Ella’s extremely cheerful today. It’s unsettling.
Leighton eyes his younger sister as she busies herself around the kitchen cooking Friday morning breakfast. She smiles happily as she loads up two plates with steaming scrambled eggs, a few strips of crispy bacon, and a couple fluffy, blueberry-studded pancakes. Setting the pans in the sink, she turns around and spots Leighton standing around the doorframe with a wary expression on his face. Ella’s gray eyes light up as a smile spreads across her face.
“Hey, Leighton. Come eat! I made lots.”
As happy as she was, Leighton could feel that there was something off about her. Then again, when was there not something off about her? Nevertheless, Leighton sits down at the small round table in the kitchen and digs into the delightfully delicious meal spread out before him. Halfway through breakfast, he notices Ella watching him with an apprehensive light in her eyes accompanied by an apologetic smile.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Leighton asks.
Ella sighs and looks off to the side before looking back at her older brother. “I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating Moet.”
Leighton’s left eyebrow cocks up in confusion. “Why are you apologizing to me?”
Ella’s gray eyes widen and her brow furrows as she replies, “So you won’t be mad at me, of course.”
He shrugs. “I’m not mad at you. I doubt Moet is either. I can’t really imagine her being hostile. Her personality is too delicate.”
The two siblings eat together in silence for the next few minutes. Once he’s finished, Leighton rinses his plate and utensils and puts them in the dishwasher. Ella does the same.
“Are you ready?” He asks, grabbing his car keys and his backpack.
“Yeah, let’s go.” Ella grabs her bag as well as the two head out the door and into Leighton’s car.
When they arrive at the school, Leighton makes a move to open the car door but a tentative hand on his arm makes him look back at Ella.
“You love me, right?” She asks, looking at him with serious eyes.
Why was she asking him this? Leighton thinks. “Of course I do. You’re my sister.”
Ella bites her lip. “I did something really bad, Leighton.”
“Okay,” Leighton responds. It was obvious from her evasive language that Ella wasn’t quite ready to tell him what her bad deed was, so he didn’t ask.
“I need to know.” Ella pauses for a moment and swallows. Clearing her throat, and avoiding her brother’s gaze, she repeats, “I need to know that I’m not gonna wake up one day and see that you’re gone.”
And all of a sudden, Leighton understood. This wasn’t about him. This was about the painful topic of their parents. “Ella... Mom and Dad died.” Ella remains silent. Leighton continues, “They didn’t leave us because they wanted to.”
“Yeah, well, they did.” Ella snaps.
Leighton hated talking about them. It made his breathing hitch a bit and his eyes water and every time he thought about them he felt like there was this gaping never-ending hole in the pit of his stomach. He hated it.
“Can we please not talk about them anymore?” The boy pleads, his eyes squeezing shut in emotional pain.
Ella’s expression turns sympathetic before it hardens into her now-usual mask of indifference. “Fine,” she says before getting out of the car and slamming the door. Leighton watches as she stomps towards the direction of the middle school with her hood up and her worn backpack bouncing off her shoulder.
Sighing, he leans his head back against the car seat and pinches the bridge of his nose.
His head hurts.
It isn’t until lunchtime that he spots Moet, as usual. Unsurprisingly, they don’t have any classes together. Technically, Leighton didn’t even have to go to the high school. The best option would’ve been to go directly to the community college to take his classes. However, he liked going through the notions of a normal seventeen year-old boy even though he was anything but.
Normalcy, Leighton muses. What did that word even mean anymore?
“Good afternoon, Moet,” Leighton greets her in an uncharacteristically playful tone.
The pale-haired girl jumps from the sound of his voice and looks at him with her wide hazel eyes. A small shy smile spreads across her lips. Leighton loved that smile.
“Hi,” she says as she takes her lunch from her locker and gently closes the door. “Where to?” She cocks her head to the side like an inquisitive puppy.
“The tree, of course. Where else?” Leighton mirrors her expression. Moet ducks her head shyly and her soft, pale hair covers her face from view. Before Leighton could act on the urge to brush it away and tuck it behind her ears, she looks up and quickly kisses his cheek before stepping back with two twin blots of scarlet now adorning her cheeks.
The hollow feeling in his stomach was gone, now replaced by this wonderful warm feeling that spread throughout Leighton’s body. Tilting her chin up with his finger, he smiles before kissing her squarely on the lips. Grabbing her small, delicate hand, Leighton leads her over to their spot.
Once seated, Moet takes out a standard brown paper bag. She slowly takes out a no-crust sandwich about the size of the palm of Leighton’s hand and sets it out before her. Doing the same to the rest of her lunch, which was really just a bottle of water and an apple with the skin shaved off, she sat there and just stared at the food. Leighton watched as she bit her lip and picked up her sandwich.
“Is that it?” He asks.
“Huh?” Her eyes are unfocused. It takes a moment for her to stop looking “through” him and center on his eyes.
“Is that all you’re eating?” Moet’s lower lip wobbles as she murmurs something. He leans towards her with his ear in her direction, gesturing that he couldn’t hear what she said.
“One hundred forty-five calories,” Leighton finally deciphers from Moet’s small, whispery voice. “It’s more than enough.”
Pretty brown-green eyes dart up from the food to Leighton then back to the food.
“Do you eat more at home?” One hundred forty-five calories was most certainly not enough. A person needed at least twelve hundred calories to live.
“Sometimes,” Moet honestly answers. “Do you mind… not looking while I eat?”
Slowly, Leighton turned his head away.
A shaky breath was exhaled before he saw, in his peripheral vision, Moet’s trembling hands lift up her sandwich and hold it against her lips.
She takes a bite.
Moet’s never really been inside Leighton’s house before. This was probably the first time she’d ever stepped beyond the entrance hall.
“Where are your parents?” She casually asked. It seemed like they were the only people in the house. This excluded Ella, who stormed up to her room and slammed the door the moment they got out of the car. Ella didn’t take too kindly to the fact that Moet was visiting.
Leighton stiffens. Moet notices how his jaw tenses as if he is clenching his teeth. Had she asked a too-personal question? Right when she is about to tell him he doesn’t have to answer, he replies, “They’re dead.”
“I’m sorry,” the girl replies after a lengthy pause. “How?”
This time, Leighton’s hand rests on his stomach as if he has a stomachache.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t have to.” She walks closer to him and places her hand over his. Gently, she pries his hand off of his abdomen and takes it in both of hers. Leighton has large graceful hands with strong fingers. Hers look like a child’s compared to his. She felt dainty and feminine standing next to him all the time.
“No, I never talk about them. Telling you would probably be good for me.” He sighs and leans against the kitchen counter, facing Moet. Looking down at their hands he begins, “They died in a car crash. I’m not sure whose fault it was, but they insist it was the opposing driver. My dad probably had some part in it, though. There was no way he could’ve lasted through a party without a few drinks to help him along. Damned alcoholic.” Moet started a little. It was the first time she’d ever heard sensible, well-mannered Leighton curse. “He was the one driving. Admittedly, the other guy wasn’t completely sober as well.” She could see that his eyes were starting to water as he continued looking at their joined hands. “I just don’t understand why they did it. They’re not stupid. Were…” A choked noise comes out from Leighton’s mouth. He licks his lips and starts again in a tremulous voice, “Were we so horrible that they couldn’t stand being with us anymore?”
“Oh, Leighton,” Moet moves forward, wraps her arms around his waist and leans her cheek on his chest. Feeling his arms slowly move to rest around her shoulders, she says, “They did not get into an accident on purpose just to get away from you. I can’t believe you would even think that.”
“I just don’t understand… people… why they do the things they do. I don’t know. I hate not knowing.”
After a while of nothing but the sounds of tree branches rustling outside, Moet tells him, “It’s alright to not know the answer sometimes, Leighton. Nobody expects you to know everything. I don’t.” She pulls back and Leighton gives her a half-hearted smile.
“I like you a lot, Moet. I don’t know how, but you make me feel better.” Brushing a lock of pale hair out of Moet’s face, his hand lingers near her cheek. The body heat that emanated from his palm gives Moet a sense of comfort. She smiles.
“You make me feel better, too.”