncle owns. My brothers and I spend the first couple days practicing on the smaller hills, doing tricks and such, then on the last day we race down the biggest hill. Well last year my mother decided that she wanted to be a part of the race even though she's the worst out of us all. My siblings and I spent the whole ride up the mountain trying to talk her out of it, telling her that since we are on snowboards we would move faster than her because she was on skis, but she insisted that she race with us. When we start going down she's quite a bit behind us even though the top is the easy part. It comes to a part where there a little ramp you can go off of then it's basically a drop off. And from the rest of the ride down there are bumps and ramps scattered about. Once she gets to the drop off point she just flies past us, she's just screaming the whole way down. We try to catch up, but she just continues to speed up. Nolan starts yelling at her to do this and that that's suppose to help you slow down. He tells her to sit down, which she does, but then she just starts rolling. We finally reach her at the bottom and she's just sitting there, covered in snow, missing one ski, and smiling. She looks up at us and says, 'I won, what's my prize?'"
"'What's my prize?' I like that," Blake says laughing, "she got straight to the point."
He has the kind of laugh that after a while makes you laugh, it comes to a point where neither of us can speak we are laughing so hard. Finally our laughing dies down and I look back up at him. "Alright your turn, what's your favorite family memory?"
His smile slowly fades and he scratches the back of his neck, "Uh I don't really have one."
"What do you mean?"
"My family, it's just different." His face clouds with sadness as he bites his lip, probably deciding whether to continue or leave me wondering, "my parents loved each other very much. My mother was my fathers whole world, and when I came along I was too. I looked a lot like my mother when I was younger." He pauses and sighs, "When I turned 7 my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. They did surgery after surgery and finally they thought she had beaten it, but when I turned 12 a couple days after my birthday she passed out in the living room and we found out they had missed a piece and it became too big to remove. They told us she had three months, but two weeks later she passed away. My father couldn't handle not having her and I was a constant reminder of what he was missing. He started drinking and by the time I turned 18 he died too. He just gave up after her, nothing I did could ever make it better. He kept drinking and drinking. I moved into the apartment building, across the hall from Cyrus. Him and Sara, his wife, helped me out. Cyrus even got me a job at the mechanic shop he worked at. Sara helped me cope with everything from my childhood, she was a psychologist. She taught me that whenever I start to feel sad or stressed or whatever to sing that old Green Day song Time of Your Life. I thought it was weird at first but after awhile I found that it actually calmed me down. They basically took me in and became my second family." He clenches his jaw and looks down, running a hand down his face.
The silence hits us, I'm at a loss for words and Blake is reliving probably one of the worst moments in his life. I gulp and go to speak but nothing comes out. Everything I think I should say just sounds condescending or pitiful. I pat the bed next to me, causing him to look up. He hesitates for a second before standing up and making his way over. He sits down and I pull him into a hug. He once again hesitates before hugging me back. This time the silence isn't bad, It's just the two of us enjoying the presence of the other. We finally pull apart and lean back against the wall.
"Favorite candy bar?" I ask, breaking the silence.
"The one with the nuts and carmel. I can't think of what it's called." He answers, "what about you?" he asks, looking over at me.
YOU ARE READING
End of Days
Teen Fiction"Trust you? Are you kidding? I think it should be pretty evident to you that we don't trust you." "Henry, I would like to speak to you alone." Cyrus says, now ignoring Nolan. My father shakes his head slowly, "if you want to talk say it here. I'm n...
