Sorry

"It's my first day in school, atleast tell me about the girls here!" said Bron.

"You're walking to school. You can just see for yourself when we get there," Ryder told him.

“Oh that girl is hot, what about her?” Bron said, pointing to a girl walking in front of them.

Ryder laughed and lowered his voice. “Her? She’s Gwandma Gwen man. You don’t want to be near her, trust me.”

“Awe. How about her sister? Does she have a sister?”

Rayan sobered up. “Don’t talk about her sister dude.”

“What why?”

“Dorothy died in a car crash. That’s why,” someone said.

Ryder’s stopped short, face draining. Gwen had turned around. How long had she been listening?

“Oh uh we didn’t mean to-”

“It’s fine,” she said curtly, and walked past them. Bron and Ryan shared a look.

Later while leaving school, Ryder saw Gwen sitting on a bench, looking for something in her bag.

He sat next to her.

“What do you want?”

Ryder fumbled. “Uh I just wanted to apologise on his behalf for what happened in the morning…he’s new and doesn’t know much so..”

“I said it’s fine didn’t I?”

“Oh well…”

A short well of silence fell.

“If you don’t mind me asking…why do you hate her?”

Gwen turned the full force of her stare at him. “What?”

“Oh um it just seemed that you hated her even though she’s gone…especially that she’s gone? I mean it’s none of my business, I’m sorry I asked that, it must’ve been very insensitive of me, and I’ll just go now I guess-“

“She left without saying anything to me.”

Ryder stopped.

“We had a fight and we were supposed to go the dentist for her appointment, but she never said anything to me because of our fight, and left home on her own. If I’d been with her, maybe I could’ve avoided it. Maybe she would’ve been with me. She never said anything, and that’s why I hate her. Does that answer your question?”

“Oh..yeah,” he said, feeling scolded. He'd misjudged her without knowing anything about her. “Sorry again.”

“It’s fine.”

Gwen threw her shoes inside the shoe rack. The door creaked behind her. She slammed her bag against it.

“Get it together,” she told herself. The room blurred. She held her head and breathed deeply.

She shook her hair down. She barely took two steps into her house than something made all her tiredness vanish.

On the ceiling, which was empty before she'd left was written: ‘Sorry’