Sunshine.

I remember when it all started.

Edie had come back from where ever she was. I didn’t make it my business to find out where she had disappeared to but if I had to take an educated guess, which wasn’t something I did often mind you, I guess she went to college. I was sitting in the living room of the Baker household. Zacky was going on about him and Gena and I was just relaxing, flipping through the TV channels. I had to head off to work soon but eh, I was lazy. I owned the bar so it wasn’t like I had a boss to cower from. I turned to look at him and that was when the front door opened. I didn’t realize how big of a contrast the outside versus the inside was. The bright light poured in and my eyes squinted for a moment before I could make out the silhouette of a woman coming inside of the house.

I recognized that face from anywhere. Edie Baker, back from college. She moved the wayfarer sunglass off the top of her head and she smiled. “Brian! Zee! How are you?” She asked.

“Pretty damn good,” I replied. If Zacky said anything, I wasn’t listened. It was one of those moments when time seemed to slow down. It was when you saw that one perfect person that you knew that you had to have. The way she moved. The way she smiled. It was mesmerizing. I was sure that my mouth probably was slightly gaped open at the sight of her. I brought up a hand to double check. No. I was good. Her smile had whitened and she flipped her dark hair behind her shoulders before she walked into the kitchen. “Well filled out well. Edie grew up…”

“Dude. You don’t wanna go there.”

My eyes wandered slightly to the left, trying to look as casual as I wanted to be at the moment. Zacky’s nagging voice lingered in my ears for only the briefest of moments before my thoughts were turned to someone else. She’s grown up. Edie Baker. I remembered when we were just kids. Back then, she was only Zacky’s little sister who tried to follow us wherever we went. She would stand there with her knobby little knees and her awkward stance. Her big hazel hues brightened with curiosity. Honestly, I had thought the girl left town. I hadn’t expected her to be there when I got back. And where exactly had I been? That was a story for another time. Now, well, now was the time I needed to focus on wondering what the hell it was that I was going to do next. I could see Edie in the kitchen, her silhouette moving against the light and I wondered what she was doing. I turned my head to look at my best friend. “Man,” I started, “All I said was that she grew up.”

Zacky rolled his eyes as he brought up a hand to move some dark hair out of his face. “Yeah,” he started, “And we know where that leads.”

“Where’s that exactly?”

Zacky eyed me like I was stupid. No, I was far from stupid. Awkward. I didn’t know what to say to the man. Zacky probably didn’t know what else to say to me either so the silence was a mutual decision. “Zee! I’m heading out!” I heard her voice carry to the living room. It was full of life, filled with happiness that was never meant to be taken away.

--

“Why is it that everytime you’re around her something bad always happens?”

Zacky was pissed. It was understandable why but it wasn’t my fault. I shook my head. “Dude, calm down. I know, ok. Don’t you think I realize that?” Sighing heavily I ran a hand through my hair and looked at the other guys for some support while Mrs. B was talking to the doc. Was I some bad luck charm? Was me being around her the reason why Edie was getting hurt? My eyebrows furrowed together. I didn’t like the thought and in my personal opinion, it didn’t make sense. How could one person cause that much bad luck on someone? “It’s not like I meant for anything like this to happen, how can you blame me?”

“My little sister is in a hospital bed and no one knows what’s wrong with her!” Zacky yelled back at me. I could see some people in the room turn their heads to look at us. Some others were trying not to look, not wanting to be obviously rude, but I noticed. I noticed the hurt in Zacky’s eyes, the emotional drainage on his face. He was the only man of the house since their dad left. He had to take care of Edie and their mom.

“I know,” I said in a low voice. “I was there when it happened, remember?” I could feel a lump forming in my throat almost causing me to choke on my words but I spoked carefully. I wasn’t trying to piss my best friend off even more. I held up a hand, motioning for the dark haired man to let me speak. I sighed a bit. “Edie’s a strong woman, Z, she’ll be ok.” That was what I wanted to keep telling myself anyways, maybe he’d listen.

“He’s right,” Matt decided to chirp in. I glanced back at him, hopefully he’d know that I had this handled.

“What makes you think that?” Zacky was looking at me. I could feel my heart swell a bit. “You can’t even tell her how you really feel about her.” That… That was none of his business. Before I had a chance to say anything else to him, Mrs. Baker came back to the group.

“How is she?” Jimmy, the closest to Edie asked.

Mrs. Baker wiped at her eyes. “Edie has this thing called congestive heart failure… They suspect it was the reason why she had her car accident. It’s when blood doesn’t get pumped to the heart fast enough…The doctor has showed me some things that’ll help but they ay that the best thing to do is give it time,” She told us. Not Edie… The pits of my stomach lurched at the thought that something like that could even touch her. Mrs. Baker looked at me and I felt myself cringe slightly. “She wants to see you. The doctor said that she should have one visitor at a time. The excitement of too many people isn’t what she needs right now.”

--

“Bear.”

“Sunshine.”

Sitting by her bedside, I looked at her. Her light colored skin had taken on a light blue tint. Her little fingers intwined with mine. I brought her hand up to my lips and gently brushed her discolored skin with them. I looked down for a moment. It was hard to look at her the way she was in her condition. “You ok?” I heard her ask. I closed my eyes. Shouldn’t I be the one asking her that? I felt like I had just gotten her back from her car accident only to lose her to the confinements of the hospital bed again.

“Worried about you.”

“Ah, I’ve always been a kicker, Bear, you know that. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Where’s my sweet charmer? I don’t like the look on your face.”

A small laugh escaped my lips. I couldn’t help but let it out. It wasn’t as musical likes hers had been. It may have sounded a little bitter, maybe even a little forced but it put a smile on her face. Was that to forced and a little bitter? My eyes opened back up and all I focused on was her. “Baby cakes, I’m here. Always been here. You think I’d leave you?” Things were so different from what they use to be. People say that over time, changes happen. I guess that was the main reason, or a major contributing factor to why we were together as well. “Someone’s gotta keep your ass in line.”

“And you think that you’re that someone?” At least her sense of humor hadn’t died. Ugh. How fuckin dreary was that kind of thinking?

“Why not?”

“Here I thought that I was the one that kept you in line.” I brought her hand up to my lips against, feeling warmth there fade slowly. He kissed her hand and stood up, wrapping the blanket around her more.

“Get some rest,” I told her while tucking the blanket around her. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”