Jon followed Sarah up the stairs. He considered Sarah as his mortal enemy and he never imagined her walking through his house. If she had, he would have called the cops on her, or even thrown her out himself. But the situation he was now in was far from normal. This Sarah wasn't the Sarah he'd known for the last several years. This Sarah was a Sarah that he wanted to be in his house.
She entered Zoe's room. Zoe was on her bed, trying to wipe away tears. She looked up and smiled weakly. "Hi, Sarah."
"Hi, Zoe." Sarah walked over and sat down on the bed next to Zoe. She started rubbing Zoe's back with one hand, trying to soothe Zoe. Then Zoe leaned her head against Sarah's chest. The gesture was welcome, but Jon suddenly felt that this scene was a bit awkward. How did Sarah justify caring so much about his family? Jon was glad she was there, but he still felt that awkwardness. The rest of his family didn't, though. They seemed to think it was perfectly normal that a girl that wasn't part of the family would just come over now and then and give emotional support. Just to his family. Of course, Jon knew why she was really doing it. She had his mom's personality. But still, he wondered.
After a few minutes of talking to Zoe, she got up and walked out to the hallway. "She'll be alright," she told Jon. She turned back to look in the room, at all the vandalized posters. "If only your mom wasn't such a bitch ..." She trailed off, probably thinking of things to do to his mom, if she could.
"It's okay. Things will get better," Jon reassured her.
"Jon, I didn't realize you were so optimistic about all this. Usually you're the one complaining about her the most."
And Jon realized that she was probably right. When Sarah was her normal self, he complained about her a lot. So, the same was probably true for his mom.
"Listen, Jon. I've got to go. See you tomorrow at school. Okay?"
"Yeah, okay. Sure."
She smiled a warm smile that his mom displayed on much more than one occasion. Jon was sorry to see Sarah go. He wanted her to stick around a little longer. And he never thought that he would ever think that.
