Finding Emily

{Chapter 6}

   It was a Tuesday when they started to search the nearby Waha Lake; a murky and dangerous place that took a couple of lives per year, and was said to be full of junk cars and other trash. It was not a good place, but still kids hung out on the bridges above it that needed repaired and sometimes even jumped in on dares. 

  It was a bad day to go. It was getting even colder, and the wind decided to pick up as they scanned the bottom and divers dove in and out all day long. Becca didn't go as she didn't want to be there if they found something... or someone, she added silently in her mind. The thought made her feel sick, and she spent the day in the bathroom. Her parents were down at the scene, and Steven went back to school for a few days. He couldn't handle the pressure he said. He needed to concentrate on something else. Becca tried not to hate him for abandoning them, but that was Steven. He always ran when confronted with anything stressful.

  "I hate waiting," Becca said to Brian later on in the day as they sat in Becca's attic. 

  The attic was one of their favorite spots. It held her Grandmother's furniture that her parents said Becca and Emily could split in the future. It was all antique and perfectly preserved. It made Becca sad and comforted her at the same time. It reminded her of long Sundays at her Grandma's house; walking down the street towards the brown Victorian where Greta lived her whole life. No one was more heartbroken than Emily when Grandma Greta died. Emily hadn't left her room for a week; coming out only when she was dragged kicking and screaming by her mother. She was only eight, and she didn't understand what was happening or why. Becca would never forget her sister's cries that she wanted to go to Grandma's house and see her again. She didn't care that the house was sold. She wanted to go there.

  Brian came over sometimes, and they didn't say a lot. He'd known the Branson sisters since they were small. People often thought he was their brother when they were little as he was at their house all the time, or they were at his house. He taught Emily to ride her bike, and he taught Becca to drive. He was the big brother that Steven refused to be as he thought his little sisters were annoying, and he was too old to hang out with them. Brian wasn't like that.

  "I hate waiting too," Brian said gently as he held hands with Becca. It wasn't romantic. It never had been although Emily had a crush on him when she was little that they always teased her about. She denied it when she was older, but she was always gazing up at him in pictures of them as kids. It never failed to make Becca smile.

  Becca wanted to ask him about things with Jenna, but he made it clear he didn't want to talk about it. His eyes were full of pain when he said it so she didn't go there. She felt bad. Brian wasn't the over-sharing type though. He kept everything inside. He was the exact opposite of Star. Becca often wondered what was behind his eyes. He didn't share anything unless he was drunk.

  "You don't have to stay here with me," Becca said as they sat there in the quiet. "You can go home. I'll be okay."

  "I'm fine here," Brian said as he made himself comfortable in on the old sofa. "I always liked your house better. It was more fun, and my stupid brothers weren't here."

  "It's not fun anymore," Becca said quietly. "Emily's gone."

   Brian looked down at their hands. "... I wish I'd paid more attention to what was going on in her life. I know she was a little wild, but I didn't know all the other stuff."

  "Steven says the same thing," Becca said. "You couldn't have done anything. Emily was going to do what Emily was going to do."

  "Yeah," Brian said. "I liked that about her. She was a spit fire."