Chapter 24: Sisters
The next day, Cara came to visit. In fact, a lot of people came, but my sister showed up first.
As it turns out, I would reflect later, getting seriously injured makes everyone want to pour out their feelings to you.
I yawned, still tired from last night. I had been avoiding touching my leg, as even without the contact, it still ached. Although maybe not as much as it would've since I'm sure the nurses put something other than water in the IV attached to my arm. Some sort of painkiller for sure.
All this was going through my head when Cara arrived. Aunty had left to take care of the boys earlier this morning, but Cara had wanted to come so she'd done a double run with the car, not wanting to let us go anywhere by ourselves after yesterday.
"Hey Cara," I said with a smile, ironically more confident with her than I was yesterday.
"Hey," She said, tucking her short black-as-night hair behind one ear, seeming nervous and simultaneously resigned, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
"But it's not your fault I got shot?" I say, confused.
"But I should've done something! Maybe I shouldn't have gone along with you plan, or I should've stayed, but either way I was a horrible sister," When I started to protest, she cut me off, saying, "and I don't just mean yesterday."
I figured I'd stay quiet and let her say her piece before I contradicted her.
"I haven't been kind; calling you freak and then ignoring you. I cared, I always cared, but I'm not very good at showing it. Sure, I had some other things going on, but that wasn't an excuse for how I treated you. And then, even after all that, you made sure I escaped first, and then got yourself shot!" The confused frustration seemed to be engraved upon her face as she looked at me with a stare that held ten thousand questions.
"Like you said, you may have treated me like that, but I didn't ever hate you." I say quietly, "And I actually think you would've done the same if you could."
The white-washed hospital room was silent, for about two seconds, because when Cara felt the need, she could be really loud.
"You call that an answer?! 'I didn't ever hate you'?!" She snorted sarcastically, "I'd hate to be someone you really liked then, if that's what you do for people you 'don't hate'. How am I supposed to keep you safe, like a big sister should, if you go playing hero? I should've-" She cut herself off, calming down, "I should've been there."
I let out a small smile, "You would've been there if I hadn't sent you out to make a phone call."
Scowling, she half glared at me, "This isn't funny, I'm trying to-"
Interrupting her, (something I wouldn't have dared to do before) I said, "I don't blame you. If it's forgiveness you want, you've got it. But if you're going to make me sit here and get yelled at because you feel guilty, at least give me some earplugs."
The room was silent for a second, and I was a bit shocked at myself.
Oops. And THAT, Juliet, is why you should keep your darn mouth shu-
My thoughts were suddenly broken into by a low chuckle.
"If I thought taking a bullet would actually give you some self-confidence, maybe I should've shot you ages ago!" She snorted, but the smile on her face told me it was light-hearted. Eyes wide, all I could do was stare. She was smiling and laughing while talking to me?!
"What're you staring at?" She asked suspiciously.
"I just- you're smiling." I said, emboldened a little by her reaction to the last edgy thing I'd said.
She rolled her eyes, but her smile held a little sadness, "I guess I've never been very cheerful around you, have I? I guess I'll put that on the 'how to be a better sister' list."
I smiled, and for the first time in a long time, it felt like – well, I don't know. Like the start of a really good friendship? Is that too cliché? Are my hopes too high? I almost physically shook my head. Stop second guessing yourself, Juliet. And don't count the proverbial friendship eggs til they hatch. Just take it one step at a time – as soon as I can walk without a burning pain in my leg.
Author's Note:
To be honest, I really like this chapter, and I hope I wrote it right! The relationship between these two progressed probably a little faster than what's realistic, but I figured that the whole 'life-death-gun-saved your life' thing really pushed things up. Despite how Juliet perceives her, Cara can be really nice, she just doesn't have a lot of practise and was going through a tricky time with her 'friends' at school - it's not relevant to the story so it wont come up but eh. They way she treated Juliet had been bugging Cara for a while and she was kind of trying to make up for it by letting Juliet choose the desserts etc before the gun thing but she realised there was no substitute for an actual apology lol
Anyway, please review! And I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
Trix