You Found Me

Chapter 21

  

“Though you can’t see past the moment, I see beauty in the broken.”

A week later I had moved into Drew’s apartment and was happily settled; well as happy as I could be.

Today was my eighteenth birthday and the boys had all returned to Ireland at my urging; though I really didn’t want them to go, it was wrong to keep them here when their families missed them. I guess if you love someone enough, you’ll let them go; I just hope someday they’d come back. I already missed them.

I had always seen my eighteenth as some huge thing and in the last year it seemed to be the day I’d be free, but now, now it just felt like any other day. I didn’t feel any different or any happier.

I sat on the giant California king bed looking out the window over the snow-capped trees, stared at the picture in my hand. It was what Jessie had placed in my hand before he drove to the airport.

It was a picture of me and all my friends, mainly Jessie and Matt with the rest of the boys in the background. It was taken on my sixteenth birthday and I look genuinely happy; too bad my parents would die six months later. Matt and Jessie stood at the front with me sitting on Matt’s back with the biggest smile on my face. Archer, James and Cam standing behind us with a few other friends, James pretending to kiss Jessie on the cheek while everyone else pulled faces. We were covered in snow and rugged up; we’d been having snowball fights right before it had been taken.

I looked so… happy. A tear landed on the photo as I thought back to the day it was taken, absentmindedly running a hand over Matt’s smiling face.

Laughter echoed around the snowy backyard as snow went flying. I ducked as a giant ball whizzed overhead and hit the tree instead.

I giggled and hurled the one I’d been holding in my gloved hand at Ollie, Mick and Cam who were trying to hide behind a tree.

“We’re going to get you Riles!” They taunted before snowballs began flying again. James, Archer, Jay and Tommy appeared suddenly and soon I was coated in a thick layer of snow.

I fell to the ground laughing as I threw a snowball and it hit Tommy right in the forehead. The look of surprise in his hazel eyes and his ‘o’ shaped mouth made it that much better.

“Come on kids!” Mum yelled running outside with her camera. “Huddle!”

We all group together and I jumped on Matt’s back, laughing as James kissed Jessie on his cheek and the others all pulled faces.

“I still can’t get everyone in the frame!” Mum said laughing as we all squished together, tighter. The click of the camera made everyone groan in relief.

“Riley?” I looked up at Drew and sniffed, wiping away the tears that were falling down my cheeks.

“Yeah?” I tried to give him a smile as he sat on the bed next to me and wrapped an arm around me.

“Mum wants to take you shopping for me clothes; you can’t keep wearing mine no matter how good you look in them.”

I nodded and stared blankly at the photo. I missed them, I missed him already. I had missed his funeral too; I couldn’t be there when they lowered him into the ground, knowing that I put him there.

“Sure.” I said shrugging, glancing up at him and then down to the photo again. “When?”

“In an hour, mum told me to give you this to wear.” He handed me a pair of jeans and a huge overcoat. “So jump in the shower, I’ll get breakfast ready and then you can enjoy today.”