AnastasiaI was prepared to become a woman when I was just a little girl. Childhood vanished before my eyes. That’s what happens when you rid someone of love. You open the doors to darkness without letting them realize there could ever be color. I want to say that I blamed my mother, but the only way I could do that was to also blame her mother, and then the mother of her mother.The heat that escalated through my body only seemed to grow as I tried to ignore it. The longer I tossed and turned, the more the temperature pricked my skin. A sigh escaped my lips as I just lay there in a pit of sweat, hoping it wasn’t affecting my sister as much as it was affecting me.“Nana,” Aria called out from the other side of the room. “Mum didn’t pay the electricity bill again, did she?”“Stay here, I’ll figure it out,” I whispered before getting up from the mattress.We weren’t fortunate enough to own anything to lift our bed off the ground. We were lucky enough to simply have a mattress.I walked

AnastasiaLeukemia. My little sister had stage four leukemia. No matter how hard my mind tried to grasp that there was almost nothing the doctors could do, I failed.I stared at my sister, who was sleeping soundly due to the medicine the doctor had given her. I couldn’t help but pace back and forth around the room as I tried calling my mother over and over again. At first, it seemed as if she were ignoring my calls, but it soon turned into every call I made going to voicemail.Throwing myself on the chair, I brought my hands up to my face as tears streamed down my face. I could only focus on the dust that fluttered around the room as I thought about not being able to see my sister again. Never in my life could I imagine having to bury my little sister. She was always supposed to outlive me.A knock sounded on the door, leaving me with a mere moment to wipe my tears away before it opened. A woman strolled in wearing a smile on her face. I knew she could see how I had just been crying

Anastasia POVI fell asleep in a hard chair right beside Aria’s hospital bed. With a groan, I lifted my head from the palm of my hand as my eyes began to adjust to the light. I could hear my little sister’s voice, but it was just taking my brain a while to process her words.“Okay, that sounds terrifying,” Aria said. With those words, I immediately snapped out of whatever trance I was in before I looked up at my sister. Her head angled toward me as she shot me a gentle smile. I couldn’t help but notice her cracked lips and the alarming paleness of her skin.“Morning, my little emoji. The doctor is finally here,” Aria said. She had a great way of not showing how much pain she was in. If someone random were to walk in, they never would’ve been able to guess that her organs were dying.“How do you come up with yellow things like that on the spot?” I asked, chuckling softly. My hands rose to my face just to make sure there was no drool on the side of my mouth as I tried my best to fix my

“Girl, what’s got you so bummed out?” My co-worker, Liliana, had asked me while I was placing burgers on a tray. She stood right by me with her hand on her hip as she awaited my answer.“My sister is probably dying of cancer, and I have to sit here and pretend that everything is okay. I just can’t stop thinking about her,” I answered honestly. She reached out and touched my shoulder. A small smile made its way onto her features. I looked over at her dark complexion and big bouncy curls that fell down her back. Liliana was a beautiful girl inside and out.“My mom passed away from lung cancer when I was younger. She always told me to stay strong, so now I am telling you…stay strong, Anastasia,” she said, opening her arms. I walked into them, allowing her to hug me. Her hug was soothing me, calming me in every place my crying heart hadn’t stopped its weeping. It felt like the hug a mother would give their daughter, but she was my twenty-year-old friend who could make me feel more at home

“She got this house from just stripping?” I asked, astonished. All Lily did was nod her head with a grin before opening up her door. I followed right behind her as I exited my vehicle.We strolled to the house, but just before Liliana could ring the doorbell, it opened.“Lily,” a beautiful woman said, opening her arms. Liliana happily walked into them, smiling so big. It was something she couldn’t stop herself from doing. Her smile was always there on her face, and it also happened to be one of the most contagious things to ever exist.“Janice,” she returned the greeting.Finally, they pulled apart and Janice smiled at me happily. She was slightly taller than average height, and she had a body to kill for. Just like Liliana, full lips sat perfectly on her face.“Is this the friend you told me about? Anastasia, isn’t it?” she asked, raising a perfect brow at me. Nodding, I watched as she tied her long, beautiful curls up into a bun, making sure to tuck a loose strand behind her ear. Sh