Remembering Sunday

"Mom, I'm sure she just got caught in a little traffic," I assured.

Upon my arrival, my mother was freaking out. She'd exploded through the front door before I even had a chance to shut my engine off and bounded up to the car door, prepared to pull the door off. Her brunette hair with a natural tint of red was messed up from how many times she'd ran her hands through it from panic. My mother usually wasn't the one to overreact to a situation, but I guess since it had to do with Tracy getting here it became a big deal.

"Your sister is never late!" she exclaimed as I tried to run a brush through her hair on the porch. She wouldn't stop fidgeting, so I gave up. Man, just like a child. I guess her prim and proper nature meant that she expected everyone to be on time for everything.

"I'm sure she'll be here, mom," I soothed.

"She was supposed to be here a half hour ago."

"Mom, stop. You're being ridiculous."

"No, I'm not. I'm being concerned about my daughter."

Riiight, I thought. Had it been me arriving back from Florida, I'm sure she wouldn't give a damn about how late I was. I knew she was still a little pissed about the whole deal with Seth and me living together, but she was going to have to get past it. However, her next move definitely was showing no improvement.

"What's with your shirt?" she asked. I looked down at my shirt; a simple, black and white striped tank top. So what?

"What about it?" I asked cautiously.

"It's incredibly too low! Go inside and put something else on," she stated, waving me off. I dropped the brush on the swinging bench we were sitting on, completely baffled. I looked down at the neckline, which wasn't low at all. Hell, it didn't even show any cleavage!

"Mom, it's a regular tank top, not something a stripper would wear," I said.

"It's still too low. Haven't I taught you better?"

"Are you just trying to get back at me about Seth?"

Silence. My mother took one unwilling glance at me before turning her attention back onto the street. I sighed heavily and looked away at the trees next to the house where the hammock swayed in the breeze, where Seth and I had first kissed.

It had been a clear spring night in our junior year. Seth had come over for pizza and a movie, but it was Tracy's pick at the time. Titanic. Ugh. To save ourselves the agony of watching my sister cry rivers over Leonardo DiCaprio letting go and sinking to the bottom of the sea, we made our way outside to the hammock under the stars. It had been awkward at first; he laid down, offering the space next to him to me. At the time, my feelings for him had been through the roof and caused me to stumble and roll on top of him as I sat.

"You okay?" he had asked.

"Yeah," I replied and rolled off of him, my face blushing and heating in the dark. Our sides were in line with each other's and my heart was going a mile a minute, our eyes scanning the sky.

"Big Dipper," he said, pointing at the constellation in the sky.

"Pretty," I commented quietly.

"That's the only constellation I can find, though." He laughed.

"You can't even find the little one?"

"Nope."

We laughed for a moment before I leaned my head on his shoulder. He was still recovering from Adam at the time. The funeral had been years ago, but neither of us could forget it. He'd never left my arms that whole day, even when Adam's white casket was lowered into the ground. The week after the funeral, we were absolutely inseparable, spending our days in the hammock or at each other's houses in silence. The tears didn't stop then, either.

That night under the stars, the two of us cuddled close in the hammock was truly something I thought only happened in the movies. Seth had his hand on mine, the warmth between us cozy as a cool breeze blew by, ruffling my hair. Using my other hand, I toyed with the bracelets on his arm as the meaning of each color bracelet registered in my head. The world around us was quiet except for the occasional chrip from a cricket or hoot from an owl. Eventually, Seth put one of his bare feet against the emerald green grass beneath us to carefully set the hammock in a soft swing. I closed my eyes and relaxed, enjoying the moment. The movement of the hammock, Seth beside me, perfect.

He kept the hammock in motion for a while with his one foot, but a few times I wanted to push him off.

"Check this out," he'd say, then he would get a good grip on the ground with his foot and force us into a fast swing. My side would glide up into the night air and I would gasp loudly, scared of falling. I'd grab a firm hold on Seth, and he'd just laugh and control the slow swings again.

"You jackass," I said. That didn't help.

"Oh, really?" He did it again, this time much harder. We went up, I shrieked, and proceeded to push him. Seth gasped and slipped right off and onto the cold ground with a loud thud. I laughed out loud as the hammock swung back down, but karma instantly bit me in the ass. The hammock swung up the other way, catching me off guard. I had not been holding onto the edges, so I slipped right off and landed on top of Seth.

"Ouch!" he yelped. I took a deep breath, my ribs aching from how I'd landed on him. My elbow had dug right down into his chest, causing him to groan a few times as he rubbed the injured spot.

"Shit! I'm sorry, Seth," I said

"It's okay," he said, forcing a chuckle.

I looked him in the eyes, completely frozen on top of him. It was incredibly awkward from our close our faces were. His mouth was open just a crack, his minty breath flying at my face and into my nostrils. Apparently he must've been frozen, too. Sooner or later, he made an attempt to get up. Seth wrapped one arm around me tightly, the other one against the ground as he pushed the two of us up. My head bumped into the bottom of the hammock, creating a sort of canopy above us. He smiled and pulled the hammock off of my head, his arm still around me.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly, our faces still kind of close.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" I asked.

"I guess so."

"I'm sorry for landing on you."

He laughed. "It's okay, Laura." He reached his other hand up and brushed my hair out of my face, quickly tucking it behind my ear. I was feeling brave at the moment, but also completely out of my mind. I really couldn't help myself anymore, and while his eyes were still sort of off to the side where he tucked my hair back, I leaned in and kissed him. Once I realized he wasn't going to kiss back, I pulled away, blushing wildly, and broke the grip he had around me. When I finally looked him back in the eyes, I noticed he was shocked.

"I-I'm s-sorry, Seth," I stuttered. "I wanted t-to tell you h-how I felt, but-"

Before I could finish any of my rambling, Seth leaned back in and pressed his lips to mine, our foreheads pressed together.

"Shhh," he whispered when his lips left mine for a brief second. "You didn't do anything wrong." He kissed me again.

"SHE'S HERE!" my mother exclaimed, breaking in on my beloved memory. My head jerked upward into reality to see my sister pulling into the driveway in her Subaru Outback. My mother jumped up from the swinging bench and paraded over to the car. I stood up and leaned against the support beam on the porch, watching a mother-daughter reunion. I was just the sister on the side.

"Mom! Relax!" Tracy cried as she emerged from the car, holding her hands out to block our mother from hugging her. My mother backed off a bit, but not by much. Tracy sighed and fixed her orange, yellow, and white striped shirt, looking rather annoyed at the big commotion made over her arrival. Finally she allowed my mother to squeeze her in a bear hug she'd been saving, barely easing up until Tracy forced herself away.

"Laura!" Tracy called over to me. "Why don't you come give your only sister a hug?"

I blinked, figuring my mother was going to make some smartass comment about me. However, she did not, so I jumped off the porch onto the ground and walked over. Tracy seemed excited enough, so maybe I wasn't going to have to suffer a day of romance movies and fattening foods. We hugged tightly for a moment before she pulled back to examine me.

"My, you've grown so much since I left!" she exclaimed.

"You've only been gone half a year," I stated, and she shrugged.

"Still, things change within that time." Tracy reached up to pull the huge, black Guess sunglasses she was wearing off to reveal her blue eyes.

"Why don't we head inside?" my mother asked.

"Sure, sure," Tracy agreed, taking my wrist and pulling me up the porch steps and into the house. It was going to be a long day.