Instant Guilt Short Story

Instant Guilt ¨ Hi girls, how was your day? ¨ my mom yelled from inside the house somewhere. My sister and I sat our bags down and tried searching for our mom. I was exhausted from school because I had done max outs in weights, so I flopped down on the closest thing I saw. As I was checking my phone, my mom came down the stairs telling me something but I was too busy checking Snapchat to care. I got up and followed her down the hall leading into the kitchen where my sister was eating icing with graham crackers. My mom turned to me and asked if I was going to be ready to leave in five minutes. I gave her a confused look and asked, “ Why would I be ready to leave in five? You didn't even tell me we were going anywhere. ¨ My sister turned to

The room she had was nice. There was a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and a bathroom.It was sort of plain and simple but I recognized she had things from her own house brought in so that the space would feel more like home. Things like pictures and little nick-nacks. I walked in slowly while observing the room. I saw my grandma sitting in bed. She was pale and looked lonely. There was no emotion in her eyes, making her look lifeless. I walked over to her and said, ¨Hello¨. She replied with, ¨ hey Angela! ¨ which made me look behind me to search for my mom. I quickly remembered that , to her, I was Angela and asked her how her day was going .She said she was glad to see me. She kept repeating herself. Asking how old I was four times in about two minutes. She never once called me Avery or remembered what my sisters name was. I tried not to let it bother me but it was sad seeing someone I cared about slowly drifting away. After a few minutes pass, I decide to sit down by her feet so that my mom could talk to her for a little bit. My sister said about two words the whole time we were there which made me mad because she was acting like she didn't even care about seeing our grandma. She was too busy watching some kid of youtube video about slime. My mom had to answer a phone call so she went to the other side of the room where the kitchen was. I started a conversation

The one thing i'm not supposed to talk about was just brought up.¨ I started to panic a little and my mind went blank. My stomach was now a zoo for butterflies and my hands started to shake. What was I gonna say? Do I ignore the question? Do I answer it truthfully? Do I lie to her? I looked at my grandma and then at my mom, who was still on the phone. I tried to get her attention by waving but she didn't see me. I knew I was going to feel guilty no matter how I answered the question. There was no time for stalling and there had already been a few seconds of awkward silence. I couldn't make eye contact with my grandma when I said, ¨ I'm not sure when you'll get to see your dog or go back home.¨ I already started regretting my decision to speak.I didn't know what the right thing to do was. I didn't want to lie to her, but my told me not to tell her that we'd sold her house and put down her dog. Even if I had told her what really happened, would she remember? I looked at my grandma who was staring at her thin, petite hands. I could tell she was upset. Her eyes filled with tears but somehow she found the strength to stop her eyes from spilling out sadness. My mom came over and told me we had to leave. I got up, gave my great grandma a hug, and told her it was nice to see her. She didn't respond and was still staring at her hands. I had never seen my grandma more disappointed in my life.