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“Make me.” She replied and stood again, her hands steadied for a fight.
I frowned. “What are you doing?”
“You want to fight me, huh?” She moved her legs expertly like a fighter, her hands still fisted.
“I don’t want to fight. I want to talk.”
Ella turned and then glared at me, “I would rather go deaf than listen to whatever you say.” She tried to run off again, but I held her and hugged her tight before sitting her down on the bed again.
As she was still trying to get past me, I ran toward the door and closed and locked it before turning back to her.
Ella frowned and turned to the window.
I raised my hand, pointing at her, and said, “Don’t even think about doing that, Ella Blackwood.”
Ella screamed and leaped over the bed.
I cursed and ran after her, and just as she was about to climb through it, I grabbed her waist and held her tightly while she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Be quiet, for fucks sake,” I shouted as I made my way to the bed. “Are you trying to kill yourself by jumping out of a window?”
“Leave me alone!!!” She continued to shout, but I paid her no heed as I sat on the bed and held her with me while she continued to scream and push at my body.
“Can you just calm down for a minute? I just want to talk?”
She began to cry as she found out there was no escaping from my hold this time. “I don’t want to listen.”
“I just need ten minutes of your time.”
Ella wiped the tears furiously, “I don’t want it.”
“It’s about Lucy,” I whispered, and her body calmed a bit. I held her with my left arm and massaged her back with my right. “Your back is very stiff. When did you last go for a massage?”
“Get your hands off me.” She cried, wiping the rest of the tears.
“You know, I can’t remember the last time I saw you cry this hard. Actually, I do remember. It was the night Dad died.” I said as I remembered, “It was movie night, and my turn to pick the movie.”
Ella’s body continued to relax as I recounted those long years. I could hear her silent cries, which tore at my heart. “I remember,” she said quietly.
“You know, you always were Dad’s favorite. Mom got jealous of you sometimes,” I muttered and smiled, “And you had this uncanny gift of knowing when someone you loved was hurting, and then how to make them feel better.”
I heard a faint scoff and hoped that was a sign she was finally going to listen to me.
“When Dad died and . . .” I paused midway, unable to describe those times. “It felt like a light has been snuffed out of us, especially you. You didn’t talk or smile for so long that Mom almost went crazy.”
“No, Mason. You were the one whose light had been snuffed out when Dad died. We were so close, talking and laughing all the time, but then you just..changed. Like you were no longer my brother, but some stranger. It was almost as if you had died too.”
“Oh, Ella. I realize now we were all hurting so badly, but neither of us knew how to talk about it.” I looked at her tear-filled eyes and felt like such an asshole. “Dad made me promise that if anything ever happened to him, that I would step up and be the man of the house,” I said as I stood up and went to the window, looking outside. “I took that duty very seriously. And honestly, that was a lot of pressure for me, but I couldn’t let Dad down, Mom down, or you down.”
“You very much took it seriously because you were never the same. Slowly you changed, and then I didn’t know who you were anymore. You had no time for me,” Ella said looking at the floor.
“I am sorry, Ella.”
“For then, or for now?” she asked.
“For both. You are my only sibling, my sister. I didn’t intend for what happened to happen. It just did,” I continued. “I am not sorry about Lucy, though. She’s carrying your niece or nephew. Don’t you want to have a relationship with them once they are here?”
Ella sighed, and didn’t look up from the floor, but I could see she was still crying softly.
