No One Came Chapter 01
My younger brother, Nico, always said I was the most boring person in our family.
Because every time he wanted to “play” with me, I was the one who ended up crying.
He pressed chewed gum into my hair, and I cried.
He yanked my chair out from under me as I was about to sit down, and I cried then too.
That time, I landed hard on my tailbone and had to sleep on my stomach for two months.
Mom and Dad just said he was messing around. That I was too sensitive.
That since I was the older sister, I shouldn’t hold it against him.
After a while, I learned not to cry.
When Nico scooped a spoonful of sauce onto my pasta, I even managed a smile.
It had peanuts in it.
The second I shut the door to my room, my throat started to close.
I couldn’t breathe.
Hives bloomed across my skin.
I collapsed onto my bed, my iPhone screen still lit.
My Google search history was frozen on my last entry:
“can a peanut allergy kill you”
My consciousness started to fray.
Next door, Nico was laughing his head off, headset on, playing Call of Duty.
In the living room, Mom and Dad were watching football.
In this house, no one paid any attention to me once my door was closed.
And no one knew their daughter was dying.
If I got a next time, I didn’t want to be the butt of someone else’s joke.
I just wanted to be treated like a person.
Even just once.
…
“Adriana, come eat!”
Mom shouted through the door, her voice already edged with impatience.
I wanted to move, but my body wouldn’t obey.
Every muscle burned.
I could feel my face swelling.
My eyelids felt like lead.
My lips were swelling too, so much that I could barely part them.
Something felt lodged in my throat.
Every breath was agony.
“Adriana, did you hear me? Dinner!”
Mom called again.
Louder this time.
I could hear the annoyance creeping into her voice.
“Mom, she’s mad again.”
Nico’s voice drifted in from the living room.
He sounded casual, like he was talking about nothing at all.
“I just put a little peanut sauce on her plate. I was just trying to mess with her.”
Mess with her.
The words were so careless.
As if slipping peanuts to someone with a deadly allergy was just a harmless prank.
“Nico, you know your sister is allergic to peanuts. Why would you do that?”
Mom asked.
But she wasn’t really scolding him. It was more like a mild complaint.
“I just wanted to see what an allergic reaction actually looked like,” Nico said.
“The health teacher made it sound so dramatic. I didn’t think it was that serious.”
“Enough. Just stop.”
Mom cut him off.
“Adriana, come out and eat your dinner. Don’t pick a fight with your brother.”
I didn’t answer.
Because I couldn’t.
My tongue had swollen.
My entire mouth was puffing up.
I tried to open my mouth, but only a choked, muffled sound came out.
“Adriana, I’m warning you. Don’t start with this.”
Mom’s voice went cold.
“If you don’t want to eat, fine. Don’t expect me to bring dinner to your room.”
The footsteps outside my door faded away.
Soon, I heard the clink of silverware on plates from the living room.
They had started eating.
The three of them, together.
Without me.
I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling.
There was an old water stain up there.
When I was little, I would stare at it whenever I was sad.
If I stared long enough, the feeling would eventually fade.
It didn’t work this time.
Tears slid down my swollen cheeks.
Breathing was getting harder and harder.
I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my ears.
My phone slipped from my grasp and hit the floor.
I closed my eyes.
Forget it.
Just let it happen.
No one was coming for me anyway.
The first thing I thought when I found myself floating near the ceiling was:
So this is what it’s like to die.