A Million Hiding Places {Completed}

Chapter Eight: A Letter

Harley:

Love is the feeling of fleeting hope, when your heart rests in the hands of another while you seemingly float on an infinate cloud of happiness. Love is when a mother looks at her new born child; when a father watches his daughter learn to ride a bike; that first christmas; first birthday; the first kiss; that first 'I love you...' the one you'll always remember.

But love is painful. And everyday you fall in deeper, harder, until you can't claw your way back out, and no one can get too you. It's just you and them. Forever.

So that was my reason for doing what I was doing. I didn't want to fall into the hole. I didn't want it too be any harder.

A month had gone by. A month of putting it off, and putting it off until I couldn't anymore.

Thos whispered ' I love you''s in the dark, would stay with me forever.

But tonight was the end.

Jackson looked at me, sadness etched onto his face, like deep worry lines. I wonder, silently, if they'd remain there forever.

"Harley..," He said, his voice cracking.

He opened his arms to me, and I melted into them. He was like a father too me; and my best friend. He was there when no one else was. From the start, until now. Until the end.

The car was waiting out the front, Chris snoring away softly in the back, his frail body wrapped tightly in a cotton blanket. With each sturggled brearth, the window fogged, the condensation disappearing just in time for another.

"This is it." Jackson said, slipping my last bag into the boot. The driver tapped the wheel, impatient.

I turned, willing myself not to cry. "Give this to Robbie, Jackson." I pushed a small letter into Jackson's trembling hands, his eyes portraying his understanding.

"I will." He pulled me into a long embrace. I ran my hands along his shoulders and along his back, memorising his scent, the feeling of his warm embrace. Everything.

I got into the car, glancing at Jackson. The twins were bundled under his arms as they strained to get too me. I would be coming back for them in a little while, a week or so, once everything was settled. I already missed them. The ache in my heart was almost unbarable. Almost.

It beat for him, and him alone. It sounded silly, but as I drove away, I wondered if I'd ever love anyone as much as I seemed to love him right then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robbie

The letter sat in front of me and my heart beat rapidly as I opened it. I felt sweat trickle down my spin. Why I was nervous, I couldn't tell. But I was. A bad feeling twisted in my gut as I stared at the handwritten, tear stained letter in front of me.

Robbie,

Chris is dying. I know this for a fact now, as I write this.

Dr. Tinker heard of a new drug, thats supposed to help his body cope with the cancer. It's meant to make him live longer- nearly ten to twenty years. It'll give him a life, Robs, so I had too take the chance.

If things had been different, if Chris wasn't sick, if I was a normal girl with parents to go home too every night- I would have still loved you as much as I do right now.

It's silly, because we're so young, I know. But I can't help it.

I wish you luck, Robbie. In the future, and even now, as you read this. I want you to go find love, have kids, have grand kids, have a future without pain or loss.

I'm not going too tell you where we are. I don't think seeing you will make this any easier.

I love you,

Harley James....