Page 75 of Aftersome
“On this day, I no longer mourn the death of my son, Wren. I celebrate the wonderful life I had with him and how lucky I was to have had him as my son.”
Another choked-up cry escaped from my mouth.
“I know it's hard to look at this day in that way, but it’s the only way I can make it through it without falling apart.”
My heart shattered for her and I knew Greg had to have felt the same.
“I know, and I’m trying my best to have that mindset. It’s just…”
“Hard, I know.”
For a moment, there was silence, other than the occasional sniffle and wipe of our faces.
“If things get too hard for you today, don’t hesitate to call me. If you need us to come to you, we will,” Shelia offered, causing me to smile.
“I’ll be okay, I promise. I wouldn’t make you guys drive all the way here.”
She scoffed.
“We’d drive anywhere for you, Wren.”
And a part of me already knew that.
They’d do anything for me, and after saying our goodbyes, I did my best to hold it together. For as long as I could anyway, and then I knew it was inevitable that I was going to break.
So on a broken sob, I did.
27
MAL
If there was one thing I could remember that was bullshit about going to therapy was when they told me to embrace Hayes’s death. That by embracing it could help me heal and grow.
The last thing I wanted to do was to fucking embrace the death of my best friend. During that time, I could barely accept the fact he was gone, let alone try to find peace with it. Even now I still struggle with it, but I’ve learned that overtime I could no longer pretend like this day never existed.
That the life he lived was no longer important.
Because it was. And every year, everyone should be reminded of it.
Reminded of him, because Hayes Decker was here.
Eleven years ago today, my best friend died and not a single day passed where I wasn’t thinking about him.
Practice had ended a little early today, and as I walked around in search of Doe, I couldn’t find her. She wasn’t in the cafeteria, locker room, stadium, she was nowhere to be found and immediately a sense of worry struck me to my core.
Where the hell was she?
A foreign feeling of panic swept through me and within seconds, I was charging back toward the locker room where I found James.
“Where’s Wren?” I asked as he put his arms through the holes of his shirt and glanced at me.
“Why do you want to know?” His smug brow lifted and on a silent growl, I glared.
“She’s not here and I’d really like to fucking know where she’s at.”
His eyes never wavered from mine and then on the drop of his shoulders, he answered.
“She’s at our house. She took the day off.” His expression went from amused to serious. “I think you know why.”
