Waiting for You

Chapter 11: Klair

Monsé's P.O.V:

I blankly stare at the engraved writing on the marble tombstone, tears blurring my vision as my insides twist with guilt. 

Klair Jamel.
10.12.1998 - 3.6.2014.
Loving Daughter and Devoted Sister.
'God Broke Our Hearts to Prove He Only Takes the Best.'

I kneel in front of the stone, my knees bumping into the moist earth as I bowed my head, mentally telling myself not to lose it.

"Hey, Klair," I sniffed in a high-pitched voice, talking to nobody in particular. "I miss you. I know it's been five years since the accident, but it feels like only two," I whisper, clutching the flowers I had brought to my chest.

"I still blame myself," I say, the dampness of the dirt and grass soaking through my jeans, chilling my skin beneath. "If you were here, you would probably say something like 'stop blaming yourself. You were just a little girl.'."

I stop talking, swallowing hard as my throat began to sting. Stop crying, Monsé, I scold myself, letting the flowers fall from my trembling hands.

"I know better than that though. I should've known better than to run around the street," I choke, flicking stupid tears that began to run down my cheeks. "If I hadn't been distracted by that dog in the road, that truck never would've-" I covered my mouth to silence a pained and throaty scream as my eyes screwed shut. I let wholesome sobs rack my body before managing to rasp out the last of my words.

"If it wasn't for me, he never would have hit you," I cry, hunching over and balling the long blades of grass into my fists.

Five Years Earlier:

My sister and I were sitting on the couch, watching  Netflix when I said, "I want a sandwich."

Our parents were out for their weekly date, so Klair was watching me. We had spent all day doing fun things together, but in the evening when Mom and Dad left... We knew that's when the real fun began.

Earlier in the day, we went out to the mall and tried on ridiculous outfits, picking out the ones we thought were the most hideous and swapping them with one another just to get our giggles out. After wearing ourselves out, we went to my favourite sandwich place for lunch, Subway. Then, after what felt like only a few minutes, Mom texted Klair and said that it was time to head home. When we got home, Mom and Dad suggested that we all go out to our backyard pool. 

After we got into our bathing suits, we each took turns jumping in. "Woohoo!!," I screamed as I jumped from a chair into the pool. As I got back to the surface of the water, my parents, sister, and I started laughing. 

"Let's play a game.", my dad said as he closed his eyes. "MARCO!!!"

"POLO!" we screamed and swam away from him. He jumped to his right and tagged my mom. After what seemed like only 10 minutes, my mom said, "Ok, Jared. We better start getting ready for our date."

"Oh, come on, Alysha. A few more minutes with the girls shouldn't be bad."

"We've been out here for 5 hours. Our reservations at 9:30. We have an hour to get ready.", she said in a stern but light voice. 

"Oh alright. Whatever you say, m'lady", my dad said in a silly posh accent. 

After they left. Klair let me invite a few friends over. I invited Owen, Jay, Katlyn, and Jessie over. Owen and Katlyn were twins, so they got to my house at the same time. Then Jessie arrived about twenty minutes after them. Jay couldn't come. 

After my friends got here, we started playing hide and seek with Klair. When I was the last one hidden, Jessie suddenly yelled that he had to go home because his mom was in labor. So I came out of my hiding spot and sure enough Jessie had left. 

Soon after, the twins left because they were out past curfew. After everyone had left, Klair and I sat down to eat dinner and watch T.V. While we were watching T.V, I got up to make a sandwich. Klair came with me. I went to the garage to get the sandwich stuff and realized the garage door was open. I yelled at Klair to go check it out, and instead, we both went outside. I saw the 
dog in the road. It was limping and it looked like it had blood on it's back. 

I went out to investigate. I saw Klair running towards me with a worried look on her face, but before I realized what was happening, it was too late. Klair pushed me with such a force, I practically flew. I saw a huge truck go by, thinking that Klair had gotten away before it driven past. My arm was scraped up and I hit my head on the sidewalk, but Klair....Klair's arm was twisted in a weird angle, her head was twisted and cracked open, and she just laid there; not moving, not blinking. It started raining on her forehead, but it wasn't raining anywhere else. It was few minutes before I realized that the rain was actually my tears, falling one by one, on my dead sister's forehead. I couldn't believe it.

My sister was gone. In just the blink of an eye, she had died. And the worst part? The driver just drove. He didn't stop, didn't slow down. I cried with such anger and sadness. I thought that I would drown before I could stop crying.