Everything You Want

Cleo and I had taken extra long to take Mingus home to Helena. I had called her the moment I shut the car door outside my apartment and explained everything to her in one breath, gripping the edge of my seat so tightly my knuckles were white. The car ride over was mostly silent after that and I kept my eyes fixed on the New York skyline as the sun descended between the skyscrapers in a devastatingly beautiful blood-orange and purple sunset.

The return drive to my apartment made my heart race for some unknown reason. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there but I was praying Kenzi hadn’t gotten herself injured in the forty minutes it took for Cleo and I to take Mingus to his mom.

I couldn’t understand how this could happen to Scott and Elizabeth; they were two of the best people I had ever met, and I looked to them as a second set of parents. Scott was an old Vietnam veteran who had ended up working in the government later on after the war, and Elizabeth was an ER nurse. I couldn’t stop the influx of memories from when Kenzi and I were little, playing around their backyard and pretending to be cops and robbers. I usually won; I was bigger and faster.

Most cousins or siblings who were once close would grow apart as they entered their teenage years and high school, but not Kenzi and I. If anything, we only got closer and more inseparable.

“Sean, honey, can I talk to you for a moment?” asked Aunt Lizzie, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Of course. What is it?”

She looked nervous and anxious as she motioned for me to come into the kitchen with her. Obediently, I followed and took a seat at the counter. She poured me a glass of homemade lemonade and set it in front of me, busying herself for a moment to collect her thoughts.

“So are you excited for your senior year? Any idea where you want to go after you graduate?”

I nodded, taking a sip of the lemonade. “Yeah, I’m looking forward to it but I think I’ll go to school somewhere in state. Maybe for law, I’m not sure yet.”

She nodded thoughtfully for a moment before flashing a smile, “well, I’m sure you’ll be amazing at whatever you decide, sweetheart.”

There was a moment of silence that passed between us before she continued on.

“I wanted to talk to you about Kenzi. You know she’s starting high school this year…”

I laughed a little, knowing exactly where this was headed. “Don’t worry, Aunt Lizzie. I’ll watch out for her, and I’ll keep her straight.”

“Oh, thank you,” she breathed, relief washing over her entire face as she moved around the counter and pulled me into a hug.

That had been three and a half years before her twin brother, Tony, had been killed in a car accident and four years before her older brother, Jackson, was put in jail for drugs and assault charges. It was five years before I introduced her to Norman.

“Babe,”

Cleo’s soft voice broke my trance effortlessly, and I blinked several times. We were parked and judging by the fact that the car was entirely void of any heat and Cleo sat with the keys in her lap, we had been here for a while.

She reached across the center console and brushed her thumb across my cheek. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying until then.

“Sorry,” I muttered, attempting to smile but it came out more of a grimace. “Let’s go.”

I didn’t give her any time to respond before I was out of the car, relishing the striking cold when it hit my exposed skin. I waited a moment for her to round the car and slipped my arm around her small shoulders, leading us up to the building.

My apartment looked exactly how I had left it; all the lights were left on, there were two mugs of hot chocolate abandoned on the counter from Mingus and I, but there was no trace of Kenzi or Norman. I knew they were still here, though—Norman’s bike was still sitting outside on the sidewalk.

I flipped off all the lights as Cleo and I moved through the apartment, but I paused outside the spare bedroom that Kenzi was staying in. It was shut, and I debated leaving them be. But I had to check on her, make sure she was alright.

I raised my fist to the door and rapped softly twice. There was no answer.

My eyes found Cleo’s and she shrugged, so I tried the doorknob. It opened effortlessly.

A sad smile found its way across my lips at the sight of Norman and Kenzi both passed out, her back pressed firmly against his chest without so much as an inch of space between them. He had her wrapped up entirely in his arms in the most protective of manors, one underneath her and the other was securely locked around her waist with her head tucked underneath his chin.

It made my shoulders loose some of the tension, knowing he was still so protective of her even in his sleep.

I leaned against the door frame, continuing to study the pair for a few moments longer. It pained my heart to new extremes when I noticed the slight glimmer of tear stains on Kenzi’s slightly troubled face, and I wished nothing more than to take away all her pain. She couldn’t even find peace asleep right now.

“She’ll be alright, Sean. Norman’s got her, let’s get some sleep before she wakes up.”

I nodded, reluctantly closing the door again, and followed my fiancé into my bedroom.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but I would lie down with Cleo so she could. My thoughts would plague my mind for the next several hours, wondering how I could possibly help my cousin get through this.