My eyes start to burn as my breaths speed up.
“He shot me?” I whisper hoarsely.
“Your mom and Summer are dead,” he rasps. I’ve never seen Jaxson look so sad before and it only adds to the suffocating weight of the words he just said.
Dead?
Jaxson hugs me as the word sinks in like a burning coal to the pit of my stomach. It makes my chest hurt even more, but I don’t want him to let go.
“Why?” I whisper brokenly. I know Dad’s been angry a lot recently, but I don’t understand why he would hurt us all.
“I don’t know. I heard my mom say that he must’ve cracked because he lost his job.”
When Jaxson pulls back our eyes meet again.
I remember Mom and Dad fighting. I remember Mom screaming. I remember the pain as Dad shot me.
Dad shot me.
He used to read me bedtime stories.
He shot me.
He used to play ball with us.
Dad tried to kill me.
I remember Summer jumping on the bed. I hear her laughter.
I hear her scream.
Summer is dead.
I remember her eyes and how frozen they looked as she fell on top of me.
“Summer is dead?” The words burn in my throat. When our dog died a few years ago, it didn’t hurt half as much. It feels like I’m being sucked into a world where everything is different. Colors don’t look the same anymore. Things don’t sound the same anymore. Nothing feels the same anymore.
Except for Jaxson.
“I’m here,” Jaxson says as he holds my hand tighter.
Yesterday I was Marcus Reed, Summer’s older brother. I was one of Mom’s babies. I was going to be a man just like Dad.
I don’t want to be like Dad anymore. I don’t want to become a man if it means I’ll be just like him.
I’d give anything to hear Mom say sweet dreams, my babies.
I want to be Mom’s little boy again. I want to feel her hug me as she makes the pain better.
I’d give anything to hear Summer laugh, to feel her hand slapping against my face as she throws her arm over me.
“I’m here,” Jaxson says again as he presses his forehead against mine. “I’ll never leave you.”
Tears stream from my eyes and I blink fast so I can still see his face.
“I don’t have a family anymore,” I cry as I realize what it all means.
“You do! You have me. I’m your family,” Jaxson grinds the words out as he sniffs loudly. He uses the back of his hand to wipe his nose.