Brandon's POV
"Please, say something," I beg her.
But she doesn't. Echo stays rooted to the floor, her face more expressionless than I've ever seen before, but her eyes are her. Those sad eyes, it's like they're talking back to me. I know they are.
She doesn't speak, but I don't push her to. I needed to tell her how I felt. I needed to tell her that I love her because even with how she stormed off, not answering my calls and making me think the worst was happening to her, I still love her. I've never loved someone as powerful as I love Echo. And nothing is making that change, not even her. I'm convinced she would do be wrong a thousand times over and I'd still fall her feet if she needed me.
I kiss her knuckles softly and nod. "I understand. You can't talk right now," I conclude. "I'm right here. I'll always be here."
Her tears are at full, but she only blinks.
"My gorgeous girl," My voice cracks. "Don't leave me here alone. Come back to me, come home with me, please?"
Silence. I think it's killing me for than if she were to tell me no.
I get up and take her hand with me. She gets up and I hug her.
"Everything's gonna be okay, gorgeous. I'm sorry."
She cries silently in my chest and me in her hair for minutes until I get her house of the apartment and in my car.
She hasn't spoken a word to me. It worries me. Her eyes are bloodshot red, and she looks like she hasn't slept in days.
Who am I to talk though, neither have I. I couldn't sleep, not when I didn't know where my girl was.
Not when I didn't know if she was okay.
I don't care if she broke up with me, ran off, and ignored my call. She'll always have my heart and I was worried as fuck with the entire and when Raven called me and told me to come over the biggest sigh of relief has escaped me. I drove here twenty over the speed limit in a hurry to get to her.
As I drive I give her quick glances. She sits with my jacket around her shoulders, her eyes staring blankly at the dark and empty streets of New York flying by.
"I bought more books," my voice raspy and shot. "I know you like to read my old ones sometimes." Silence. "God, Echo, please talk to me."
Silence.
I inhale, swallowing the pain of her silence. I'll wait for her to talk when she wants to. She'll come around. I know it.
***
I knew it would take her some time to get back to talking with me. But it's been a week since she's said a word to me.
She hasn't showered, left the greenhouse, or spoken.
I've gotten rid of anything she may need to harm herself in my house, but I presume if she really wanted to I couldn't stop her. And the fact that she's still here shows me she does want to stay. She wants reasons to stay. And I'll continue to be her reason. Hopefully not her only one soon.
She loves this greenhouse. The place where her dandelions grow. I knew she'd love having those flowers in here. It's like they're one with her now, she never leaves them.
She sits in the corner of the greenhouse on the dirt and I walk over to sit beside her, resting my arms on my knees.
"Today at work," I start. "I spoke to a caller. She was a girl, young, twenty-one to be exact. She had the most beautiful voice to me—" Echos head turns to look at me with the saddest eyes.
I continue. "She started telling me about what she was planning to do how she was laying in a tub, pills around her. And I felt relief seconds in the call because I knew this girl didn't want to actually go."
"How?" Echos voice comes out scratchy, but makes my breath catch. I don't make a big deal out of it, fearing she'll stop being comfortable to talk again.
"Because," I start again. "She was already done with the hard part. She didn't go through with it, she was only looking for a way away from the moment. And I was so proud of her. I always worry after my calls with people, but I didn't worry much about you. I only wished I could meet you. And then I did."
"You don't regret it?"
"Meeting you?"
She nods.
"Of course not, Ech. Having you in my life is my greatest achievement. You're there for me when I need you to be, and I'm sorry I tried to be there for you in all the wrong ways."
She wipes her eyes and I feel like crying seeing her talk to me. My gorgeous baby.
I want to scream at the top of my lungs all the ways to declare your love to someone, but I don't. I can't overwhelm her, just act cool, Brandon. Act chill. She hasn't even said she loves me back, I can't keep telling her I love her.
"I, uh, enjoy your company," I scratch my head. "At lot. I want it forever. Whether you like it or not— not that you can't leave when you want to, because you can, but, I really... um," I sigh. " You're gorgeous."
She giggles at my attempt to not say how much I love her. And the sound is like music to my ears. She laughed. God, she laughed.
I smile too, grinning. She thinks I'm funny.
"I love you, too, Brandon."
But that? That's enough to get me tremendously high. I turn to her, disbelieving the words coming out of her mouth. She must be fucking with me. She doesn't love me, right? I look at her like I know she's gonna say she's joking.
"Say it again. Please?"
She gives me the tiniest smile. "I love you."
Awe, fuck me.
I laugh in relief and sigh, practically yanking her in my arms and into a hug. "You have no idea what it feels like hearing that from you," I force myself not to tear. "I'm never letting you out if my sight again."
She pulls back just enough so that we're facing each other and I kiss her desperately. Just a peck, a long, long peck. It reminds me of our ten second rule we came up with months ago. How I really thought I could get ten seconds of her lips and be okay with just that. It was depriving me, having to let go of her when I knew we both wanted much, much, more.
She rips from my aching lips and I go to kiss her some more when I realize she's crying.
"What's wrong?"
She's full on sobbing. "I'm sorry."
"For what? You did nothing wrong, gorgeous. It was me, I'm sorry."
She shakes her head. "No I'm sorry that I can't give you what you want."
My brows furrow. "I don't understand. What do you mean? I don't want anything from you, but for you to be with me. We can work everything else out—"
"I can't be with you," she whispers.
My heart, that's as full and swollen seconds ago, becomes miniature. "W-why? Echo talk to me." I stole her jawline with the flat of my thumb.
"I want to get help, like you said I should. I can't keep dragging you through my cycle of life. It's draining you, I see it. I can't keep doing this to you. It surrounds your life entirely when I'm in it. You go to work, only to come home to someone just like the people you talk to at work. I can't do that to you anymore." I've tried to speak numerous times, but she's talked over me. So I let her finish. "I love you, and it's why I want to get better for us. But I know it's going to take a years."
The realization hits me. "Years." It's not some therapy session she's talking about. She wants a full treatment. She wants to be in a hospital.
She nods, a tear forms at the corner of her eye and I wipe it away with my thumb before it can join the other paths from tears that can before it.
I can be missing my gorgeous girl for years.
"That's okay," I whisper, tasting the salty tears that have fallen from my eyes. "I'm so happy to hear that."
I sniffle and she cries. "I'll get better, I promise."
I nod. "I know. And I'll be here for however long it takes. I'm not going anywhere. I belong to you."
She raises her eyebrows in the most adorable way. "You swear?"
I can't help but smile. "I swear it."