The Abandoned Lovers

-24-

"I begged her one day to go to Grey's with me, the cashier would give out ice cream for free and a bunch of kids would get it. I knew nobody would be there because the weather was cloudy and it was cold in downstate.

"Up here in the hills of upstate it was cloudy too, there was bound to be a thunderstorm but I didn't care. She finally agreed and we went and got our ice cream, the store was mostly empty and nobody was outside on the benches.

"We went over to the benches and started playing truth or dare, stupid questions about who I liked and stuff that mattered in eighth grade.

"She dared me to dance on one of the benches, when I did a car pulled in the parking lot. I started dancing while she was laughing, but before I could tell her I saw a gun pointing out of the window. It started shooting.

"I should've known, downstate is shady and full of criminals but I didn't. They shot her in the chest, fatally hurting her as she fell to the ground. I got shot in the stomach but I didn't care, I was crawling onto ground to get to my sister but I didn't get there in time.

"People came running out of the store as rain started to wash the blood on the ground away. But I could've saved her if I just went faster. I shouldn't have cared about how much pain I was in I should've helped her.

"All I could think about while the thunder banged was the gunshots that killed my sister and nearly me, I was so out of it the gun shots and thunder blended together." I finish and he stares at me blankly before he shakes his head and pulls me in.

Tears line my eyes, stinging and threatening to fall, but I don't want him to fall because I'm done crying over this.

"Apparently She was in some bad stuff with her boyfriend Kolby, it.... it turned bad and some people were out for her. She didn't want to go out because she knew they would kill her, but I begged and begged and she wanted to make me happy and figured they wouldn't be out for her on this type of day when nobody was out."

He plants a bunch of gentle kisses on my forehead. He pushes me closer to him as my head rest in his chest, his chin on top of my head as he breathes in.

"I'm not going to say sorry, because you don't need a stupid sorry. I'm just gonna hold you, and do everything I can to make you happy. I promise." He says, and I slowly drift off.

———

River looks directly in my eyes as he speaks, sitting on the couch with me, Kingston, and Reid.

He said he wanted to tell me something, and I listen. I try at least.

"Nobody except my friends know where I was before I moved to Denmore. I was in Boston, where my family lived, my mom went on a business trip with Pho and I found out my dad cheated on my mom.

He stops before looking down at me with a sad smile, "My dad has cheated on my mom with his assistant, he never was a good dad. He made me learn to speak properly with no abbreviations or apostrophes. It was stupid, he knew that but he would not admit it. He hit her, more than once so we moved here. He's not right in the head.

"My mom supports our family now, so she is gone on business trips all the time. She is a good mom, deserves everything, but I wish I had her here. I do not like how El has to raise Pho, I feel useless." River stops talking and I swallow, he said he wanted to tell em something.

He wanted to let me in.

So slowly I give him a sad smile. "I won't say sorry, because you don't need that. So I'll just tell you I'll be there and try to make you happy when you need it, or your mom." I say, remembering what Kingston said to me last night.