You Better Bring an Umbrella, Vol. 1

Chapter 7: Plastic Girl

 I sat up straight on the couch, staring at the picture of Dad on the bar with a glass of water in my hands, trembling as they shook. My head still felt like it was going in circles, though my legs had stopped hours ago. This had never happened before-- normally, the dizziness wore off after a couple seconds. But this time, it lingered, threatening to make me puke if I dared to move. The picture of Dad felt as though he were there, staring me down with disappointment, but that was pebbles compared to how my head felt.

My heart jumped suddenly as Five appeared in front of me.

"Jesus Christ!" I felt my stomach churn for a moment as I flinched, but when I moved slowly to attempt and relax on the couch, it subsided, slowly making the world around me come to a halt.

"Sorry, Mina. Didn't mean to scare you."

"What do you mean? How did you think I would react when you suddenly appeared out of thin air?"

"Right..." He looked down at the floor, nodding awkwardly. I started to feel bad, especially after everything that happened earlier. Carefully, I stood up and hugged him.

"I'm just glad you're okay. Where did you even go?" I crouched down, trying to look him in the eye so he couldn't avoid the questions this time.

"I just... needed to clear my mind for a bit." He quickly moved on from the subject, like he always did. "I have to go somewhere tonight, and I was hoping you'll come with me?" I smiled.

"Yes, yeah, of course." I stood up, heading toward the entrance hall. "Where do you need to go?"

"I'll get you the address later, before we go." I sighed, cocking my head slightly and looking at him. Something had happened, or he knew something would happen. Either way, he clearly needed some cheering up right now.

"Hey, come on." I held an arm out, inviting him to come with me. He raised an eyebrow, as though questioning my motives, and just stared for a moment. "You seem down. Let's go play a game."

That made him smile, thankfully. He made his way over to me and hugged my side, coming with me down to the kitchen. It felt like the old days, but back then, I wasn't a good half a foot taller than him. He started to bustle around the kitchen, pulling out the ingredients to make peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches, while I went over to the chest in the hallway and fished through, pulling out an old, time-weathered and loved deck of cards.

"War?" I asked, pulling the dog-eared rectangles out of their box.

"You always lose," he pointed out, setting down the plates at opposite chairs.

"I don't care," I laughed. "Am I not allowed to just play a game with my brother?" He smirked. "Besides, it's purely a game of luck, based completely on how the cards are dealt."

"I just don't think it'll be as fun if I'm winning with no contest." I rolled my eyes, sitting down and shuffling the cards. A few of them fell out of the deck, fluttering to the floor or flying out to the other end of the table, which caused Five to laugh. "You were never the one that shuffled, now I see why."

"Shut up." I got up and gathered up the scattered cards, handing them, along with the rest of the deck, to Five so he could finish shuffling. Once he'd distributed all the cards evenly, we began playing, slamming the cards down as aggressively as possible. That was always the way we played, made the game more entertaining. At one point, my eyes flashed up, and only now did I notice the silver '4' pin on the lapel of his uniform.

"How long was that sitting in the closet?" I asked, gesturing toward the pin. He looked down, as though realizing it was there for the first time, then placed his hand on his next card.