Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 111038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
I was completely numb, just the way I liked it in moments like these.
I whispered, “I was in the hospital for two months.”
“And no one visited you?” His voice came from right behind me.
He had migrated closer. I could feel his heat now.
I found myself leaning back, and one of his arms curled around me, resting low on my hip.
I nodded, my head moving against his shirt. “His friends never came to see me. I thought maybe it was the hospital not letting people visit, but that wasn’t the case. My mom and dad were there almost every day. Nate visited too. The days kinda blurred together.”
The after.
I turned in his arms and tipped my head back to look at him.
“That’s why my parents came back here. They were worried about me the first semester, but now they’re on this whole kick to make things right with Nate.”
Blaise’s other hand came to my hip, holding me against him.
His eyes searched mine. “Why aren’t your parents here this weekend, Aspen?”
I felt a rock in my gut.
“My parents aren’t bad parents. They’re just... They’re workaholics, and when they get into a project they’re passionate about, they’re really into it.”
“They forget you.”
I heard his condemnation, and I moved back.
“It’s not totally like that.”
“It’s exactly like that.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not. They’ve just been gone this week. At the beginning of the year, they were here every day. I couldn’t move in this house without my mom or dad on me, asking how I was, talking to me about my counseling sessions. They were overly in my life, so when they got the green light for this new project of theirs, it was a relief. I could go to school again and pretend to be normal.”
I sighed.
It was now.
Now or never.
“I miss my brother. I miss him so much that after the accident,” a deep breath, “I wish it’d been me. Not him.”
I turned.
I closed my eyes, folded my head, tried to disappear in on myself.
The after.
The after when I wanted to disappear and be with Owen.
“Aspen,” his voice was so soft, so tender behind me.
“I’m better, but it’s a lot. It’s why I wanted to be invisible at school, why I was proud of having no one. It’s better to have no one to lose than to have that one get ripped from you, and wish it’d been you instead.”
“Aspen.” His hands came to my shoulder, stepping up behind me. He folded me against him, just holding me. “Do your parents know?”
I shrugged. “Told my counselor. I don’t know what she shared with them.”
It’s done, sis.
A tear fell.
I said, leaning back against him, letting him hold me, “I don’t know Nate that well. Our family is so distant.”
He was quiet, so I looked up.
His mouth was pressed in a flat line.
He had to understand.
I pulled away, turning to him. “I’m not going to our graduation ceremony.”
His eyes flared, and he opened his mouth.
I shook my head. “I can’t be there. Owen was supposed to graduate with me, and he won’t be there. And no one here knows him. No one knows me. My parents have forgotten about graduation, and I want them to keep forgetting. I’m going to tell them next week after it’s all done, and I know they’ll feel bad. They’ll want to throw me a party, but it hurts too much. Owen was my best friend, and I… I don’t want to celebrate these things without him. It’s too hard. It’s too painful.”
There.
That was it. That was all of it.
I could wait now.
Would he understand? Would he push it?
I hoped he wouldn’t.
I didn’t have the energy to argue anymore.
Blaise sighed and brought his forehead to rest against mine. “Babe, that’s why you have to celebrate these things. I don’t know your brother. You’ve barely talked about him, but I’ve got a strong feeling he would want you to walk across the stage.”
No, no, no.
I tried to pull away.
His hand tightened, and he moved even closer, his lips just above mine. “I don’t care how you slice it in your head, if he loved you, he’d want this for you.” A beat. “He would want you to do it for him.”
36
Blaise
I woke the next morning, and I had to make decisions today. Hard decisions.
I wasn’t excited about any of it.
Aspen had her head tucked into my arm, and she was hugging me like an octopus. I grinned. So cute.
But damn.
I needed to be an asshole today.
After she talked last night, we went to bed, but we’d only cuddled. I wanted to know more about Owen, more about all of her family, and once she’d opened the dam, the rest came flooding out. I don’t think she dozed off until around five in the morning.
It was now nine-thirty, and if I was going to do what I was going to do, I needed to get to it.