I sat on my porch, watching my cat as another car passed by. His head followed along with the car's sound. He had zero care for what was going on, except for why I was huddled together watching him.
Meanwhile, I had lots of cares swimming around in my head. Actually, they were running away from the hurricane of sadness about to conquer them.
It had been one month since Daniel's passing. I missed him so much, it was unbearable. If he saw me here, he'd probably flash me a smile and ask what's wrong. He'd come over and sit next to me. I'd tell him about everything that was wrong, and he'd comfort me as I told him so. He'd talk about what was going on in his life afterwards, usually completely erasing any trace of sadness from my face. But he didn't tell me about why he was sad.
My cat turned his head as he heard the sleeve of my sweater shift up. We looked at each other for a second, then he turned back around. I wiped the tear off of my cheek and stared at how it darkened the color of my sweater. I started to think about that, then on to other things, then back to Daniel. What else was there to think about?
About how he was a brother to me. How he was always there. How he was a gem. Actually, a gold mine. You could get rich just looking at him.
Your mood could change completely when staring, or even glancing at him. And if you showed him to another person, they'd love him instantly.
I heard a knock at the stair railing front of me. Ryan.
I shot up and stared at him. We stood, watching each other other for a couple of seconds. Ryan knew what I was going through. And I knew what Ryan was going through.
I broke. I threw my arms around Ryan's chest and flooded my tears into the crook of his neck.
Ryan sighed. He hugged me back and we stood there. We stood there for ages.
I spoke to him, or someone, for the first time in a month. "Where are Mark and Matt?"
I didn't keep up to date with my friends. I didn't really pay attention to anyone but my cat recently. Keeping at least one person happy... healthy... alive.
"Back at the house." He replied looking at me.
My cat trotted up to Ryan and rubbed his head against him. He then heard another car and quickly walked back and jumped up to the edge of the balcony where he watched an ambulance pass through. My head hung at the thought of where the ambulance was heading.
"Why don't we go inside, Alexandrea." Ryan said. My eyes froze onto him. He hadn't said my real name in ages. Actually, nobody has said my real name in ages.
Everyone called me Hunter, as an honor of my dad, who passed away when I was 9. But people called me Hunter, or just "Hunt" before that, due to my love of hunting. Not real hunting, of course, because I was nine. But my dad let me shoot fake deer with a nerf gun. Sometimes when I invited Daniel over, he punched the deer in the face and do a weird dance. I smiled at the thought.
That love faded away, though, due to me just simply not being interested anymore and my mind being cleared.
I got a tattoo of my dad last year, as another honor. He had the same tattoo. It was a grey, green, and brown heart with his initials in it. He had the same color scheme with my name in it instead. The only difference between the two is that his heart was a bit more detailed and just altogether more beautiful than mine.
I then remembered that Ryan stood in front of me, patient for an answer.
"That sounds nice." I finally replied.
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--A/N: May take at least a couple of chapters to get to the plot. Sorry about that.
-Shauna--