Impact

As Aimee got up there, she took a deep breath. She didn’t expect to not cry during her little speech about Riley – on the contrary, she expected to bawl her eyes out. It was hard to stay strong when your own little brother had just died, after all.

“Hi everyone,” Aimee’s voice quivered, as she began to speak.

“I guess if I had to give myself a label for Riley and my relationship, we were siblings. Obviously. But, the thing is, we were more than that. Riley was like my best friend, the one person I could go to when the rest of the world walked out.”

She thought it would get easier when she got into the hang of it. But it didn’t. She guessed that it never did. It would always hurt.

“I always hear about siblings that basically hate each other. They never talk again after they move out. I always wondered how that could happen. Riley and I were like two peas in a pod – inseparable. So, when he died, it wasn’t fair to me. It wasn’t fair. I actually loved my brother, and the reward I got was him dying,” Aimee began to cry.

The room was death silent, except for the whimpers of her cry. The silence lasted only a few seconds, but it was long enough for the world to turn upside down and back around.

“I’m trying to move on, I promise. I know Riley would have wanted me to. God, would he be mad right now that I’m still hung up over this. He always said I was a drama queen, and I guess I am. All I know for sure is that I miss him. That I love him. The only thing is, I lost him. So, am I not a sister anymore, or am I Riley Williams’ sister forever?”

She couldn’t go on after that. The weeping had taken over her speech – words became incoherent. But then again, words had become useless long ago.