Misfits (#2)

27.

I do my best, every day, to try and protect the warmth I know he has in his heart. So I take his hand, uncaring of whatever look he sends me because he keeps it in mine.

We reach Auburn's grave, near the back of the cemetery, where the private graves lie. The more lavish ones, basically.

Hers is beautiful. A gravestone gilded with gold. A border around it. I look down to it, feeling my stomach sink into that nauseous pit whilst Mom sets down a bouquet of flowers.

How could she have been so full of life? How can one girl, stand in the centre of everyone's life? In the end, how can we all so easily be reduced to a plot of land?

She doesn't deserve to be under there, with no life to live and no future to hold. I'll always believe that it should've been me, though it's a fruitless thought. It can't be me because it was Auburn and we'll never have her again.

I feel Azure squeezing my hand, a show of his comfort. I know he feels the grief, just not in the same way we do. I look down to him and he reaches up, wiping away a tear that slides down my cheek.

He meets my eyes and he whispers, with sincerity, "Ad astra per aspera."

I don't know Latin, like he does. But I know that one because Azure believes in it so strongly. Through adversity to the stars. A better outcome awaits us than this one. He tells me it so we believe it, so someday, we can make it to the stars.

Sage and Grayson never usually linger so after a while, they tell us they'll be waiting in the Bentley and walk down the gravel path.

Mom stands besides us and stares down at the grave. I swallow when she turns to look at me. I'm quick to look away, not wanting to rile her in any way.

The silence around us is heavy for a moment, the distant sound of wind gliding against leaves. Until mom's sad voice breaks the quiet, "She did love those earmuffs you made her, didn't she?"

I tense up. It was still said with her usual coldness but just a hint of warmth. Enough to make every bit of my body lock up because of how unfamiliar it is to me. I don't know how to respond, or whether to look at her. She's never acknowledged Auby to me in this way. Always with spite and blame.

I try to open my mouth but nothing comes out-

Something bumps into the back of my legs and I hear a thud, as if it's fallen onto the floor. I turn around.

A little boy scrunches his nose up, pushing up his glasses that are a little too big for his face. A wide smile splits his lips from where he's fallen into a sitting position, legs spread in front of him.

And then he swings his head up to look at us, brown eyes big and full of life when his cheeks flush red, "Hi."

I think my heart almost bursts from my chest.

"I'm sorry for bumping into your legs. They're pretty long. Well- I mean, I didn't mean that in a bad way. Giraffes are cool." He sniffles again like he's got a cold, pushing up his glasses, "I think I broke my butt."

I'm about to say something along the lines of you're so adorable, I don't know who you are but I think I love you, but he shifts his gaze from mine.

His big brown eyes find Azure's. They stare at each other for just a moment, Az looking down with this cold indifference he uses on everybody. Until the little boy smiles up at him like he couldn't care less.

I swear I see Azure's eyebrow twitch in confusion. I think I almost flinch too. I think even mom tenses up in surprise. That never happens.

Kids hate Azure. He looks like a menacing hawk or something. Usually, they scuttle away as soon as they spot his signature glare or his sharp face. The boy with brown eyes and big glasses looks at him like he can see right through it.