And Tell Me That You've Missed Me

By summer vacation, things finally started to turn around. Angela came home in June, Mom and Dad argued much less, and I didn't have to go to summer school. But other things weren't so great. We found out that Kaylynn was having twin boys, which surprised everyone. Also, Dustin hadn't spoken to anyone much since his brother's death. There were so many times when I wanted to reach out to him myself, but I remembered I had promised myself I would let him come to me. All my waiting paid off one lazy Tuesday afternoon in June. I was sitting on the swings playing a game on my phone when he called me. I almost didn't believe what I saw. I swiped the call button and took a deep breath.

"Hello?" said a gruff male voice. I panicked a bit and didn't answer right away. He spoke again.

"Hello? Lilith, are you there?" My heart almost broke when I heard my name. I finally answered.

"Dustin? Oh my goodness. It feels so good to hear your voice."

"So, how have you been?" I don't know why he asked me this as I was more concerned with how he'd been.

"Good. No summer school and Angela is home." I didn't want to give him too much at once.

"Well, that's great, Lilith. Listen, I need to ask you something."

"Sure, anything." I held my breath.

"I know you remember all that stuff that happened between us before. And the whole kiss that ruined everything."

"Yea, of course I remember, Dustin." I had no idea where he was going with this.

"Well, we never actually agreed on what we would do about Angela." I broke out into a cold sweat when he said her name.

"Right," I replied nervously.

"I think we should tell her." There were several seconds of silence after that. He knew I was still there and that I wasn't sure about the decision he was proposing.

Angela had been getting so much better over this past five months. She was talking and she was walking, but with a cane for now. None of us asked her if she remembered anything from the night of the accident because we didn't want to push her too far. She seemed to have a decent memory, though. She remembered that our parents were now divorced, that she and I were going to be big sisters, and that Dustin was her boyfriend even though he hadn't been to see her since the night his brother died. I told Dustin I would think about his idea for a while, but after two days, I figured I would just tell her myself. Thursday morning I got up and got dressed and sat in my sister's room on the floor and waited for her to wake up. I think I frightened her a little when she finally did.

"Finally awake, huh?" I asked cheerfully.

"Who are you?" she asked quizzically which caused me to panic for half of a second. Before I could answer her she responded.

"My sister never gets up this early. You must be her evil clone or something." We both laughed for a few seconds. I was just relieved that she was just joking with me.

"Well trust me. I am your real sister. I just wanted to ask you something."

"Sure, ask me anything." She leaned up in her bed to look at me.

"Do you remember the last game you cheered at?" I asked nervously.

"Of course I—oh I see where this is going. Look, Lilith before you go any further, it's okay. I'm okay with what happened."

"What?" I was really confused.

"I remember exactly what happened. I was at the top of the pyramid. Our team had just come back a few seconds before with six points. Everyone was excited and full of energy. Sometimes people do things without thinking. I should have been paying more attention to myself instead of staring out into the crowd. That's day one of safety rules."

"So you're not mad at me?" I asked.

"Of course not. Sometimes people do things without thinking. It was a pretty awesome game."

"That is just great. All this time I thought you'd hate me."

"I could never hate you. You annoy the crap out of me sometimes. But I love you, Lillie." I got up from the floor and squeezed my sister tight.

"I love you, too, Angie."

I had never been so relieved or felt so loved in my life.