Treasured Gifts of Many

Chapter 3
Chapter Two

Chapter Description: With school now out, and waiting for college to begin to start her new life, May notices odd things happening to her. She's not the only one, either, and the things her parents are seeing are not only concerning them, but making them think the impossible

Treasured Gifts of May:

Chapter Two May stepped in front of the full-length mirror hanging off her bedroom closet door. She twitched her jaw, looking herself over. With the summer heat returning to where it belonged, the high school graduate decided to go with a pair of dark green dress shorts and a white button-down, short-sleeved shirt. These were clothes she had brought towards the end of last summer, and they had fit her throughout that season… except now they were hanging off her frame, and not just slightly, either. May’s face slowly worked into a scowl as she tried to fix her outfit. She pulled the sleeves of her shirt up to where they go, and fastened the buttons up to her neck. It didn’t help; May could feel the space within her shirt, and with just a simple roll of the shoulder, she could feel the sleeves sliding. Her irritation mounting, May turned and made her way to her bed. She grabbed the belt lying on the sheet and looped it into the notches on her shorts. She went all the way up to the last hole in her belt, then returned to the mirror. May’s scowl grew as she saw that the belt barely held her shorts in place; they were still hanging off in the back. “How can I be losing weight?” May asked her reflection. “I have been eating non-stop since school ended.” With a sigh of growing irritation, May would spend the next five minutes fighting her own attire. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t get the outfit to fit right. She even thought about punching a hole in her belt. May finally gave up in a light scream of frustration, throwing her hands up in the air. “AHHH! FORGET THIS!!” In a bout of anger that didn’t seem to suit the image of the adult May was trying to craft for herself, she tore off her outfit. She glared at her reflection, taking note that even her simple, cotton underwear seemed to be hanging off her body. With a growl at her own reflection, May tore open her closet, looking for anything that might fit. After a near seven-minute whirlwind of flying fabric, May finally found an outfit that didn’t make her feel like she was drowning in it. She cringed at the sight that met her in the mirror. May had gone with the sweater she got when she was touring the Harvard campus grounds the previous year. The sweater was already a tight fit, being a size too small for May. But now, it felt like there was room to spare. Even the cotton pants she wore during gym and workout sessions at home seem to be slacking. May grabbed the rim of her right leg and pulled. The fabric had room to spare, but it didn’t come away easily as her pants did during the last day of school. With an irritated sigh/growl, May released the leg and looked at the mirror. She cringed as she looked at herself. “God, I look like something the cat dragged in. Or worse…I let my sister pick my outfit,” May muttered bitterly. May turned away from the mirror and glanced around her room. A hint of shame prickled into her as she took in the sight. In her frenzy to find something that fit her, May had littered her room with nearly every single article of clothing she owned. Standing in the mess she made, May started to flush with embarrassment as she felt like some kind of teenage kid. Some of the irritation that had governed May for the last 10 to 11 minutes lessened as she stared at a pair of shorts that hung off the edge of her bed. “...What’s wrong with me?” May asked herself in shame. “I would never do this.” With a tired sigh, May went about picking up her room. It took her nearly ten minutes to pick up every piece of clothing, carefully folding her shorts and pants and putting them in the right area in her drawer. Next, she neatly hung her shirts and blouses on their respective hangers and put them in her closet. Finally, she made her bed, a smile slowly spreading across her face as she carefully pulled the sheets into their right place. “Better,” May muttered, the heat that had been in her voice completely gone. She was about to leave her room when she caught a glance of her calendar on the wall under her study desk. She walked up to the item, studying it. The page had been turned to July, and about two and a half weeks' worth of days had been marked off. May grabbed a fine-point black marker and took off the cap. She crossed off the Friday on the calendar and, after putting the cap on her marker, flipped the page to the next month. A small smile broke on May’s face when she saw the day of her college departure, the day her adult life would truly start. May let the calendar page fall and drop the marker onto her desk. She left her room, her former irritation nearly forgotten as she went down to the first floor and into the kitchen. The redhead gave her parents, Martin Junior and Jane, a quick wave as a form of acknowledgement before going over to the cabinet over the kitchen counter. May opened the cabinet and, to her surprise, she couldn’t quite reach her favorite glass. Her irritation was returned when she learned she needed to stand on her toes to get her glass. May stormed over to the fridge, her face twisted into a small scowl. She nearly slammed her glass on the countertop next to the fridge. She practically threw the door open and tore her favorite diet peach tea from its shelf. She filled her glass, then, on impulse, took a large drink from the bottle. With a satisfied sigh, May capped the bottle and returned it to the fridge. She went to grab her glass and- “GAH!” May shrieked, finding her little sister standing behind her. “MICHELLE!! SPACE!!” Twelve-year-old Michelle Bridges could pass as a younger version of May; the two shared the same eyes and hair, both inherited from their father. Michelle’s hair was cut shorter than her older sister's, but this was because Michelle was a tomboy. Even though it was blazingly hot out, Michelle was wearing a loose-fitting gray hoodie and baggy shorts, complete with a pair of worn-in red high-tops. “Geez, May,” Michelle replied, a little bewildered by her older sister's sudden outburst, “take it easy. There’s like four feet between us.” “That’s not the point!” May snapped back. “You have to learn how to respect other people's space!” To Michelle’s surprise, her older sister went into a rant, going on about respect. From their spot at the table, Martin and Jane watched all of this, their faces twisting into frowns. Martin leaned in close to his wife of nearly twenty-four years and whispered to her. “Tell me I am not imagining things.” Martin had not been imagining things. Jane had seen the sighs too. Since school ended, Jane has seen her daughter descend into a moody state, one that she hasn’t seen since May’s sophomore year. Jane leaned in close to her husband, blue eyes nearly leaving her daughters. “I thought May was just stress from Finals and everything, but this-” Jane paused, giving May her sole attention. The eldest of the Bridge family was still ranting about personal space to her little sister. To her credit, Michelle seemed more bewildered than angry or afraid. Because of the age gap, Jane had felt that May never had the best relationship with her younger siblings. A divide that was only growing since last Christmas as May prepared to leave for college. However, watching all this unfold before her eyes was causing a not-so-distant memory to resurface in Jane. “-This feels familiar,” Jane muttered awkwardly. Martin looked at his wife with his eyes. The man noticed the faint hints of stress, but more importantly, worry highlighting her features. He slowly, gingerly even, reached out, softly tucking a strand of stray brown hair behind his wife’s ear. Jane didn’t notice; her attention was squarely on her oldest. Martin’s jaw twitched, a habit May inherited from him, as he looked at his daughter. At this point, May had stopped ranting about personal space and was just shouting for shouting's sake, waving her hands in the air in a frantic manner. Michelle, feeling a little weirded out by her sister’s behavior, took a step back. May didn’t notice; she was too caught up in her fury to notice her surroundings. Finally, after another minute, May petered out, breathing heavily. Her face was also a little red from all the shouting she did. She remembered the tea she poured for herself and spun around on her heel. She snatched the glass from the counter and downed it in one go. May slammed the empty glass down on the counter and left the kitchen, glaring at Michelle with venom as she left. “... Too familiar,” Martin agreed once May had left the room. The married couple looked each other in the eyes, a silent message being shared. Both were thinking the same things, even though it was an impossible thought. Still, both were willing to wait and get a little more information before they came to any rash conclusions. (SC) The two didn’t have to wait long to come to their definitive answer. It was dinner, and having three children at the table was always chaotic. But today was different; Jane and Martin watched as May, usually the most collected one at the table, was tearing into her dinner of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables, like she hadn’t eaten all day. Even Michelle was taken aback by her older sister’s appetite. The only one who didn’t seem bothered by the Bridges’ older children’s action was Jay Bridges, the youngest child at ten. The reason he didn’t notice his sister’s behavior was that he was too absorbed in trying to get his family to notice him recounting his summer adventures with his friends. Jay’s appearance was quite different than his two sisters. Jay hair was a mop-top of raven-black hair, and he had deep red eyes. These traits were inherited from Martin’s older brother, Michael. Jay was dressed in nothing but a white tank top and a pair of blue shorts, his feet covered by a pair of dirt-covered sandals. “...And then Jim slipped on a rock,” Jay eagerly told his family, animatedly waving his arms. No one was listening to him, not that Jay could tell; he was caught up in his excitement to notice. May finished her first helping and frowned scornfully. She was still hungry, and without thinking, reached out for a second helping. Suddenly, Jay’s arm flew into the water pitcher standing to his right. The pitcher fell and spilled all its contents onto May’s outstretched arm, soaking her sweater sleeve. “JAAAYYY!” May screeched, jumping to her feet so fast that the chair she was in grated against the floor. Instantly, everyone’s attention was on May, with Jane and Martin studying their oldest silently. May was seething, nearly hissing through clenched teeth and glaring at her brother. She held her soaked elbow like it had been injured. Jay, unlike Michelle earlier in the day, shrank back from his older sister’s glare. “S-Sorry, May?” the ten-year-old apologized timidly. That answer didn’t placate May. If anything, it made the high school graduate angrier; her teeth began to grind, and the hissing increased. “You're SORRY?!” May screeched. “Well, sorry doesn’t fix my sweater! I just got this, and now it's ruined!” “May. Calm down,” Martin interjected calmly, slowly rising to his feet. “It’s just water. It wouldn’t stain your sweater or ruin the fabric.” May snapped her head in her father’s direction, growling. She glared at Martin with the heat of a sun, but Martin held his ground, never fidgeting from his daughter’s you-always-take-their-side-and-never-mine expression. After a few tense moments, the fog of anger that clouded May’s eyes lifted. A slight look of shame crossed the redhead’s face, and she looked at her brother with her eyes. She saw that her outburst scared her little brother; his lower lip was shaking slightly. Her eyes fell to her soaked sleeve, and her shame got worse. She couldn’t believe she just snapped at her little brother over something as silly as a soaked sleeve. “...Sorry,” May muttered shamefully. She looked around the room, taking in the shock of her little sister, the quiet concern of mother, and the stern but caring eyes of father, which only made her shame grow. With a mute, shameful sigh, she loaded up her plate and left the kitchen, stopping only to take the jug of diet peach tea. “I-I'm going to my room to study,” the teenager explained, voice riddled with shame and regret. Martin and Jane watched as their oldest exited the kitchen, listening as May’s footsteps disappeared. Once they heard the faint sound of a door closing, Martin looked at his wife, mouthing “too familiar” to her.