Grey 2 (PUBLISHED)

Chapter One

Song recommended for chapter: We All Want Love by Rihanna

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

SIX MONTHS LATER

The Miami sun beats down on me like a relentless tyrant. It soaks up my pores and causes a trail of sweat to travel down my temple and splash against the lounge chair beneath me. I shift in the chair and tip the white floppy hat I despise, but appreciate at the moment, down and pick up my ice-cold lemonade. In my head, I imagine I'm sitting on top of a submarine in the middle of Alaskan waters. But it does nothing to help the sun, that feels like it's cranking up in the heat department. Jesus, I think to myself, If I knew Miami would be so hot, I would have visited our cabin in Greenland. Or the North Pole. But no. My mother just had to have her beach house in the smack dab middle of Miami, Florida.

I let out a bored sigh and crane my neck up, damning the sun's rays that glare down at me. I deserve this wretched heat. And the sun burn that will be bestowed upon me. I should be as red as those tomatoes my mother ordered the staff to plant. How foolish of me. I thought if I could slip into a bikini and throw on a ridiculous floppy hat and sipped lemonade by the pool, I would be able to forget about... him. But it's harder than I thought it would be. Each second that passes feels like an eternity, without him. What I did was wrong and unforgivable on too many levels to count. I reach down and mindlessly scratch an itch on my wrist. I miss him, more than anything in the world.

The first few days without him was harder than the others. Despite what he demanded me of, I called and texted and lefts voicemails, to no avail. He never answered my calls or texted me back. Even after I promised I would burn the book and plead for him to give me another chance. It's funny how I was first worried he'd break my heart, only to find out it was me who did that, but to him and me. And I hate myself for it. I really thought he'd mean nothing to me. But he did. He became a part of me. So, when he left, a large sum of myself went with him, leaving me in this empty shell of a body, without a soul. Like a ghost without a body. A body without a pulse.

After the first month, it finally sunk in that I was never going to see him ever again. And it hit me like a freight train. Before then, I had the tiniest sliver of hope that he was going to look back on our good moments and our connection and call me back. But when he didn't and he never returned to the campus or class or any of the parties, I knew. Grey was gone. Never to return. Never to forgive me. Never to kiss me or make me angry. He left me, and he was justified in doing so. I broke the best thing that'd ever happen to me. And all for a fucking program.

"Child, didn't I tell you to put on your sun-screen before stepping out here?" Louise's voice chastises me. I listen to her flip flops slap against the tiles lining the rim of the pool in front of me, before they stop behind me. Her hands are on me, covering — no, lathering — me with a cream I instantly identify as sunscreen.

I roll my eyes as she rounds the chair and begins rubbing my chest.

"Louise, stop babying me," I whine like a child and she raises her eyebrows and smiles. I'm proving her point. "I'm fine," I snap and swat her hands away. I pick up the lemonade beside me and sip frantically before crossing my arms. Through these thick sunglasses, I can see her frowning at me. "Why are you staring at me?" why am I becoming so hostile?

"Thinking about him again?" she asks in a knowing tone. I hate when she uses that tone. It always makes me feel worse than I already feel. And I do not need anymore guilt placed on me. I'll be buried alive with it if she continues to pin me with that tone or the look she is giving me right now.