The Car

The Beginning

Me and my sister, we are really inseparable. No matter what, we always need each other to do stupid pranks, stupid crap or just stupid things. Her name is Lara. We are twins, well she is a little bit older than me but it's just some minutes difference. For some reason, she loves repeating that she is my elder. Like I just said, minutes don't count much. Our relationship is very special, it's very complex but such unique. It can happen that we get mad at each other, that I yell at her or that she pushes me away. You don't have to worry much, because to be honest, we always end up hugging each other telling that we're so so so sorry.

Anyway, I wanted to start all of this with a story that happened, like, years ago, even though it feels like it happened yesterday. We were like, 6 years old?
With our parents, we were coming back to home, because we went outside to buy groceries. We were tchatting as usual, and our mom told us to range the stuff on the bags, and obviously we said yes, even if we didn't mean a word. We were quite little demons at this age (we still are).
But, well, how to say? Me and Lara never appreciated our parents. It's not like they're abusive or what, but they show us so much less love signs, proofs that they do care about us, it's so messed up that we would rather choose to hate them than to try why they even act this way. I wish they would be proud of us one day.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the groceries.
So, instead of ranging the groceries, we went outside in the garden with the little bag of chips, only thing our parents allowed us to buy (we begged them so much that I think they got desperate), to start talking about the next prank we could do. We were hidden behind a trunk, and our little height could help us to keep us safe from parents searching us. We knew that the second we would go inside the house we would get yelled at, asking us why we weren't helping, asking us what's so important we had to hide from them, etc, but we didn't really care. Already at 6 years old, we knew how to enjoy our youth. I opened the bag, and Lara and me shared some chips, talking full mouth. When I think about it again, it's such great memories. It's lame that it got ruined by what happened after. But let's not destroy the chill mood right now, everything happens in its time.
We were talking about the first homeworks we had, me kinda struggling with how to do it, Lara flexing on how much it was easy and that she probably doesn't even have to go through primaire school. We talked also about parents, and we both cackled at the idea that they were probably raging at the fact we were hidden from them, eating snacks.
We were so distracted that we didn't noticed the shadow of our dad on us. As he started talking, the two of us went quiet, hearing his loud and deep voice, resonating through our ears. He yelled at us, shouting that we should help and be useful instead of staying here like two sloths, eating bullsh*t. We looked at each other, even though we couldn't read the other's gaze. Our mom came, and obviously, instead of stopping my dad, joined him. Screaming that we're so ungrateful, not even able to range groceries while they're killing themselves to feed us. It was over and over the same thing, in loop. We knew this speech by heart by now. We said nothing. But then, my parents took Lara's arm, and left me there. I tried to follow them, grabbing my sister's hand, but they pushed me away. They didn't even dare to take a look at me, or to say something. They totally ignored me.
Lara just gave me a look, one of her sweet looks, these looks that mean: "Everything is gonna be okay, everything is gonna be alright." To add in, she added a smile on her face. A sad smile.
What the hell was going on?
After some minutes of confusion, little me joined everyone in the house, in the living room. My parents were gone, probably already up in their room. My sister was ranging the groceries, quiet like a fish. I didn't want to ruin her focusing, so I decided that the best I could do was to help her. We ranged the fricking bags, all the stuff one by one, not exchanging a word.
When we were done, I looked at the clock, it was already late. Lara went upstairs, probably to go to sleep.
My mind was way too awake, so I quickly followed her in our room. I had to ask questions. I needed to know answers.
I softly grabbed her arm, and then she looked at me. Her eyes, they were full of tears. On the moment, I admit, it pretty shoked me. Seeing the person I cherish the most on Earth being hurt this way, it felt so wrong. So so wrong.
"Lara? What is going on", I asked, kinda panicked.
She pushed my arm holding hers, and also looked away. It was so confusing, and little me, who wasn't really that patient, told almost screamed: "Lara, look at me!"
She brutally pushed me away. I let out a little sound of pain, my back hitting the floor. I looked at her, trying to read her gaze. Her gaze was first rude, but quickly softened, as she realized what she has done. I could find some sadness, some guilt and some... fear. I mean, it was okay, it was obviously not the first time she was rude or violent to me, especially when arguings, but this time, I wasn't prepared to be honest. I knew that she felt sorry, since she told me the day after, but to be honest, I already forgave her at the moment. After pushing me away, still having tears in her eyes, she quickly looked away again, and joined her bed. We have bunk beds, so she went up and took her usual place, the up bed. I stayed quiet for a few minutes, trying to realize what happened, then also joined my bed. Surprisingly, I didn't put long time to start sleeping, but before falling asleep, I could her some sniffing sounds, and I really hope that my sister was okay. The morning, we acted like nothing happened, and we quickly forgot about that.

Well, I didn't. She hides something from me, but I can't get what. But whatever is it, I will make sure that me, her brother, will always protect her.