TIME || Prince & Andy Allo

0: intro

Andy opened her eyes, immediately being blinded by the rays of sun peeking through her bedroom curtains.

She had tried to ignore the signs of morning, and attempted to go back to sleep but she couldn't.

Daylight was waiting for her and she had to get up.

She had an interview to do today and other errands to get to - she couldn't be late.

Her ringtone -- Jimi Hendrix's Crosstown Traffic -- went off, causing her phone to vibrate rapidly against the surface of her nightstand.

She flipped the covers back and got out of bed, picking up her phone and walking out of her bedroom and into the living room.

She swiped her finger across the screen and put it to her ear once she realized it was her brother, Christopher, calling.

"Hey, Chris."

"Hey, how are you?"

"Fine. Just woke up. How are you?"

Chris was irresolute on what to say.
He didn't exactly know how he was feeling in the moment and didn't know how to respond to his sister's question.

And he didn't know how to tell her what was going on either.

Judging on how happy she sounded when she picked up the phone, he could tell that she hadn't heard the news yet.

Although it would hurt her, he wished she had heard about it already so he didn't have to be the one to break it to her.

He cleared his throat.

Andy wondered if the call had blanked out. She moved to another spot in the room, closer to the window for better reception.

"Hello? Chris? You there?"

"Prince is dead."

"What?"

The words not only hit her like a ton of bricks but it made her heartbeat quicken. She didn't believe it.
She didn't want to.

"They found him in his elevator." Christopher paused, choking on his words. Not only was his mind flooding with the brotherly memories that he and Prince spent together, but his heart was breaking for his sister.

"But I just spoke-" Andy's knees felt as if they were going to give out. Her hands started to shake uncontrollably and her body began to grow numb. "I-I spoke to him the other day."

"He's gone. No one knows what hap-"

Andy dropped her phone and collapsed onto the carpet.

She couldn't feel a thing.
But at the same time, she could feel it all. The world seemed to be crushing her and the weight of it all was too heavy for her.

She thought that she had been through everything that the world had thrown at her, but never anything like this.

Grief was one challenge that she hadn't yet overcome and she didn't see herself ever healing from this.

She never thought she'd lose someone so close to her.

And Prince of all people.

It didn't make sense.

The tears began to flow, stinging her eyes and reddening her cheeks as she wiped them away.

She covered her mouth with her palm, although she was making no sound. She wanted to scream, she wanted to curse, she wanted to do a bunch of things but she couldn't.

He told her not to worry about him.

He told her he was fine.

That was always one thing that Andy hated about him-- that he lied so much to her.

And she believed him almost every time.

Andy hated him so much in the moment. She also hated herself for listening to him. She should've just listened to her gut and flew out to see him.

Andy couldn't breathe.
She rolled onto her back, her eyes blurry of tears and her mouth gaped wide open but no noise could escape.

Her brother was still talking on the phone, calling out her name to see if she was still there.

His voice became distorted and her vision even blurrier.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion for her when all she wanted was for it to move backwards.

The story shouldn't end this way.

She could've done something or at least made a difference.

Andy wanted to start over.

She wanted to go back to the beginning and change everything.

Just take her back to the start.