𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄✓

𝟏𝟔

ELSIE

"Sally?" My voice betrayed me and came out broken.

Sally stood close to the restaurant. She was like I remember her. My little sister was standing in front of me after more than year.

The last time I saw her was a couple of months after she left Ian at my place.

At that time she was more skinny and more tired looking. Today her hair looked more healthy and she looked more put together.

"Hi." She said softly and I saw her shoulders slump.

"I'll go and talk to her for a bit" I turned to Fenix who still had his palm protectively on my back.

He observed my face for few seconds and nodded his head. "Of course. I'll wait for you in the car." He leaned down and kissed my temple before running his hand on my back gently. After that, he rounded the car and got into the driver's seat.

I turned to Sally and felt tears sting my eyes. It has been so long that it feels like decades since I last saw her.

Her hair was in a ponytail, only few strands falling around her face. She had a grey hoodie and washed out baggy jeans.

I closed the distance between us with long strides and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

Sob broke through my lips as soon as she hugged me back. I missed her so, so much. She was the only family I had left other than Ian.

We were inseparable when we were younger. Sally used to always come into my room and we would spend all night gossiping and watching movies.

Sometimes Aiden would take us out shopping and would have bought us as much ice cream as we wanted. After he died a lot of things changed but me and Sally tried to stay positive and remember him and still do all the things we were doing with him.

Then our parents left us with our grandparents and Sally started distancing herself from me and at that time she got pregnant with Ian.

"I missed you too. I'm sorry Elsie. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." I rubbed her back and reassured her that it's fine. It didn't matter that she hasn't contacted me and it didn't matter what she has done in the past. She was my little sister and I can't get mad at her.

We slowly parted and she wiped her eyes with the sleeves of the hoodie.

"How are you?" I asked her and took hold of her palm in mine.

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "I'm doing better. I wanted to visit you at your place but I saw you here..." Oh... my old apartment really was close to this restaurant.

I nodded and smiled back at her. "Do you wanna go and grab a coffee? We can catch up." She agreed after few seconds of thinking.

We were literally standing in front of the small restaurant so I decided that we should go there. I quickly send a text to Fenix who was parked down the street now.

I told him that he didn't have to wait and if he wanted he could leave but he told me that he was going to wait.

We entered the restaurant and sat by one of the free tables.