The Good with the Bad

'To enjoy life you got to take the good with the bad.'

This was our mother favourite saying especially during her last few months with us before she lost her fight with cancer.

Those last few months had been hard on my 19-year-old sister, before the cancer my mother and sister had been inseparable spending a lot of their time with each other. Going shopping, working out together and the rest of the things girls tend to do with each other. It hit her hard that she was losing her mother, her closest friend.

Not to say that our mother and me were not close too each other, me being her first-born son, it was just the way it was.

My sister wasn't the most social of people, she preferred being with one or two close friends to crowds of people. She just wasn't the type to go out and party regularly instead staying in and having wine with her close friends while watching a movie or just chatting.

I was the more social of the two of us and at 21 had done my fair share of partying, spending time with my large group of friends in various situations. I had changed my ways in the last few months though so that I could spend more time with my family making the most of the time we had.

It was during this time that my sister and me grew much closer, we had always helped each other out before, but I had increased the amount I did around the house taking the bulk of the chores so that she didn't have to worry about it too much.

I became a shoulder for my sister to cry on, when everything got too much for her, I would be by her side listening to all her thoughts and worry's and about what she was going to in the future. I made sure to be there for whenever she needed me, and do everything within my power to lower her troubles.

It was a week after our mother's funeral and my sister had spent most of the week alone in her room except for meals, I decided that it was time to change that and headed towards Sophie's room when he didn't find her there he briefly considered where she might be before heading towards their mothers room.

It was there that I found my sister she was asleep on the bed wearing only her regular bed clothes which consisted of panties the current one's being bubblegum blue and one of my t-shirts that was over sized but comfy enough for her to sleep in, from my position I could see that the top had ridden up as her smooth belly was on display.

Shaking my head I looked at her face, from the redness I could see that she had obviously being crying and I silently cursed myself for not being there for her and doing something sooner.

I stood staring at her face for a while, she was beautiful to my eyes and always had been, she was 5' 4" to my 5' 7" has straight brown hair that falls just past her shoulder blades, her face was flawless and make-up free she had never really needed It and used it rarely.

I had been standing there about 10 minutes when she started to stir and realizing I was their standing over her she sat up, pulled down her top and said in a small voice tinged with despair

"Chris!"

I immediately sat down next to her and pulled her into to a hug, she sighed and hugged me back tightly. I had been there a lot for her and she had noticed and felt genuine comfort in my embrace, we stayed like that for a while I then slowly pulled back so that I could see her face. Brushing away the new tears falling down her face, I leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

"Lets go out for lunch, it would do us both some good to get out Sophie."

"I don't know Chris."

"Come on, we need to do some grocery shopping anyway."

"Ok then, let me something on and I'll be downstairs in a moment"

I nodded my head towards her and said "okay."

It was about 15 minutes later when I heard come downstairs, standing up from the chair, I looked towards her and blinked several times. She had a simple sundress and looked simply amazing.

Noticing the way I was looking at her Sophie suddenly remembered her mother saying

"The good with the bad."

She had looked to Sophie then pointed towards me.

"He loves you Sophie." She had whispered then repeated, "The good with the bad."

"Sis" I said noticing a tear on her face.

"I'm ok Chris." Sophie said giving me a small smile, "Just remembered something mom said.

"What?"

"Something interesting" she said with another smile on her face.

Looking to her I decided to not press her any further, I was happy to see her with a smile on her face. It had been a while since she had smiled like that.

"Let's go, Chris," she said heading towards the door.

We headed to her favourite café for lunch which bought another smile to her face, Sophie was watching me closely and noticed all the special attention that I was paying to her from opening the door for her to making sure she was ok.

After our lunch we headed to the local supermarket, I grabbed a trolley after opening her door for and helping her out of the car. Pushing the trolley we made our way into the shop, when Sophie wasn't putting stuff into the trolley she made sure she was a close to me as possible, after paying for the groceries we left.

Getting home we quickly put everything away. Sophie then turned to me and asked, "Do you want to go down the beach for a walk?"

A little surprised at her sudden request I nodded "sure."

Leaving the house we walked toward the beach it was only a 5-minute walk to the beach from her house. When we got their there was very few people on the beach. As we stepped on to the soft sand Sophie reached her hand over and took mine in hers, shocking me at first but I knew she needed me to be there for her so I carried on holding her hand.

"Lets go there" Sophie said using her free hand to point towards a rock formation half way down the beach.

"Sure Sis."

We took our time walking along the beach, I repeatedly look to my sister noticing the soft smile she had on her face, and her happiness allowed me to relax.

When we reached the rock formation Sophie started to climb up the rocks. Looking to me she said "Come on up, there is a place to sit down up here."

Following my sister unsure of my footing.

"I never knew that."

"Yea I found it a while back, it's a nice secluded spot."

I finally caught up to her as she reached the spot "where..." I started to say before noticing what looked to be a natural bench cut into the rock.

"Wow."

"It's a quiet isolated space," she said to me sitting down

Moving to her side, "Thanks for showing me your special place."

"Yea," Sophie said smiling, "Thanks for being here for me Chris."

"Of Course."

She moved and put her head on my shoulder.

"Anything for my beautiful sister."

"Beautiful?" Sophie said looking in to my eyes.

Looking back at her I simply nodded.

"Oh Chris."

"I love you Sophie."

Seeing the Look in my eye she leaned forward and kissed me.

Breaking the kiss after a short while she said, "I Love you too."

We moved together and kissed again, holding tight too each other neither of us wanting to let go.

"Mom was right."

"What do you mean?"

"She knew you loved me."

"Really."

"Yea, we were talking one day and she told me and also said her favourite saying."

"The good with the bad."

"Yea, we lost our mom," Tears started flowing but with a small smile on her face Sophie said, "But we found each other."