Echoing Breaths |✔️ (Unspoken words book 2)

45. Moving On

I shook my head. "No."

"Me neither."

I grabbed her hand and we anxiously walked towards Heaven who was still seated on the porch steps. When her gaze landed on us, all three of us froze. Heaven looked like she wanted to run back inside her house.

As we approached her, she carefully got up on her feet and met us halfway with a small greeting, "Hi."

"Hi," Bree and I squeaked out at the same time.

When Heaven's eyes studied the faint scratches on my face, guilt creased her face and she frowned.

"Maya, I wanted to apologize," she paused and my stomach twisted. "For what I did abs said during the group session. It was not fair of me to tell you that you don't deserve what you have now. It was definitely not fair of me to hit you like that. I'm so sorry."

My blood and my heart was pounding its way up to my throat.

"Yes, bullying is a choice and you made that choice when you were the old Maya Greene. But now, as the new Maya Greene, you made a choice too. A choice to apologize, seek forgiveness and redemption. You are a new Maya Greene. That's what matters now."

I almost gasped when she put her hands delicately on my shoulders. I immediately knew I didn't like that because I could see closely how broken she was on the inside. So pained and so exhausted.

"I am happy for you. I really am. You deserve everything you have right now. You definitely deserve Cayden. He definitely deserves you," she added, smiling.

"Thank you and I'm so sorry for everything. I'll regret what I did to you for the rest of my life," I confessed, wholeheartedly.

Heaven nodded. "Apology accepted. I think we should put the past behind us and focus on the present and the future now, don't you think?"

I smiled. "Yeah."

Heaven transferred her attention to Bree. "I'm so sorry I didn't join in on standing up for you when Connor was being a jerk. Creating that stupid chat was so wrong. He's so pathetic."

Bree shook her head, meekly. "It's okay. And anyway, I'm not any worst. What I did was pathetic too. I said and did some pretty shitty things to you. Cutting your sweater and telling you to kill yourself, and calling you names. After Maya committed suicide and after Connor made that group chat about me, I realized how much power words have. Words hurt. They hurt a lot. I'll
always feel guilty for all the terrible words I said to you. I'm so sorry."

Eyes turning glassy, Heaven nodded and the corner of her lips curled up to an easy smile when she said, "Apology accepted."

She shifted her eyes to me and then back to Bree. "Are we all good now?"

Satisfied with how our last meeting turned out, Bree and I nodded.

"Then I guess this is goodbye. I hope you two have a great summer."

Bree and I smiled before we waved goodbye and walked across her lawn and down the street, leaving her standing by herself with a sunny warm smile on her face. While Bree and I headed down the street, I glanced behind my shoulder one last time. I caught Owen approaching her with an adoring smile on his face. Heaven's face brightened when their eyes met. He met her with a kiss on the lips before he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.