Bombshells ~ Complete

Chapter Sixty-Three: Forever

"And we've got the tickets?" Lila was rushing around the house, trying to make sure everything was ready for the big game. Ethan's first game actually playing, that is. 

He was usually just a benchwarmer, but the regular quarterback twisted his ankle two weeks ago during a dirt-bike race. Poor guy, but it was good for Ethan. 

I felt kinda bad for Ethan, though. He wasn't great at football, but he loved doing it. Everyone encouraged him to do what he loved, so he tried out for football. I was pretty sure the coach thought that putting Ethan on the team would mean lots of donations from the Steel family to keep him there, but Lila wasn't that person. She believed that if Ethan could make the team, he could keep his position because of the talent he had and not the money. 

Yeah, Lila was awesome. 

"Yes, mom. We've got the tickets. Can we go now, before we're late?" Ethan grumbled, fiddling with his helmet. He'd been moody the entire week, too worried about the upcoming game to try to try and be nice. 

I was almost a hundred percent sure that Lila was super close to grounding him for the rest of his life. 

"Are you sure you have to go?" I asked Kade, clutching his forearm. He shrugged, glancing over his shoulder at his impatient brother and fretting mother. 

"I can't miss Ethan's big game. He's already disappointed enough that you aren't going to make it. I don't believe how easy you get sick." Kade shook his head with a soft laugh. I rolled my eyes. 

Two days before, I'd started puking my guts up. Yesterday I'd come down with a serious fever. Awful for me, right? I wasn't even sure what came over me. I never got this sick. Maybe it was the stress of the upcoming trial?

The trial was in a week. My testimony was already written out, ready to be read off at any given moment. But I wasn't so ready. 

I wasn't sure how I was even going to look at my father. I told myself that I would look at Lila, look at the boys, look at a stranger so that I didn't have to look at my father. It made me feel slightly better. 

"You're telling me. I couldn't have chosen a worse time to get sick." I grumbled, looking longingly at the open door. Lila had forbidden me from going outside in my condition. That also meant missing the big game.

It wasn't that I enjoyed football, in reality I thought it was stupid, but I wanted to support Ethan. And here I was. Sick.

"It's alright. There'll be another game." Kade shrugged, pecked me on the cheek and hurried out the door. Lila hugged me tightly, kissed the top of my head, and ran after her sons. She was shouting something about extra chairs. 

Weren't there bleachers at this thing?

I closed the door, locked it, and wandered around the house. I ended up at the doors to the library. I hadn't been in the library since... Well, since Kas. It was always our place. The place we went when we were hurting or needed an escape. 

I briefly touched the handle, but pulled my hand back with a smile. I might not have been able to open the doors that day, but I knew when things got better upstairs, I would be able to explore the books that I'd been missing. 

After a couple more minutes of simply wandering around, I made it to the kitchen. I instantly felt my stomach make a whale mating call, and I started cooking some pasta before I lost my liver to my stomach. 

The water boiled fairly quickly. 

I felt a chill race down my spine. Time slowed down. And my head was snapping to the side, blood spurting out of my mouth without my realizing it.