Asterism

29. the llamas

🎵: Make You Feel My Love - Adele

Guys...the title reference gives me LIFE and if it doesn't make you smile when you figure it out you're an alien 👽😂😂

I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter 😋. It's just-okay...I'm waiting until the end to say anything so just keep scrolling, just keep scrolling...

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MARLEY studied the way his varsity jacket sat. She frowned at how baggy it was on her, wondering if she should wear her own so she doesn't look like she gained fifty pounds since he left.

"You haven't even left the apartment yet, have you."

Marley tapped her fingers against the back of her cellphone pressed to her ear, sighing. "I just...I want to...I'm trying to look a little more presentable before I'm in public, Max. Sue me."

Or, she wants to look more presentable before she's grovelling for forgiveness from a man who is totally out of her league regardless of what jacket she wears.

Max chuckled. "You and Jacob drive me crazy with that exact same tendency you've always had to obsess over every little thing."

Marley smiled down at her shoes, basking in that moment. "It's nice," she admitted quietly, "Hearing you talk about him in a happy way."

"I wish I could think about him like that, like he was," Max's voice broke. "But all I see now is what happened to him, what they turned him into, and seven long years those fuckers took away from him. Years I can't give back to him if I tried."

"I would give Jacobi the rest of my life if I could," Marley said shakily. "Enough years that he could long have moved on. Long let it go. Enough years that he has a whole other lifetime to live without hurting. He could teach Spanish, like he's always wanted. Travel the world a thousand times over."

"Learn how to play the piano."

"Skydive."

"Read one thousand books cover to cover."

"Swim in every ocean."

"And touch the sunset." Max's voice wavered so badly he could barely speak the words.

Marley pressed her shaking lips together. "How has the group therapy been?"

"He hated it at first," Max exhaled a shaky breath into the line. "all the other people. He's had two attacks, but always insists on showing up. The lead of the support group said he sits in the circle, next to people even if it's clear that it frightens him. He told me...he told me Jacob doesn't participate, but it appears he's concentrating and determined. What about, I don't know but it's clear he's taking initiative and that's all that matters."

"Thank gods for that," Marley whispered. "I was afraid for a while that he'd never leave his room again."

"Me, too. He does crafts, now. The doctor gave them to me after Jacob kept leaving them by the front desk. The pictures...I don't know what they mean but they're beautiful. They're in the mail so you can see them for yourself."