My bed creaked under the pressure of the extra weight. She turned toward my opened window and the drifting white drapes. Her the skin around her eyes was red and puffy from crying. The late afternoon sunlight poured through the window, and Kiki's eyes began to water as she wiped it away with her hand.
“It’ll be okay.” She said, as our parents fought downstairs, yelling so fiercely that we could hear them up two flights of stairs, down the hall and through a door where my attic bedroom was, “They’ll work it out.” I think she was trying to convince herself more than me they way her chocolate eyes seemed to stare right through me.
I returned the empty gaze, until she blinked a few times and smiled, “Don’t worry,” she repeated half-heartily, “Please don’t worry, Carolyn.“
"I know. I won't worry, Kiki, just for you." I said, I was the one comforting her, now, "Just never leave me. Okay?"
Spoiler
This is the prologue to a novel I'm working on. It was inspired by my best friend who has a very similar situation, so this is a tribute to her.

