Shocked

Riley

She didn't make it.

The truth of my reality played through my mind over and over as I sat in a coach seat on the quickest flight I could get back to Los Angeles. My fingers were sore from my picking at them, my fidgeting having quickly gotten out of control.

I'd barely had time to change into something more appropriate for being seen in public before racing off to find Frank with Ethan trailing behind me. He wanted to come with me, but they wouldn't let him. It was better this way. I didn't need to try and hold myself together in the face of yet another loss in my life. I would have tried with him there, but that wasn't fair to me, or my mother. No matter how many battles we had fought between the two of us, to lose her was devastating.

"Coffee miss?" A flight attendant leaned down and gave me a warm smile.

I nodded, unable to muster more than a soft murmur, "Please."

"You're shivering. Should I get you a blanket as well?" She stood back up and waited on my reply, but I wasn't