Forever August ✔️

chapter twelve

"i'm a missile that's guided to you."
- fall out boy
____________________________

WHEN GUS ARRIVED home, a startling silence greeted him as he walked up the patchy driveway. The yells he usually heard that seemed to vibrate through the thin walls were missing. Instead, he listened to the distant hum of crickets and the faint sound of the ocean as he walked to the ratty door and pushed it open, breath in his throat.

His eyes quickly scanned his home before landing on the doorway to his kitchen, where his two parents sat on opposite sides of the table, both heads snapping in his direction at the sound of his entrance. Gus' mother was the first to stand up. It seemed to only take her a second to close the distance between them and pull her son against her chest.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Gus murmured into his mother's hair. He looked up at the feel of a hand resting on his shoulder to see his father standing beside them, hesitating for a moment before wrapping his arm around his family.

And as they stood there, arms bound together, Gus began to feel whole again. The grey cloud of his parent's separation that had hovered around him seemed to lighten a little, until the sun peaked through rugged cracks. He didn't feel as sad as he once did, but rather the distant fear of an inevitable change nestled into him and Gus welcomed it, anything but the sadness.

"Don't ever leave like that again, Gus," his father said as he held his son close, fear lining the edges of his stern voice.

"We love you so much," his mother chimed in. Gus simply nodded, resting his eyes for a moment as he held his parents that he didn't share blood with, but something much greater.

I love you, he thought, but the words seemed stuck in his throat.

___

When Gus laid on his bed that night, smile on his face and stomach full, he reached for his phone, wanting to share this fleeting moment of happiness with only one person.

He sat up and scrolled through his contact list until he found Rory's number. With a sudden feeling of courage, he sent her a text.

Guess what?

Gus stared at his phone intently before the screen flashed. She had texted back! His face split into a grin. "Who is this?" the message read. His smile instantly fell flat before he remembered one tiny detail.

Gus, the guy you can't
stop staring dreamily at.

A second later his phone rang, Aurora's name flashing across the screen like a blaring siren. He pressed Accept instantly and held the phone up to his ear, collapsing happily onto his bed.

"Maybe amnesia is a side effect of dying, but I don't recall giving you my number." Aurora's voice greeted him hostilely over the phone. Gus squirmed awkwardly, suddenly glad this conversation was taking place with her at a safe distance.

"So," he began, "I may have went through the home phone in your brother's room and found it." Gus bit his bottom lip sheepishly, Aurora going dead silent on the other line. "Rory?" he asked when she still hadn't spoken.

"Sorry," she chirped in a moment later. "I'm just googling how to file a restraining order." To Gus' horror, he could hear the sound of her fingers hitting a key board in the background.

"You invited me into your house," he reminded her. "Curiosity isn't a crime."

Aurora paused. "You know you could have just asked me for my number. Right?"