bored out of my mind. like, this isn't even funny. just realized that this book is probably going to only hit 30 pages, lol. yeah , we're like halfway through since they're friends now. i'm not to go with doing the whole in between part. yeah sorries i suck . ):
enjoy anywho.
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I woke up the next morning, and the first thing I realized was that I was still in my jeans. After quickly changing into a pair of comfortable plaid shorts, I pulled my door open just enough for me to see what was going on. The hallway was quiet and empty, so I walked over to the bathroom. Ever since I was little, I could never eat before brushing my teeth. It was literally the first thing I did every morning as soon as I woke up.
After brushing my teeth, I leaned over the railing, looking down the stairs. Nobody was in the kitchen. Cocking my head slightly and I walked down the stairs. Where was Brenda? As I grabbed milk from the fridge, I spotted a green sticky note attached to the countertop.
Walking over, I ripped it off and read it.
Took Brenda to the park. We’ll be back in a little. Had to clear my mind. Sorry about last night. – liam
Scoffing, I crinkled up the post-it and tossed it into the trash can. As if that little piece of paper was going to fix our problems…
Sure enough Liam stayed true to his word because just as I was finished with my cereal he walked through the door, holding Brenda by the hand. Brenda squealed instantly when she saw me and ran out to me, spreading her arms out for a hug. I grabbed her, lifting her up and nosing her fore head.
“Hey, Brenda. Did you have fun at the park?” I cooed, setting her down again.
She nodded her head and bounced off to her room upstairs, leaving me shifting me awkwardly cowering away from Liam.
“Listen, Brooke. About what I said last night.”
I raised my hand, stopping him from saying anything else.
“Liam, I had a really tough night, and I think it would benefit us both if you just stepped out of the house. Just please, go somewhere. I don’t care if it’s the police station or your uncle’s house in, like, Chicago. Just please leave.” I stressed every syllable in the last sentence, finally meeting Liam in the eye. He nodded, seemingly understanding and left the house without protest.
The rest of my morning was spent watching Dear John and The Vow and eating anything I could get my hands on.
“I don’t even like Channing Tatum!” I glowered past a granola par, flicking off the TV before the credits even got a chance to roll by. Leaning my head back against the couch, I felt my phone vibrate. I checked who was calling: Court.
Holding the red button on my phone, I rejected his call. Of all the days I didn’t want to chat to my friends, I got bombarded with calls and texts. Apparently, the boys wanted to catch a movie, but Sabrina was grounded so McKenzie wasn’t going alone.
Yeah, I wasn’t really up for a movie tonight.
“I’m hungry, Bee,” Brenda murmured, coming up beside me. She had trouble calling me Brooke because of her lisp, so she just called me Bee instead. I was totally fine with it, because it wasn’t too embarrassing.
Pushing my blanket aside, I sat up. Brenda grabbed my wrist, pulling me to the kitchen. Reluctantly, I followed after her, leaning down so that she could still keep hold of me.
Seating her on the island, I thought about what to make her.
“How does a peanut butter jelly sandwich sound?” I asked, finally coming up with an idea. Brenda cocked her head and shrugged.
“What’s that?”
I gaped at her dramatically, causing her to giggle.
“Child, you haven’t lived if you haven’t had a PB&J, lemme tell you.”
I pulled out two slices of bread from the pantry, setting them on a plate. The grape jelly was easy to find because it was visible as soon as I opened the fridge. The peanut butter, however, was tricky to find. After minutes of closing and opening pantry doors I was ready to get up. Finally I spotted a can, sitting on top of a shelf. Reaching for it, I realized how dusty it really was. Just to make sure, I flipped the cap open to see if it was expired.
It wasn’t.
Taking a knife, I spread the peanut butter over one slice of bread, and jelly on the other.
“Here you go, Brenders. All for you,” I announced, pressing the bread together and handing it to her. She bit into it, chewed, and smiled.
“This is good!” she called excitedly, biting in some more. As I started to walk back to the couch, I heard her coughing wildly behind me. Turning on my heel, I darted back to the kitchen and handed her a small water bottle that was just in my reach. I thought she had probably just gotten some bread stuck down her throat, but then I noticed her face growing more and more red, and her coughing turning into wheezing.
“Brenda are you allergic to anything?!” I asked frantically, tilting her head up. In my hands, I felt her head go up and down slightly, and she weakly murmured, “Nuts.”
“OhmyGod,” I whispered in a panicked tone, running a hand through my hair. “Hold still,” I said, rushing back into the living room and grabbing my couch. I called the first person of thought of: Liam.
“Please, please pick up,” I begged, tears stinging me eyes. Brenda coughed in front of my, tears collecting in her eyes as well. After the fifth ring, which felt like an eternity, I heard Liam’s voice. It was hard to catch, because it was loud wherever he was.
“Liam! Liam, Brenda was hungry and I gave her a peanut butter sandwich. Nobody told me she was allergic!” I yelled through the phone, trying my hardest to contain myself.
“You did what?!” Liam replied harshly, his voice perfectly coherent now, probably because he had stepped (more like ran) outside.
“I gave Brenda a peanut butter sandwich. Liam, she can’t breathe! What am I supposed to do?!”
I covered my hand with my mouth so I wouldn’t start sobbing. Watching Brenda suffocate next me was driving me insane, especially since I didn’t know what to do.
“Call 911, now,” Liam said sternly. “Calm down, if she sees you sobbing she’s gonna go faster.”
I flipped off the phone immediately, my fingers dialing those three numbers faster than any one word text I could’ve ever written. This time, someone picked up on the first ring.
“Hello, 911 operator. What is your emergency?”
Quickly, I spluttered out what had happened, hoping the lady understood some of it. She must have, because she said that an ambulance was on her way. Focusing solely on Brenda, I watched in despair as her wheezes got louder and louder and she strained to breath.
The next seven minutes were probably the longest in my life. I stared down the clock like a vulture, my heart racing in my chest. Every time it went up a minute, I thought that this would be the minute I would lose Brenda. The minute that she would pass, and it would be entirely my fault.
Finally, I heard sirens. Never in my life had I heard a more beautiful sound.
I sprinted to the door, pulling it open for them and pointing in the direction of the kitchen. EMT workers poured in, carrying Brenda out and laying her on a stretcher. Shining a flashlight down her throat, they yelled words that made no sense to me. Finally I reacted as I felt a strong hand pulling my arm and pushing me into the ambulance.
I stared at Brenda the whole ride to the hospital, not even being able to make out what was going on because the tears blurred my vision. Even once we got to the hospital, I struggled to catch up with her as nurses rolled her into a room.
Barely being able to recognize my little sister killed me, and the feeling that it was my fault continuously gnawed at me. The doctors still hadn’t asked me questions yet; they must’ve known it was an allergic reaction. Either way, at the state I was at, I would’ve been no help to them.
And that’s how I spent my first day of spring break: leaned against a hospital wall, bawling almost as much as when I heard my dad had died. Maybe even more, considering that hospitals were my least favorite places in the world. I had vowed I would never step into one, but that was pretty much unavoidable.
“Where is she?”
I looked up, bleary eyed and sore, at Liam and pointed to the door in front of me. Ducking my head back down to hide some more tears, I wondered if Mom and Jeff had found out. They were on a cruise, so I had no idea how they were going to get back, if they would even get to know.
A loud slam of the door startled me, and I watched as Liam walked away, clearly agitated. The kid was going to hate me forever now.
“Miss?”
I cleared my throat, attempting to stand up which wasn’t so easy. My legs felt like noodles, and it took a few seconds for me to finally use them again.
“Your younger sister’s going to be fine. We’ll just keep her overnight to see if she has any side effects or anything like that.”
Wiping a tear from my eye, I breathed a sigh of relief. That was the only thing that mattered to me at the moment – Brenda’s well being.
“Thank you so much,” I uttered, finding my voice. The doctor flashed me a knowing smile and walked off, clipboard in hand. I peered inside the room and caught sight of Brenda sleeping. A nurse carefully tucked her in and I smiled at her gentleness. She turned around and smiled at me, beckoning me inside.
“She’s asleep, so don’t wake her. She’s okay though. Oh, and if your brother needs to come back here. We need to get some information, and I believe he’s older than you.”
I nodded, and replied, “I’ll get him in a minute. I just want to see her.”
The nurse nodded and left the room, turning the same direction the doctor had. Stroking Brenda’s hair, I carefully adjusted a few pieces that had become knotted with the multiple wires that were surrounding her. After truly realizing that no harm would come her way, I went out in search of Liam.
After only turning a corner, I heard his voice.
“Rachel… Rachel, I had to leave Rachel. It was an emergency. Rachel, Brenda’s the only thing I’m sure of. No, that came out wrong. Rachel, I’m sorry!”
As I covered my mouth with my hand, a few more tears nestled in my eyes again. I listened as Liam argued with his girlfriend, and as much as I didn’t like her, I prayed she wouldn’t leave him. At least not now.
Suddenly, there was a long pause. Then in a defeated tone, Liam asked, “How long?”
I don’t think he heard the answer because the next second, his Blackberry was strewn all across the ground. The battery landed right by my foot, so I scooped it up along with the back to it. My heart crunched when I finally spotted him. There was no way it was even fair for me to feel bad for him, but I did.
Picking up the phone, I placed it back together and sat down next to him. He didn’t react. “It’s funny,” I muttered, playing with the tips of my hair. “When my mom got food poisoning once, we had to go to the hospital. And, like, after a while I started to get bored so I wandered around and I saw all these patients and like people crying and I was just terrified. That night when we got home, I told me parents that no matter what I was never going into a hospital again. It didn’t matter if I had to give birth in my basement with some hippie midwife – I was not stepping foot in that building again. But like, a few hours ago, I didn’t even think of that. I didn’t care. Liam, I know you hate me now even more, but I love Brenda so much,” I said gently, waiting for something.“Neither of us deserves this. We don’t have to constantly argue and hurt each other. It’s not fair…”
“Why do you care so much?”
My head shot up at his voice. It was thick with emotion, but I caught it.
“Liam, she’s my sister. I love her. We’re a family.”
He looked up at me, his blood-shot eyes meeting mine.
“Brooklyn, about what I said last night…”
Violently shaking my head, I stuck my finger out. He didn’t need to bring that topic up.
“Shhh…” I muttered, blinking rapidly to hide even more tears.
“No, Brooke. What I said was messed up. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that. These past few weeks have been hard on me, but I realized something. My dad’s been happier this past month then he’s been his whole life. My mom moved half-way across the country in a blink of an eye. The problem wasn’t your mom, and I made it out to be. It had nothing to do with you Brooklyn, and I’m sorry for being a jerk like that.”
Without even realizing what I was doing, I flung my arms around him blindly. I had forgotten how nice it felt to hug a guy when you were upset. Resting my head on his shoulder, I shook away a few more tears, hoping that was the last of them. But you know those moments when you’re crying and your friend is next to you? So they hug you, and you hug them back. Then, they hug you tighter, and for no apparent reason, you start to cry harder and squeeze them back.
Yep, it was one of those moments. I think we spent 10 minutes, just grasping each other tighter. Each time I felt more tears coming I braced myself by wrapping my arms around his waist that much tighter. Finally, I calmed down, my face nestled partially in his jacket.
If you would’ve asked me last month who I hated the most, the answer would be Liam hands-down. There wouldn’t even been time to think twice.
But something changed as he held me. Something happened when I refused to let go, even when my tears had dried. Maybe I saw him as something else; something that a brother shouldn’t be seen as. Either way, I pushed the mixed feelings behind me and realized just how tired I actually was.