Skylar's POV
I was sitting in front of the television flipping mindlessly through the channels. There was nothing on. There was never anything on. It occupied me some how, just sitting there pressing a button until my thumb went numb.
The house I lived in was dead. I can't even consider it being a home anymore. Everyone has took a dramatic change since my mother had died, and I feared that it would become permanent. My twin brother Jay stays in his room all day and only comes out to eat and go to school. He doesn't eat dinner with the family, he doesn't even talk much. The most I ever get out of him is two words, three if I'm lucky.
Paris only stays in my mothers studio playing music loudly and every now and then she would invited a friend over, but she is slowly fading away. She was so close to my mother but she's closer to my father. Her style is slowly changing but its always been that way. No matter what the case maybe. She'll talk to me for little but then she would stay in studio all day, going i don't know what.
Prince is very mature about it but I can tell he's hurting. Grieving. He misses mother a lot but doesn't want to admit it. All he does is write and direct these movies with his friends. He's coming up with this idea for a movie but I don't know what that idea is. I honestly don't care.
Mariah, all she does is cry, she hasn't put on make up in months, she hasn't put on any decent clothes in months and its almost summer time and she usually is excited to go summer shopping. She's the most depressed out of us all. She's not even as perky as she usually is.
Blanket is quiet, just like Jay. You'd see him running around here or playing video games but that was always that what time of the day when I would find walking towards mothers office but then stop in his tracks when he realizes that she isn't going to be in there. One day I just found him sitting in there staring off into space.
Ciara only cried for the first few says and then she was fine. she goes on her life like its nothing. She says it all the time that yes she misses mother, but it doesn't mean she has to stop her life and grieve about it. I think she's trying to be strong for everyone else. I have slowly seen her revolving into a mother figure for Blanket and I, she cooks she gets us ready for school she makes sure I take my medication and when I have my asthma attacks she rushes me to the hospital. I appreciate her that because when my mother dies I knew that apart of my father had dies also.
Alyssa is drowning in her guilt. Slowly drowning. She keeps saying that if she never would've been involved in that club a life would've never been lost, and so many hearts would've never been broken. I agree with her on that but everything happens for a reason. She doesn't talk to daddy much. She can't bare to face him but anytime I see her, I see nothing in her eyes.
Just then the doorbell rung and I threw the remote down and walked over to the door." Who is it?" I asked
"Its Keisha!" I opened then door to find my aunt standing on the step with sunglasses over her eyes.
"Hey Auntie." I said as I let her.
" How are you feeling honey?"
I shrugged my shoulder."I feel fine."I looked down and realized she had three suitcases in her hand a bag." What's with all the bags?"
"Your father and I decided that its best that I come here and help take care of you Mariah and Blanket."
I gave her a confused look." No disrespect Auntie, but why can't Daddy do it?"
She gave me a sympathetic look, pursing her lips into a straight line." Honey, your father isn't in the best mental state right now."
I knew that. I just didn't want to admit it.
Our maid came in and took the suit cases from her hand." I'll put these in your room." she said. Then walked out the room.
"Where's your brothers and sisters?"
"I'm not exactly sure where Ciara, Jay, and Paris is, but Mariah is in her room, Prince is in Daddy's room talking to him, and Blanket is-"
"Right here." I turned to see my brother stating at me aunt confusingly.
"Auntie is gonna be staying with us for a while." I said.
He nodded and walked into her arms, giving her a hug.
Auntie sighed and hugged him back." I need to go speak with Michael for minute." she said as he pulled away from him. She headed up the stairs leaving the sound of her steps echoing behind her.
I turned and looked up to my brother." This is weird."
He shrugged his shoulders." Maybe things would get somewhat back on track around here."
"What do you mean?"
"With Mom gone, no one has been the same, and Daddy hardly ever pays any attention to us. We need an adults supper vision around here before we all start losing control."
" But-"
"Look Skylar, I know you miss mom but this the best for all of us." He then walked out the room, his long black hair swaying back and forth.
Keisha's POV
I knocked on the door twice and stood there waiting for an answer. The door opened slightly the s little wider. My nephew was standing in front of me. After he gave me a hug. He let me in. "Daddy is in the bathroom right now." He said as he gathered books and and pens and headed out of the room.
I sat down on the bed on Aaliyah's side. I could still smell her scent but it was slowly fading. Michael had left her side exactly the way that it was left. I looked over at her nightstand where there was a book that she was reading sitting on top of it. I stood up and walked over to her drawers and opened her last one.
There were other books there but I knew those weren't written books. Those were her diaries. " You know, I haven't even thought about going in those drawers." I heard him say.
I stood up turned to him. "Really?" I asked as I looked down at him. I picked them up and looked at all of them.
"She loved writing in those, she would sometimes do it more than once a day, I've never read them."
"Why not?"
" Never wanted to." He took the peach colored one from me, the one that was raggedy with the cover slowly coming off, I knew that had to have been the one that had once belonged to her mother. Aaliyah cherished it." I remember seeing her right in this up until she was thirty-four, then I bought her that kit."
"She only wrote in three of them." I said as I turned to her dresser where she had pictures sitting on it in an old school fashion. I picked up one of her and glanced it." She was so beautiful."
"I know, both inside and out."
I could feel the tears coming in my eyes and I sat it down." So, how have you been, I mean have you decided to go back to work yet. I know you don't perform any more but what about the foundation? You know the charity events."
He placed the journals back in her drawer and slowly closed it back. " I've thought about it. Liyah would've wanted me to but its so hard without having her here with me."
"I understand that, but your kids need you too. Skylar doesn't know where Paris, Ciara or Jay is, I mean-"
He signed." I know Keisha, I know. But I need help. I can't raise Sky, Mariah and Blanket on my own, especially in this grief that I feel."
I sighed." Okay, but you can't sit here and cry about it wishing she was back, you know she wouldn't have wanted you to do that."
He state down on the bed and began playing with the locket she used to wear all the time. "Its hard, Keisha." he said.
I looked down at her nightstand where her journals were and back at him." Why don't you read her journals, one entry everyday? You know, try to understand who she thought. You know she wrote anything and everything in there."
I stared at me for a moment and reaches over and opened the drawer. He pulled the one she wrote in first." I don't know..." he said hesitating.
" Michael if you don't, you'll lose your kids too, and I know you don't want that."
He held the journal close to his chest." I want to thank you for coming here Keisha, it means a lot."
"Don't mention it." I said then touched him on his shoulder." I'm helping you and my nieces and nephews, its what sister-in-laws do."
He gave me a half smile." You hang in there okay."
He nodded.
I glanced around the very room that my sister had once walked in and realized that I missed her too.