Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
KASH - PRESENT
I knock softly on her door, already knowing the outcome of this visit. Two whole months have come and gone. Sixty fucking days have passed since he was taken from us. Since Vix locked herself away from the world, refusing to let anyone close to her. I knock again, but still, only silence greets me.
“Vix…” I call. “Please, just open the door,” I beg.
Every time I try to get through to her, I feel my heart crack a little more.
A deafening silence where I crave the sound of her familiar voice, her laugh, her sarcasm and dark sense of humour.
I grab the doorknob, hoping by chance she would have left it open, but my shoulders drop when I realize I’m out of luck.
“Vix…” I repeat her name. “If you don’t open this door right now, I’ll just come back tomorrow, and the day after that and the next day after that. You need us, and we need you. Please stop shutting us out.” I sigh. I wipe a tear from my cheek that managed to escape. Defeat seeps deep into my body.
“We all lost him, Grem. We all loved him, I know you loved him the most, but he wouldn’t want this for you,” I try again.
“Okay, I’ll go… I miss you, Leah misses you,” I finish, and I turn on my heel, ready to head back to my own room.
Head hung low and darkness creeping back into my thoughts, I start to walk away when I hear the bolt click to Vix’s door.
I grab the handle and turn the nob slowly, not wanting to startle her into shutting me out again.
I open the door, and I’m met with complete blackness, just a silhouette of the raven-haired girl I have fallen for. And I hate myself for it.
“I brought you some food,” I say, sitting on the end of her bed as she buries herself back under the covers. I see it then. The box on the side of her nightstand. The unopened box of paper butterflies with thousands of wishes Austin made, just for her. My heart cracks a little more.
“Grem—Mavix…” I struggle to find my voice, “Please, talk to me.”
“Just leave, Kash, please.” Her voice is barely a whisper.
“You know I’m not going to do that, Vix.
” I hear a soft sob underneath the blankets, and my heart all but cracks in two.
I want to hold her, to tell her everything is going to be okay.
But it’s not. For Vix, especially, it will never be okay again.
Fuck this. I climb over her and lie down in the bed facing her.
I pull her body into mine and squeeze her tight as her sobs break through the wall she’s been building up so high.
Tears burn my eyelids as she cries and cries, grieving for the lost love she’ll never have again.
“Shhhh.” I hold her and rub her arm while holding her so close, it’s the only thing keeping me from crumbling myself in this very moment.
“You meant everything to him, Vix. I know to you, he was the moon, but to him, you were every star in the sky.” I choke back my own sob as we sit there locked onto each other, feeling everything we’ve refused to feel since the day Austin was taken away.
I’ve only let myself break down in the shadows of my own room, but that room…
It haunts me. I brush the pad of my thumb over her cheek, wiping away the tears that are quickly replaced with fresh ones.
Her eyes, puffy and red-rimmed, her hair a knotted mess of tangles, but still, she’s beautiful, even in her grief.
“You were his angel, Vix…” I tell her, kissing the top of her head. She tenses, and after a moment, she pulls away.
“And now he’s mine,” she whispers, tucking her body back under the blankets, hiding away from the world… away from me.