Another Wave of You ✓

07 • Where I Was

     But things changed.

     And when they did, Zach was pulled in the fray. Suddenly he was everywhere with them, experiencing the same pain that went through the brothers. But he wouldn't have changed it any other way. They were family.

     His family.

    "I need you to go after him."

     Lenny frowned. "What?"

    "Theo," Zach repeated, swallowing heavily to restrain his emotions that were about to explode. "I need to take Chase back to the apartment, but I can't leave my best friend alone. He needs someone. You have to go after him."

     She looked even more baffled, but it wasn't the offensive kind — she was just genuinely confused. "He hates me."

     He looked at her for a while. "He told me you were the one who found his sketchbook," he said quietly. "Through an awful lot of cursing, of course, but he managed a few words." He paused. "You opened it, didn't you?"

     She stiffened. "It was a mistake," she began softly. "I shouldn't have done that without his permission — "

    "Maybe you should've." Her eyebrows furrowed. "Lenny, no one has ever came close to opening it. Hell, I've known him longer than you, and I've never seen a single page of it."

     Lenny blinked slowly. "So what does that mean?"

    "It means," he drawled, looking at her with enough resolution that it took her aback, "that as much as you think he hates you, and as much as he thinks so himself, he actually doesn't. If he was that bothered by it, he wouldn't even come near you. Trust me, I've seen him hate, and it isn't like that with you." He wiped away one of Chase's tears. "You were the one who helped him that night. I wasn't there for him, but you were. You were there for him."

     Zach and Lenny looked at each other in silence. And in that shared moment, a bond formed between them. They both wanted to help. They both cared so much.

     But what Zach found astounding was that this girl cared about people she didn't even know.

     And that was more reason why he trusted her with his best friend.

    "Go."

***

     It wasn't hard to find him.

     Eleanor knew every inch of the beach, which meant she knew the quietest corners and spots that would render one almost invisible. She knew, because she had spent one or a few times there herself.

     One of them being somewhere a little close to a cave.

     She wasn't sure if he sensed she was coming. He was sitting alone in the sand, transfixed by the view in front of him. When he still hadn't said anything, she took it as an okay for her to sit next to him, albeit keeping a safe distance.

     Sunset had started to colour the skies — fiery oranges and burning yellows, giving the impression that the clouds were blushing. The ocean crashed softly against the shore, and echoes of seagulls sang above them, seemingly close but so far away.