Quinn forces me to attend the party Friday night, but I outright refuse to stick around for the one the girls throw together at the last minute on Saturday. One party full of drunk college students who like to grope each other on our couch is more than enough for me.
I spend most of Saturday by myself in my room, doing homework and submitting some of my makeup assignments. I still have a lot of ground to cover, but the time alone at least puts a dent in my workload.
On Sunday, boredom gets the better of me and I give Aaron a call to see if he wants to meet up.
He does. Only now that I’m here, I don’t know if this was a great idea.
We’re in the living room, Mom’s ashes in an urn between us.
“So?” I’ve got nothing.
Aaron sighs and runs his hands through his shaggy blond hair. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to spring this on you.”
“It’s fine.” Sort of. I mean, I knew mom was cremated, but I didn’t prepare myself for the realization that this was all we had left of her.
“Do you still want to spread her ashes at Myrtle Bay?”
Right. That’d been my original suggestion. Swallowing hard, I nod. “Yeah. I think she’d like that.”
Neither one of us says anything after that, we just stare at her cremated remains and, like a dam forced to contain too much pressure, I crack.
“I miss her.” I suck in a shuddering breath.
Aaron lifts his eyes to me, letting me see the tears he’s fighting to contain.
“Yeah.” He sniffs. “Me too.”
Like two magnets, we move toward one another and I bury my nose in his chest. Aaron wraps his arms around me while I wind mine around his waist, my shoulders shaking.
“It’s not fair,” I whisper.
He presses his cheek to the side of my head and his wet tears fall down his face and onto my skin. “I know,” he tells me. “I know.”
We say nothing after that. There isn’t a need to. Aaron holds me while I cry, and I do the same for him in return. It’s cathartic in a way. I thought I’d gotten all of my tears out before, but I guess there were more hiding in there.
When the silence breaks with the sound of our rumbling stomachs, we break apart with a laugh, wipe our faces clean, and go out to get some food.
We grab burgers at Sun Valley Station before going back to his place for a movie marathon and binge watch Game of Thrones. We make it through the first season, but call it quits before starting the second, and I stay the night in his guest bedroom, needing to be close to my brother.
The next morning I go to class like usual, but we meet again for lunch, and when he finishes his afternoon classes, we resume our marathon and dive into season two.
Aaron’s phone buzzes around five and I catch sight of Dominique’s name flashing across the screen. Aaron doesn’t mention what the messages say as they text back and forth several times during the show, and I have too much pride to bother asking.
I haven’t spoken to him since Friday when he said he’d be gone. I’ve thought about it, sure. I could call him or even shoot him a message, but why would I? He hasn’t bothered to reach out to me, so I assume he’s busy. That, or disinterested.
I pretend that he’s busy. I haven’t let myself think too much about him while he’s been away. Or worry about what will happen once he returns.
Around episode three of season two, Aaron pauses the show. “I have to run out for a bit,” he says. “Pick this up in a few hours?”
“Sure,” I tell him with a smile. “Not like I have anything better to do.”
He chuckles and grabs his wallet and keys from the coffee table. “Thanks, sis.”
“Anytime.” I fold the blanket I’d been using and lay it over the back of the sofa.
“You don’t have to leave,” he tells me. “You can hangout and nap or whatever.”
“Nap?” I ask, lifting my brows.
