Passenger Seat

As soon as we got into my sisters hospital room there were questions being screamed at her. People were huddled around her, and I couldn’t even get a look at her. My mother was screaming, my father was sitting lethargically in a chair in the farthest corner of the room, her fiancé was trying to calmly ask questions and my sister was just sobbing incoherently.

“What the hell is going on?” I finally screamed, and my mother turned to look at me, and she stepped away from my sisters bed side and I gasped when I finally saw her. She was covered in bruises, her face to her arms to her legs.

“Oh God, Summer what happened?” I quickly rushed to her, my sisterly instinct going into over drive.

“Who did this to you?” She shook her head violently, and I quickly took her hand into mine and squeezed it tightly.

“Everyone leave, now.” They all looked at me as if I were crazy.

“Now I said!” I raised my voice, and they took the hint and left. Tallulah patted my back and followed behind everyone. Once the door was closed, I looked over at my sister.

“Summer, what happened?” I asked softly. She continued to shake her head, refusing to answer me.

“Please? You can tell me. You can trust me. Don’t you know that?” She looked up at me, her right eye was swollen and bruised, and her left was bloodshot from crying.

“How can I trust you? You hate me, you’ve always hated me Autumn.” I shook my head.
“Not hate, envied.” I sighed.

“Summer, our whole lives we were attached by something no one really knows how to explain, even us. We’re twins, identical to the exact cells in our bodies. Yet, we’re so different.” I shook my head.

“You’re the pretty blonde, the cheerleader, the pageant queen, I’m just plain old Autumn.” She quickly stopped me.

“I envied you Autumn.” I grew wide eyed.

“How in the hell could you ever envy me?” We both laughed, and sighed in unison.

“I envied you because you’ve always been beautiful, but you didn’t realize it. Therefore, you didn’t let it get to your head, you weren’t flashy about it.” I shook my head, ready to protest but she stopped me before I could speak.

“Autumn, everyone was always interested in you, because you have so many brilliant, raw talents that I can never have. You draw, take pictures and play music. I’m lucky I can get away with dancing,” We both laughed at this.

“When I draw, it looks like a four year old did it. Did you know that?” I nodded.

“I’ve always known that.” I looked at my sister, adorned in bruises and cuts and realized that we weren’t so different after all.

“Summer, what happened? Why are you in the hospital?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” I shook my head.

“Yes, of course. But, how did this happen to you?” I brushed a blonde strand of her hair away from her swollen face, and frowned.

“Can’t you trust me enough to tell me?”

“I’m not ready to tell you yet.” I nodded.

“But, when you are—“

“You’ll be the first to know.” I smiled at her.

“I’m glad.” I looked at the time, and frowned as I looked at my sister.

“I probably need to get back to Brian.” She nodded in understanding.

“Of course.” I stood up and grabbed my things.

“Autumn?”

“Yes, Summer?”

“Will you visit me until I get out?”

“I will, every day.”

“Promise?”

“Pinky promise.” We both smiled, and I exited the room. Everyone looked at me anxiously, as if I held the answer.

“She’s not telling anyone just yet. Give her some time and space. Let her heal.” I rolled my eyes when my mother started complaining again, and Tallulah took this as a cue to exit the building.

In the car, Tallulah and I decided to get some food so we could talk. We drove to our favorite restaurant, and once we were seated we stared at our menus in silence. We both knew what we wanted, but for some reason I knew we didn’t want to talk to each other just yet. When the waitress came by, we ordered our drinks and our food, and handed her the menus.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked her, taking a sip of my cola. She seemed hesitant, and nervous.

“Tallulah, what’s going on?”

“It’s about Summer,” I grew wide eyed, wondering if she knew what happened but then I relaxed, and gave her a knowing look.

“This isn’t going to be like last time where you want to tell me but you refuse to because it’s supposed to be a secret is it?” She bit her lip, and sighed.

“Well,”

“Tallulah, if you want to tell me tell me. If you’re more worried about keeping it a secret than keep it a damned secret.” She slouched in her seat, and we didn’t speak much after that.
After our food was gone and we had paid, we piled into the car and she quickly took me back to Brian’s house.

“Oh, what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?” I looked over at her with wide eyes.
“What?”

“Thanksgiving, it’s next week.” I let out a groan when I realized she was right.

“I don’t know, I’ve been so distracted I haven’t even realized what month it is.” We laughed and I shook my head.

“What is everyone else doing?”

“The usual,” I nodded. The usual was dinner at my house, which was a formal event. Not quite as formal as Christmas Dinner, but formal.

“I’ll see if Brian is going to be okay to go, then we might go.” She rolled her eyes.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later then.” I nodded, and got out of the car and rushed back into the house, and went up the stairs.

“Hey, there’s Autumn. Is Summer okay?” I nodded at Jess’s question.

“Yeah, she’ll be okay.” They all nodded.

“Hey Bee, how are you doing?” He smiled.

“Great now that you’re here.” I smiled back and thanked the band for watching him.

“Hey, are you going to your parents Thanksgiving dinner?” I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t know yet.” They nodded, and left quietly.

“Are you sure Summer is okay?” I nodded.

“She’ll be fine.” He nodded and I climbed back into bed with him, and smiled when I felt his arm wrap around me in a comforting manner.