Always Yours

"Sometimes what you want is right in front of you. All you have to do is open your eyes and see it." – Meg Cabot


She starts the shower and stands in the steam until the water runs cold. When she goes back to her bedroom her skin is raw and red.

She falls asleep not looking at the picture of them on the table by her bed, though the image is burned in her brain and it's all she sees when she closes her eyes – them standing in front of her dad's patrol car on their first day of kindergarten, her crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out while Paul pulls on one of her long pigtails and tries hard to look tough.