Forgetting - Part 3

It's nine in the morning and Kim still isn't up. This wouldn't be strange if she hadn't gone to bed at 11 last night and never left the house. She hasn't gone out since the party at Jesse's a week ago.

I'm curled up on the couch with a book about the Grand Dutches Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. She fascinates me, always has. I am reading about the family's assassination and Anastasia's possible escape when Kim stumbles downstairs.

"Morning sunshine."

She grunts at me and makes a b-line for the coffee.

I wait for her to take a few long sips before asking, "Are you going out today?"

"Yeah. I'm going shopping for school stuff, you're coming right?"

"Of course."

Kim is going to study psychology at Brown University in the fall. I will be at Harvard for Classics and Classical Studies of literature. It'll be the first time we've been really apart since we were born.

We end up going to get sheets and towels. We're in an office supplies store looking for suitable notebooks when I lose my sister.

"Hey Kim what do you think of this?" I turn around with a thick black journal in my hand, but nobody is there to show it to. "Kim?" No answer. "Kimmie?" Still no answer. I now have to search the store for my flighty twin. Great. Luckily, she is my twin and I know exactly where she'll be.

I go straight to the section with the markers and poster board and paints. There she is, holding a container of glitter glue.

"What do you think my roommate would say if I painted all the walls of our dorm with glitter glue?" She asks, not looking at me.

"She would send the psychology major to a therapist." This makes Kim laugh. "Come on Kimmie, what's wrong?"

She still is silently refusing to look at me. "Nothing is wrong. Why would you think that?"

"Maybe because I know you. We've been gone all day and you haven't even called Jesse once. You haven't gone out anywhere in a week. Plus," I plucked the bottle from her hand, "You're talking to craft glue."

"I'm fine. Why do you always assume the worst if I just want to take it easy for a couple of days? What's wrong with me going shopping with my sister and not calling my boyfriend? Nothing is going on, okay? You can be so stupid sometimes! I'm not even talking to the glue, I was talking to you. Just because I'm looking at something doesn't mean we're having a conversation. Go read a book, it's where you belong anyway!"

She storms past me and leaves me dumbfounded in the middle of the isle. It takes me a minute to run after her, momentarily forgetting that she has the car keys.

When I catch up to her she's already starting the engine. Crap. I jump onto the passenger side of the car and hang on. I know she can't get far with me like that and the doors are locked. She's about to pull out of the parking lot when the lock clicks. I get in the car and we ride home in silence. There's nothing I can say, nothing I can do. She has never exploded on my like that. I feel like I've lost my sister entirely in one afternoon.