[4/52] - A story about three siblings

It was a little chilly, but I was happy to stick it out, smiling pleasantly at my mum nest to me. The airport air was cold compared to the heavy humidity of the outside. I kept glancing up at the screen showing the arrivals, waiting for a glimpse of that bright blue suitcase.

It felt like such a long time, but it wasn't, not really. When I finally see her my face cracks into a smile. I have waited months for this. She spots my mother and I, heading in our direction. She looks straight through me.

I crawl into bed with my younger sister that night. We're sixteen  and seventeen, much too old for this, but she holds me tight and strokes my hair as I weep for my still missing other half, who sits in her room and messages her new friends. My tears leave wet, hot, sticky patches on her pillowcase, but she just whispers soothing words into my hair and runs her fingers through my sweaty hair.

"I wish Charlotte were here. I need my best friend."

The words are not meant to be overheard, but she pays little attention to me these days anyway. The hurt runs down my spine like a lightning strike, leaving me pained. I should have known better than to just expect her to come back to me. I flick through photos with bitterness, her smile in them so distant from her current, consistently bored eyes joined by a flatline of a mouth. If she won't come to me, so begins my chase.

I follow her for hours. My younger sister invited me to go out with her, but what if she comes for me while I am gone? She claims to be assailed by "follow up assignments" at all times. It releases her only for brief appearances at meals. I go with my younger sister, eventually. I waited and I chased and I wasted my time. She knows where I am. My younger sister breaks into a smile whenever I agree to go with her. I push the rejection in my stomach down and focus on the present.

"You're spending so much time with her. You don't have any time for me."

Her words cut me. "I waited and I chased you. You turned me down." I pause, hearing only silence. "She came to me and even though I turned her down the first time, she accepted me when I came. She didn't tell me that it was all my fault and send me away again. I wanted to be around you so badly and you said no. I moved on because of you, not before you."

She stares at me and moves away. I will accept the blame. I always do. Doesn't mean it hurts any less.