Deciding I needed to rip the Band-Aid off and get it over with, that night Fletcher and Adam started a small fire in their round metal burn pit. The three of us stood around it, feeling the heat wash over us as flames licked at the sky, glorious red and gold.
My heart thundered so loudly, I could barely hear. I clutched my notebooks filled with stories to my chest and took a deep breath. My throat was tight with smoke and emotion as I took a few steps closer and dropped the first notebook into the flames.
Immediately, it caught fire, burning up, sizzling and popping. The pages curled, turning black and ashen. Tears slipped down my cheeks, but I tossed in the next one, and the next. One by one, I watched them burn, my words turning to ash and dust and nothing.
Letting out a soft sob, I hugged myself around the middle and let the pain pour out. Fletcher wrapped his arm around me, and Adam rested his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.
“I’m proud of you, Sky,” he said, which only made me cry harder.
We stood there for what felt like an eternity, until the fire died down to embers, just like my relationship with my twin.
Smelling of smoke, we went back inside and Fletcher fetched me a bottle of water. I drank it in slow sips. My world felt shaky.
“You okay?” he asked, his brows furrowed.
“Yeah… Yeah, I think so,” I said. “It’s just a lot. It hurts.”
“I know, sweetheart. Life hurts sometimes.”
I went to bed that night, still seeing the flames dancing behind my closed eyelids.
When I awoke, it was to an amazing breakfast spread of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and homemade sausage gravy and biscuits. My stomach rumbled at the greasy, glorious scent of it all.
“What’s all this for?” I asked, waving towards the food stretched over the kitchen table on serving platters and plates.
Fletcher beamed. “Because I felt you needed a pick-me-up. Here, we got you something too.” He handed me a small, square package wrapped in buttery gift wrap.
For a moment, I just stared. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know.” Fletcher wore a knowing smile, then waved both hands at me. “Hurry and open it!”
I opened the pretty paper as gently as I could, but when I saw what was inside, my breath hitched in my throat. In my hands was the most beautiful leather-bound journal, embossed with gold with a phoenix on the front. In flowing golden script, the word “Rebirth.”
My eyes filled with tears. A new journal for a new beginning.
“Thank you.” I crashed into Fletcher and threw my arms around him in the biggest hug I’d ever given anyone in the history of ever. “I love it.”
“You’re very welcome. Fill it with happy things, Sky.”
When I pulled back, he smiled at me, and my heart skipped a beat of its own accord.
“I will.”
17
FLETCHER
Spring soon turned to summer,and it was as if Mother Nature herself had cranked up the heat. The fourth of July passed in a sky full of fireworks that we watched from our front porch.
As the month neared its end, summer was on full blast, which meant we were running the AC unit nonstop and wearing fewer clothes than usual.
The three of us had fallen into a comfortable groove. Over the last couple of months, Sky had really blossomed, therapy finally moving him in the right direction. He wasn’t as bitter or angry. He laughed more, smiled a lot more. He joked with us and with his coworkers at Bixby’s during his shifts.
I didn’t think he realized it yet, but Sky was beginning to heal from the inside out, and I was so damn proud of him. Like a parent watching its baby bird take flight for the first time, I wanted nothing more than for Sky to soar. For him to spread his wings and live.
Sky and I were watching Saturday morning cartoons when Adam strolled past, plucked the remote from Sky’s hand, and turned the TV off.
“Hey!” Sky protested.
