• Stories


    “I’ll get that,” I grabbed the ice chest out of the trunk of the suburban and dragged it along the sand to the shore. “It’s really nice out.” Shade ruffled my hair as he always did, but I didn’t even want him here right now. “Oh Shade where do you want these chairs?” Heather pranced up with some chairs in her hands and Jessica helped Chase and Cody carry some wood. I purposely dropped the ice chest on his foot and walked over to Heather. “Here let me help you with that Heather.” I took some chairs from her and placed them around a nearby pit. “Hey Crysstal can we get a little help over here?” “Yea Jess I’ll be there in a minute.” I glared back at Heather. “Have a nice time with him.” I gave her a smile and walked over to help the others with the wood. “You okay Cryss, seems like you’re a little angry with Shade.” Jessica gazed at me and I smiled. “It’s okay, I just don’t want him around me tonight that’s all.” My smile faded and I took a pile of wood to the pit. Once everything was settled, I decided to take a little walk. “I’ll be back soon.” I trudged off with my hands in my pockets and my head staring at the ground. “Let me come with you Cryss.” “No Shade I don’t want anyone coming with me.” I picked up my pace till everyone was out of sight. I walked along the sandy shores staring out into the sea, watching the stars reflect off the water. “Shade why are you doing this to me?” those thoughts kept rushing through my head, wondering if he would rather go with Heather than me. I started to hum a lullaby that my mother sang to me when I was little. “That’s a beautiful song.” My heart stopped when I heard his voice. “So you followed me anyways, I thought I told you not to.” “Well I wanted to make sure you were safe so I decided to.” He walked up to me, but I didn’t bother to look at him. “I never heard that song before.” My anger slowly faded. “My mother sang it to me, before she died.”

    “Well that was a beautiful song, did she make it?” I nodded my head as he walked beside me. “She made it for me.” I bit my lip occasionally. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened, well its not my job to know but I’m just curious.” I grabbed his wrist and pulled him with me and we walked till we got to a bench that was near the shore. “Sure I’ll tell you.” I let go of him and sat on the bench. “My mother used to take me here all the time, this was our favorite spot to sit.” He sat down next to me and kept his hands on his lap. “My mother was a beautiful person, she would always tell me stories and sing to me every night. Her name was Gabriel and she always made me happy, she was so pretty and kind. But when we went vacationing in Florida, that’s when things went bad.” I bit my lower lip hard enough for it to bleed, but I took a deep breath and kept going. “She took me with her to do some grocery shopping one day and she took a wrong turn.” I didn’t notice my tears were falling. “She stop the car for some reason and told me to get out and run, I didn’t know why she wanted me to. Then I heard gunshots, she yelled even louder for me to go, I had to listen I got out as fast as I can. When I reached the street corner I heard four more shots then a loud piercing scream after. When I went back whoever shot her was gone.” It was painful to remember this sort of thing. “I saw her laying on the ground, she took four shots, one to the head, two in her chest and one in her leg, her eyes were open and staring straight at me. I kept calling mommy, mommy hoping she would wake up, but she didn’t.” I was crying my eyes out and he put his arm around my shoulder. “I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t save her I was to weak, and I wanted to save her so badly.” His other hand traced along my cheek, wiping my tears away, then down to my jaw where I bit my lip. “It’s a good thing you did listen to her, or else you wouldn’t be here now.” He held me close to his body and gently started to rub my back, trying to calm me down. “But there was nothing you could of done for her.”

    He rocked me till I stopped crying and he kissed me on the top of my head and walked back to the others. I guess he gave me some time to be alone; I did act like a baby in front of him. I wiped my remaining tears away and walked back to the others as well. I took a seat next to Jessica and of course Heather was next to Shade, inching closer to him to irritate me.