Supernova - Friday the 13th

It was like Whitney didn’t care.

Clay knew she did. Deep down, he knew his sister had a heart. She cried when his goldfish died, she held him when he came home a weeping mess after Marissa broke up with him, she comforted him when kids at school bullied him. But it was like she’d already seen this movie and had no interest in playing along.

He tried to commiserate with her when Mom told them her diagnosis—lung cancer, stage four, six months to live—but it was like Whitney was in another world. She got a boyfriend three days later, one who she refused to take home to meet the family, but he supposed he couldn’t fault her for not wanting to put something so heavy on him so fast. Whitney didn’t like heavy, she didn’t cope well with loss, and Clay was sure he’d get farther talking to a brick wall than her.

She loved him, he knew that much, but she started staying over at her boyfriend’s, stopped coming home for dinners and didn’t take Clay’s calls. He wondered if he’d ever see her at all, but maybe Whitney just couldn’t bear to see their mom waste away. Clay would have liked it better if he didn’t have to watch her die all alone, though. 

Six months became five, became four, became three before Whitney came home again.

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