Don't give up on me ✓

[64] One Night Left

'We're running out of time' - James Hansen

Chapter 64: One Night Left

What if you're too afraid of letting your best friend go?  

It was just a thought.

I tried to look for Nate the next day. I needed to make him understand that I cared for him and to make sure he was comfortable with my relationship with Jesper. 

Even though he'd kind of given me his blessing at the winter party and told me he was focusing on the Visit anyway...

"Do you know where Nate is?" I asked Emily.

He wasn't practicing combat in the forest or lifting weights in the gym. 

I think she knew.

"I'm sure he'll come when he's ready to," she told me.

Yeah, she knew. I leant against the counter and rested my head against the cold marble. I wanted the floor to swallow me up.

"He was a block of ice until you came," Emily said, "And his heart started to beat again."

"Emily, why are you making me feel any worse than I already do?" I asked. 

My face looked more tortured.

She came over to me and patted my back, "Life is not worth living if you don't feel. That's the risk we all take when we lend our hearts to someone. You brought him back. Don't punish yourself for that."

I shook my head and left the kitchen. I didn't want her to see my cry. I didn't want to cry. I felt helpless when I cried. 

I walked to the stable to see Nate, but he wasn't there. I was about to leave, when I saw the beautiful horse eating grass outside.

"Kirby," I said, a faint smile appearing on my face for the first time.

His ears flicked back and he looked at me. As I stepped closer, he stepped back.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He suddenly charged towards me. I ran backwards until my heel bumped into a small boulder. Kirby stopped running but nudged me. Confused, I took another step back and my back pressed up against someone else's. 

He and I turned around at the same time and came face to face with each other. It was Nathaniel. He lowered his headphones.

"What's wrong?" he asked me, not realizing I had asked his horse the same question 10 seconds ago.

Now that I stared into Nathaniel's deep brown eyes, absorbing the flecks of gold inside of them, I realized I wasn't ready for this. I stepped back only to feel a horse's nose against my back. Kirby nudged me forwards, making me bump into Nathaniel again.

"Kirby," Nate said, reaching past me to shove his horse's nose, "Stay out of my business."

I looked from the horse to Nathaniel. This was not normal behavior.

Kirby took 'horsing around' to a whole new level.

Please forgive me, Nate. That's all I wanted to ask him. But those were the words I never said.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Mohan was the wise one amongst us. The 'academic' as Mrs Maythorne said. He had secured himself a private study overlooking the stables. As I walked into it, I admired all the maps on the wall and the encyclopedias on his shelves.

Mohan was reading something now.

"Georgia, you have some questions about your training?" he asked me, "Or similar ones to what you asked me this morning?"