Page 17 of Don't Let Go

“I’m sorry for her outburst, but she’s right. I’ll leave you to absorb all this, and we’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.” Sofia touched my face and gave me another somber smile. “I can see both your parents in you. You’ve grown up so much.” With that, she left.

Aurora picked up the fallen rose and handed it to me. “For life be, after all, only a waitin’ for somethin’ else than what we're doin’; and death be all that we can rightly depend on.”

I wrinkled my forehead and accepted the rose. “Isn’t that from Stoker’sDracula?”

Aurora turned around, so she walked backward toward the door. “Yes. Yes, it is.” She then disappeared into the sunlight.

I rubbed my eye with the heel of my hand and looked around the empty church filled with flowers and my father’s casket still on the stage.

After collecting myself for a few moments, I walked outside. The parking lot was empty, all except Iris sitting in her Porsche listening to music. I rolled my shoulders and made my way toward her car.

As I sat down, she looked over at me. Her smile faded as a searching look came over her. “What’s wrong?”

I ran a hand over my face. “Never mind that now. Just take me home please.”

Without another word, she put the car in gear and headed home.

For the first time in my life, my future looked blurry. I had no idea what was waiting for me. I couldn’t even predict tomorrow. I had to be in a feverish nightmare and this twistedTwilight Zoneworld would shatter when I woke up. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be how my senior year of high school burst into flames.

8

Aurora

I still couldn’t believe my mamma allowed some stranger to move in with us. So what if he was the son of her deceased best friend? He could’ve been a serial killer, for all we knew. However, after seeing him in person yesterday, I doubted that. He seemed nice if guys from Scottsdale gave a damn about girls from South Phoenix.

With his near-herculean muscles and that thick, luscious hair, I bet he had a lot of girls heartbroken he had to leave town. I squeezed my eyes shut. Damnit, why did he have to be hot?

Franco and Lorenzo went with Mamma to help Tyler pack his things and officially move him into Carmen’s room. Carmen and I were to prepare the house for our permanent guest and watch over Lizzy. Carmen muttered curse words under her breath asshe went back and forth, moving the rest of her things into Lizzy’s room.

“Yay! We can have a slumber party every night!” Lizzy bounced off the walls with her excitement, hugging her bunny so tightly that if it was a real bunny, it would be long dead.

Carmen walked past her with an armful of bedding.

I leaned against the wall laughing as Lizzy ordered Carmen where to place her stuff like she was an interior decorator.

“What are you laughing about?” Carmen snapped, giving me a death glare as she passed by. “Don’t you have a toilet to clean?”

I nodded toward the bathroom. “I already cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom. When you don’t spend half the time sulking, you can get a lot done.”

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Why do I have to share a room with Lizzy? You two are best friends. Why can’t you share?”

“Because I’m older, and the world is out to get you. I thought you knew that by now.” I grabbed fresh sheets from the linen closet and walked into Carmen’s room to make the bed since I knew she wasn’t going to.

“Do you think Tyler will be nice?” Lizzy asked. She stood next to me with a hand on the hem of my shirt. She stared up at me with her chubby cheeks and a smear of peanut butter near her mouth.

“Yes. It will take him some time to get used to it here, but I’m sure he’s nice.” I licked my thumb and rubbed the peanut butter off her face. “You need to learn how to use a napkin, Lizzy.”

She giggled and ran away, yelling, “Never!”

After changing the sheets and fluffing the pillows, I glanced around the room to ensure everything was in place. The closet still had some stuff on the top shelf, but there was room to hang up clothes and plenty of space on the floor for storage. The dresser and nightstand were cleared out. The room appeared ready for a guest.

Carmen stood in the doorway looking at her movie posters and clicked her tongue in thought. “Do you think I need to take everything off my walls? I don’t know this guy. He could be a psycho and tear my posters down or worse, he could tag them with something.” She moved to stand in front of her poster ofShakespeare in Love. “I don’t know where I’m going to put them all if I do.”

“I’m sure it’s fine for now. You can always take them down later.” A car horn blared outside—they must be back.

“This is ridiculous,” Carmen said, slamming the door to her room and storming down the hall to Lizzy’s.

Lizzy bowed her head and stuck out her bottom lip. “Why doesn’t she want to stay with me? I no fun?”

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