Story of a Girl

Precious Cargo

I don’t know how long I sat there. Even after I stopped crying, I still sat there in the middle of my brothers’ room, not moving. The only sound was my sniffling and the hushed voices of Alex and Cameron in the other room. I heard Alex bring up his threat about leaving Cameron on the side of the road which made me wonder what he was doing.

          A few minutes later, I heard the patter of footsteps walking slowly down the hall. I didn’t look up to see who it was. They didn’t enter the room because I heard the footsteps retreat and then the murmur of voices again. Not even a minute passed when the footsteps sounded again, coming back down the hall. They stopped at the door, as if unsure to come in, but then hesitantly walked in and sat down next to me. I immediately smelt the Hollister cologne and knew it was Alex.

          “You okay?” he asked after a few minutes of silence.

          I sniffled and nodded.

          “You don’t look like it.” he told me.

          I shrugged.

          He sighed and reached to tuck my hair behind my hair but I pulled away. I didn’t want him to see my face since it was probably all red and puffy from crying so much for so long.

          “C’mon, let me see that beautiful face of yours.” He begged.

          “Stop saying that.” I croaked.

          “Saying what?”

          “That I’m beautiful,” I looked up at him, “’cause I’m not.”

          He searched my face, but looked mostly in my eyes. “I already told you that I think you’re the most beautiful girl out there.”

          “I don’t want to have this conversation right now.” I looked back down.

          He nodded. “Okay. Do you want to go then?”

          I looked around Toby’s room, taking everything in. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to come back here. I don’t know what’s up with Mike and I know that Toby doesn’t want me around him because of what he said in the letter so I’ll do as I’m told and do my best to stay away from him.

          “I guess.” I told him.

          He stood up and held his hand out for me to take. I didn’t ignore his hand this time, but took it and let him help me up. I walked over to Toby’s closet and searched for the grey jacket that I loved so much. It was hanging in the back and I gently yanked it off of the hook and folded it in my arms. This would be the only thing I would take right now.

          “Now I’m ready.” I said, twirling the string on the jacket around my finger.

          He smiled warmly at me and slung his arm around my shoulder, leading me out of the room and back to the living room where Cameron was sprawled out on the couch, the TV was turned on to the news but he wasn’t really watching it.

          “Cameron let’s-”

          “Local man gets shot outside of his home late Sunday night…” the lady on the TV broadcasted.

          My head snapped to the TV and I snatched the remote out of Cameron’s hands before he could switch it off. The lady continued on with what she was saying, a sympathetic look on her face.

          “Passerby’s said that this man was acting very skittish the previous night and was rumored to hear shouting coming from his apartment that he shared with an old friend,” they flashed a picture of Toby and Mike’s apartment before continuing, “A neighbor heard a gunshot fire at around 11:30 p.m. and rushed over to their apartment and saw him lying on the ground, with no pulse. She called 911, who soon rushed over to the scene of the murder and his immediate family was contacted. The identity of this man remains anonymous. Back to you Jack.” She said as the camera zoomed out of her close up and showed a man sitting next to her who began talking about Tropical Storm Isaac.