Afterglow

blizzard

"Thank you so much for calling Kate, I know how much Ian liked you...likes you..."

I blinked back the tears that desperately wanted to fall as Ian's mother spoke to me on the other end of the phone.

"Is it okay if I call you every now and again, just to check up on him? You know I'd be there in a heartbeat if I was allowed."

"I know sweetie, and yes I'll keep you updated on him of course. The doctors just keep saying there's no change, and he's still in his medically induced coma. We're just waiting on the swelling in his brain to go down, and until then it's a waiting game."

"Right, of course. Well if you ever need anything please don't hesitate to call!"

"Oh that's so sweet of you, I wish your parents would've let you come to the wake, there were so many people from school here. There's so many things I wish..."

She trailed off and I didn't have to read between the lines to catch what she was getting at. She figured that if I hadn't ever left then he wouldn't have been in the car with that girl, Leah, the one I could tell she blamed for the accident.

"I have all the faith that Ian will pull through. He's too strong not too."

"Yes, he is a fighter isn't he? Oh, is that a bell? Are you in school?"

"Yeah I'm just in between classes."

"Oh well don't let me keep you, I'll just be sitting here, waiting until my baby wakes up."

"I'll be waiting, too," I said, the force behind my words not lost on her.

We hung up and I caught Evan's eye in the corner, a sweet smile on his face as he waited on me. I had leaned more on him than Vera because...well, I honestly didn't have an answer for that, but when I was drowning, he was the life preserver to keep me above the waves and Vera was there to put me back together when I splintered and cracked apart.

Two completely different support systems, and I had a feeling I was going to need Vera sooner than later.

"Last class of the day, are you good?"

"I'm fine."

And I was.

~~~

Monotonous schoolwork and my favorite symphonies of bleak and tortured artists coming through the speakers in my headphones filled the space in my head where my own torture would have normally resided.

I was so lost in my own world of synth and breathy vocals that I almost forgot about the family dinner I was supposed to attend in less than an hour.

Ignoring Jenna's curious stare as she lounged on her bed across from my own, I picked up the shambles of my ragged attire, slipping into a dark long sleeved sheath dress with knee high black boots while leaving my lackluster hair down but first ran a brush through it to make it seem just a bit more put together than I felt.

One step outside and I was greeted with an all too familiar sight: snow. Thick clumps fell in a hazardous disarray, the cold leeching into my skin and proving my choice in overcoats correctly.

The snow fell from the fluffy grey clouds that hadn't been there earlier in the day, a thick coating already padding my steps as I strode out of the dorm hall and pulled my phone out to call my sister to pick me up, but in the distance her boyfriend's car squealed out of the parking lot, no doubt forgetting that they were supposed to pick me up as well.

Rolling my eyes, I crossed the deserted parking lot and huffed out a puff of air with each annoyed sigh that escaped me, cursing my mother for these weekly dinners that I was subjected to. I had half a mind to skip it and stay back in my dorm, to punish her for not allowing me to go and visit Ian in California, but I needed her on my side if I was going to persuade her to let me go that weekend.