What Comes After | ✔️

Chapter 1

May 11

Sometimes, I just want to dive into the deep blues of the ocean and disappear. Today's one of those days. I got my math test back, and it wasn't good. I'll have to do much better on the finals than I did last time, which is unfortunate. I'm not sure how I'm going to explain this to my parents, so, hopefully, they won't check my grades.

Mira face-timed me today, probably to avoid talking to Mom and Dad. Last time they talked, it ended with some argument about making responsible life choices. She had dyed her hair blue. I'm pretty sure that's what their whole fight was about.

"Hey little brother," she said.

Her hair was red this time. I'm not sure why anyone would change their hair color only after a month or so, but I've never dyed my hair, so I probably wouldn't understand.

"How's college?" I asked, placing the phone against a stack of textbooks on my desk as I attempted to multi-task and get some math homework done.

"Oh, the usual. Boring classes and terrible professors," she replied. "How's high school going? Have you done anything fun since the last time I called?"

I shrugged. "High school is alright. I guess. There's nothing much going on. The most fun I've had in the past few weeks was finishing the last book in the series I've been working on for a year."

"Books? C'mon is there anything actually interesting that you've been doing?"

"If you mean getting drunk at some high school party or getting high in some dark alley, no thank you."

She laughed. "I mean something that doesn't involve breaking the law. Like actually going outside and having real fun with your friends. Not sitting inside all cooped up. Do you even have a girlfriend?"

"No!"

"Boyfriend?" she implored. "I wouldn't mind."

"If you don't stop talking, I'm hanging up the phone," I said, only somewhat seriously.

"Fine, fine. Geez, you can be so uptight sometimes, you know," she said with a bit of a laugh. "So how's May doing?"

"She's doing fine," I said. "Mom and Dad are proud that she's made the softball varsity team in her freshman year."

"Oh," she said. "That's pretty cool. I didn't know. Is the team doing well?"

"They've only won one game," I said. "They lost the rest, but May doesn't really care. Our team has been the second worst in the district for the past decade, so everyone's just playing to boost their extracurriculars for when they apply to colleges."

There was a pause. "Have you tried calling May?" I asked.

"I mean I've tried," she said, looking down for a bit. "But she just keeps hanging up. It's probably because she's busy all the time with softball and stuff."

But both Mira and I knew that wasn't true. Mira and May never talk to each other even though they'd get along perfectly. Both are popular and outgoing and are social butterflies, unlike me. But for some reason, May still thinks that Mira is our "druggie older sister," even though that's completely false, so you can see why they don't have the strongest of sisterly bonds. And I guess this is where I come in, Mira's key to check in with our family.

We talked a bit more after that, but just as she was going to hang up, she broke the biggest news of today. "I'm coming home to watch the asteroid crash into the moon."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I don't think that's going to end well."

I know that Dad is into astronomy, so it might be a good time to have them bond over watching this spectacular event. But at the same time, I'm worried that they're just going to continue to argue all day long for her whole trip.