stories

The goal is to write stuff that feels complete even if it's super short.

As soon as school ended, my sister came to pick me up. I was super happy. I'm still super happy. It's been forever since I've seen my sister. It was a bit lonely without Mom and Dad, but Sis said they told us to enjoy ourselves. They usually get angry when it comes to her but I think they've finally made up.

Anyway, the first place we went to was my sister's new home. There were other people there and they got angry at us. Something about our smell. I was about to get mad right back at them when Sis stopped me. It reminded me of how it was when she lived at home with me, Mom and Dad. So we went away from there since her roommates were so mean. The next place we went was an ice cream place. The lady there gave me twice the scoops for being so brave. I guess kids over there don't order their own ice cream. It's not scary at all for me, of course. Whenever my family goes out for ice cream, we always take turns ordering.

Mom is close friends with the ice cream lady back home and she always chats with her for too long whenever we go. Dad just looks at his phone all the time. He's a workaholic (is that what you call people who have work as their hobby?). Sis is different though. Even though we took turns ordering, we got to chat while eating. She even made me a boat from the napkin. You can look at it later if you want!

Then, the last place we went was this scary rope bridge. There were maybe millions of trees below the bridge, kinda like green clouds in a green sky if the sky was on the ground instead of in the air. Sis said she worked here before and that she liked the view. Like it was two skies. When I laughed and told her I thought the same thing, she smiled and said I shouldn't copy her. She asked me what I thought was different between the two "skies".

You see, my sister likes riddles too much. I knew the colour wasn't the right answer but I couldn't figure out the right answer. So I thought and thought the whole time we were in the car. Finally, I said "the trees have a home and the sky doesn't."

When I think about it some more, I guess the sky gets to travel at least. It can't be all that bad. Maybe a bit lonely. But the sky isn't alive.

I know that much. I'm not a dumb 10-year-old. And my sister isn't either. So why were her eyes watery the whole time?

Your face when I announced that I'd be leaving the group made me wish I could take it back. And then do it again. Because it only lasted a second. Then your face arranged itself from anger to a veneer of sadness. I expected you to confront me afterwards. You never did. Not a single word about it until my last day.

The fans post all sorts of nonsense about us; almost all of it wrong.

Even now at my graduation concert, I can't wait to hear what you'll say. The dome is silent. Even Anzu doesn't have any jabs tonight. So when it's finally your turn to give your farewell message, your every footstep echoes. A pause. Right out of arm's reach as always. You start with the expected: talk about how the group will change and how much everyone appreciates my presence. My hand starts to hurt from gripping the mic too hard. Another minute passes and you bring up that time we got lost taking the train. Of course, you don't mention the real reason that happened. I wait for you to say something about your own feelings about this all. How can you look at me like that? Holding out hope for the journey back was useless. All you're doing is staring at the other side of station. You tap me on the shoulder. "Sorry you had to deal with me for so long." I should be happy to finally hear an apology. I'm not.