Stay A While | DR3 | BOOK 2

Prologue

With a quiet understanding, we all let the words suspend in thin air for a moment. The ambulance filled the air as it whooped once, then twice, before its lights rotated their warning throughout the tree-lined surroundings. The tires crunched the gravel beneath them whilst hesitantly pushing forward, and we watched in still silence until it was nearly out of sight.

I had never heard a more loaded question.

As if there was only one right answer. Like a game show. If I could come up with that one right answer, I'd win the jackpot prize. A brand new car, a dream vacation for two to a romantic island in the middle of nowhere, a thousand dollars a day for the rest of my life. Double jeopardy.

I smirked to myself, turning my head so that no one could see, afraid my cynicism may be taken the wrong way. In any other case, I know I'd do all I could to lighten the mood. To bear the burden internally. I'd get off on hoping that if I just laughed about it all first, that eventually I would come to the surface and realize I hadn't actually swallowed a mouthful of salt water laced with formaldehyde. That the burn in my throat, the fuzz blocking my brain from thinking, the hollowed feeling deep in my torso- it was because I needed air. A gasp of something chilled and shocking.

As I turned back around, I drew in a deep breath. I filled my chest with as much air as it could take, breathing in deep from the lowest part of my back. It still wasn't what I wanted, what my body needed to really balance itself out. It was warm and recycled. Like I had just absorbed more of the same thing that I was trying to rid my lungs of. I hid the panic that began trembling down my arms, threatening to expose me.

What I wanted to do was to go home. My safe space. To haphazardly park my car in my garage, trod up the stairs, and do absolutely nothing to stop the door from slamming behind me. No remorse. Like some disgruntled teen, who thought the best way to deal with whatever this meant was to just pretend it wasn't happening. To take light in the situation. Pretend that as the sun rose the following morning, it would lift this over the horizon with it. Far away, hidden in turn beneath the shroud of night.

But I couldn't do that. It would be horribly selfish, and would surely cause more issues than necessary. Especially right now. Right now was not the time to just do something for me. This was going to be a group effort. We needed each other, more than ever.

I didn't have the answer to the question. I had no clue why everyone was looking at me as if I did, I was just as clueless as they were. Couldn't someone else deal with this? Take head of this situation?

"Well, we..." I rubbed my lips together, comfortably slick from the layer of tinted gloss. I breathed steadily out of my nose as I realized I couldn't continue. I didn't have the words to continue. My hand rose in the air, falling in frustration as it smacked against the side of my thigh.

Nothing could ever stay the same forever. Especially something good. Just for a while. I knew this. I only feared that this wasn't the first time we'd all be left thinking-

"Now what?"