Give Our Rights Away, Arise And Seize The Day

The mood was completely dead. Too many people crowded the room, leaving no space any deep emotions to show. It was all too much to bear for some people, while others mourned for their self-beings. The room was decorated with flowers to cover up the stench of death. Nobody could look straightforward without breaking down or shedding a few tears. The loss was too much for anyone, whether they knew him or not. The two front rows of the chapel were filled with family and close friends, some trying to stay calm the whole ceremony. Maddie and Tori were in one pew with Brendon, Ryan, Gerard, and Pete sitting with them. The other one had Maddie’s close family filling the space. Only one person was missing from the group; Joe. He was there, just in the casket.

It was all an accident that he was unfortunately riding on, literally. The plane to his conference had a violent crash into the ground with no survivors what-so-ever. It was a great loss for everybody, but what made it worse was everybody blamed themselves for the accident. Nothing was left to be said, anything that someone wanted to tell someone completely dissipated before the service had begun. It was towards the end of the ceremony when things began to fall apart a bit. Maddie had been the one that was chosen to say the eulogy. She let go of Brendon’s hand as she walked up to the podium and moved the microphone around to be compatible with her height.

“Uh…hi,” her voice shook. She was quiet for a bit as she bit her lip to think about what to say next. “So, uh, for those who knew about the relationship Joe and I shared, it may seem weird that I’m standing up here speaking. B-bu-but,” she was on the verge of tears at this point. “Bu-bu-but he was my brother!”

She began to cry in front of everyone, letting it all out. Brendon began to get out of his seat to go up to her, but Tori stopped him. “No, no, she has to be left alone. She can do this.” All he did was nod and sit back in his seat.

“I’m sorry,” she spoke into the microphone. “I did hate him most of the time, but he was my brother! You just can’t say that you didn’t love your brother, right? I mean seriously, yeah we fought, but I’m going to miss all those fights and saying how much I hated him. That’s what made our relationship.” She paused for a bit just to breathe. “I think I said enough, I mean you know what they say; less is more!”

She awkwardly walked back over to her seat next to Brendon and grabbed onto his hand tight. He squeezed it as the minister began to give instructions on how they would be processing out to the burial.

x~X~x~x~X~x~X~x~X~x~

They stood quietly around the grave as the casket was lowered into the ground. Everybody that stuck around this long was now crying as much as they wanted to during the ceremony. As they began to pile the dirt back on, people began saying their goodbyes to each other. Joe and Maddie’s dad came over to their group to finally get to have his chance to talk to him. Both Maddie and her dad shared a tight embrace as she silently began to cry again.

“You did fine honey,” he patted her on the back.

“Thanks dad,” she nodded her head.

“You and your friends heading home soon?”

“Our plane leaves tonight.”

He nodded and looked over his shoulder before speaking again. “Listen,” he lowered his voice. “Your mother doesn’t want me to do this, but I think it was a bit harsh that we cut you and Tori off like that.” He slyly handed an envelope over to her. “I’ll try sending them once in a while. But this doesn’t mean that you still shouldn’t look for a job.”

“Thanks dad,” she smiled and turned to Brendon. “Do you mind holding on to this for me please?”

He nodded and slid it into his pants pocket. Her dad looked him. “This your boyfriend?”

“Oh yeah,” she snapped back into reality. “Dad, this is Brendon. Brendon, this is my dad.”

They shook hands and exchanged silent hellos. “You better take care of her, I’ll be calling up and checking to see if you’re doing a good job.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll care for her,” he laughed.

“Just make sure she gets a job when you guys get back home.”

“Will do.”

Her dad looked back over his shoulder to her mom. “Looks like she’s getting a bit antsy. We better get going.” They hugged one more time. “Have a safe trip home.”

“We will,” she smiled. He nodded to Brendon before walking away. The two of them walked over to their group. “We’re ready to go when you guys are.”