A Sister's Heart

Chapter 7

Due to start family night a half an hour ago, most of the Hart family was gathered in the living room, but Lauren was refusing to leave her bedroom and people weren't happy. Diana offered to go and talk to her.

"Are you sure?" Ivy asked, not wanting her sister to feel as though she had to.

"I am. Alexis used to do this all the time." Without another word, Diana was gone and up the stairs.

Knocking on the door at the end of the hall, Diana could hear Adele blaring through the walls. "Go Away!" Lauren shouted. Her Aunt, however, did the complete opposite and walked right in. "I said go away!" She hid under the covers and ignored the persistent calling of her name.

Diana perched herself on the corner of her niece's bed on top the folded butterfly fleece throw that she had bought her a few Christmases ago. "Sweetie, you know you can talk to me, right?" She spoke so softly that for a brief moment, Lauren peered over the edge of her duvet before diving back under. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this isn't just about Grandma. Is it your friends? A boy? Both?" No response. "Lexie used to do this you know. Whenever she would get upset over a boy or a fallout with her friends, she would hole up in her room too. Except she would blast sad showtunes instead." Upon hearing this, Lauren yanked at the duvet until her whole face was visible. "There she is!" Diana joked, giving her niece a playful nudge. "You wanna talk?" The girl nodded, slowly and silently, before turning the music down and launching into the whole story.

"So, there's this boy in my English class. He's called Logan and he is seriously cute and really popular, like on the football team kind of popular. My friends knew how much I liked him, and yeah okay he's probably way out of my league, but this morning, my school announced the Winter Dance, it's theme and the fact that it will be a Sadie Hawkins dance, which means that the girls get to ask the boys." Of course, Diana already knew what a Sadie Hawkins dance was, but rather than tell Lauren this, she remained quiet. "So, I was gonna take a leap and ask Logan to the dance, and Emily and Sarah knew that. But then at lunch, before I even had a chance to, Emily strolled right up to him and asked him to be HER date. He said yes, and now I can't show my face at school and I'm not talking to Emily anymore. I just don't get it. Why would she do this to me?" She started to well up again; the raw emotions creeping back to the surface.

As if from nowhere, a tissue appeared in front of her. In reality though, her Aunt had taken it from the box on the nightstand. Lauren took and dabbed at her eyes, drying them the best she could, although the sniffling persisted. "No boy is worth putting yourself through this and as for Emily, I say that if she was really a true friend then she wouldn't have done what she did." Diana left a brief pause, allowing her niece to think about what she had jut said. "And what about Sarah? Are you still talking to her?" Lauren thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay then, so what do you say you come downstairs, take your mind off of this and have some fun with your family? Then tomorrow you can talk with Sarah, maybe even Emily, and sort this whole thing out!" The suggestion was optimistic and although Diana hoped that Lauren would relent, if her niece was anything like her own daughter, she would stick to her guns. After all, stubbornness did run pretty deep in the Hart family.

However, to her surprise, Lauren climbed out of bed. "Deal!"

"Great! Maybe leave your phone up here." Another suggestion Diana wasn't sure Lauren would take, but after wiping her face with a wet wipe from her drawer to remove what remained of her tear stained make up, she placed the Samsung s20 on the nightstand and they headed back downstairs.

By now it was almost nine and as Diana and Lauren wandered into the living room, it seemed as though family night had started without them Matthew announced that he had already won a game of Clue and the pair shared a look. "Well, it'll be the only one you win!" Fighting talk from her niece; and it made Diana proud.

Ivy noted the change in her daughter's behaviour and flashed a gratuitous smile at her sister. She didn't need to express her thanks verbally, Diana nodded in understanding and the sisters left the exchange at that.

The rest of the night was full of laughter; and for a few hours, they all forgot about their worries. Of course, the loss of their mother and grandmother still hung in the air like cloud, but that night, they chose to focus more on the silver lining. They were together. And Lauren was right about that first win being her brother's only one of the night; she had won the second and third games and their Aunt Ronnie had won the last.

As they were gathering up all of the pieces to put the game away, the front door opened, and a huge clatter came from the hallway. "I'm here!" Diana dropped the lid of the Clue box where she stood and rushed to embrace her daughter. It had only been a few months since they had seen one another, but to Diana no matter how long it had been, whether a week or a whole year, it always felt like forever. Kicking the door closed behind her, Alexis let go of her suitcase and leaned into her mother's hug, glad to be home, but wishing it could have been under better circumstances.

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Author's note - please letme know what you think? Which sister is your fave or which you relate to most?