Page 118 of The Space Between
He’s not inviting me to cool off. He’s inviting me back to his place.
The place he goes to when the weight of the world is too heavy to carry on flat land.
“I’d like that,” I say softly, understanding what he’s offering.
It’sthe second time he’s brought me here.
The air is cooler, but it’s more open. The wind whispers through the mesquites. The river shimmers below the hill, winding lazy and strong around the bend.
He doesn’t say much as he sets down the cooler. He just pulls two beers from inside, pops the tops on both, and hands me one.
We sit side by side on the old log that overlooks the drop with his shoulder brushing mine.
“Aubree loved it here. She said it was her ‘magic place,’” he whispers and my breath catches. “She liked to yell down at the river. She said the rocks echoed back like the trees were talking to her.” I swallow hard but I don’t interrupt him. “I hear her sometimes. Even now. Especially up here. Her voice will just echo on the wind. It’s like she never left. I reach for his hand and he lets me take it. “I’m scared,” he admits.
“Of what?” I ask quietly, my thumb rubbing over the top of the jagged scar along his thumb.
He sighs as he stares down at the moving water. “Of forgetting. Of moving on. Of what it means if I stop hurting.”
My heart cracks but I exhale. “You won’t forget them, Gruene,” I whisper. “Living your life is what they wouldwantyou to do. If it had happened opposite… if you’d died while they lived, would you want their lives to just stall?”
He looks at me then, and something inside his eyes shifts.Maybe he actually hears me.He shakes his head. “No. I would hate if they stopped living because I died.”
I smile sadly and sigh. “So, why do you think they’d want the opposite for you?”
He stares at me for a long time, and then, he whispers, “They wouldn’t…”
He doesn’t kiss me.I don’t kiss him. We justsit. Together.
The weight of the realization he just made is heavy… but it’s also light.
So, we sit, and somehow, it’s more intimate than anything we’ve done.
After we head backto the cabins, he walks me to my door. He doesn’t come in. He doesn’t stay but he doesn’t leave like he used to, either.
He holds my face in his hands, cupping my cheeks as his thumbs move along my jaw. Looking down at me, he leans in and kisses my forehead. As his lips leave my skin, he pulls back and looks at me like he’s memorizing my face. “Goodnight, Blakelyn,” he murmurs before walking across the gravel back to his place.
I stand there in the dark long after he’s gone, holding the ghost of his touch in my palms.
My heart is lighter than it has been.
Today meant something and I think Gruene might finally be ready to let go of some of his guilt over the accident.
I’m standingin the hallway at school, checking my inbox between classes, when my phone buzzes. I look down, expecting Gruene. But it’s an unknown number.
Maybe it’s just a wrong number. Calm down.
I stare at the screen, my heart immediately thudding in my chest.
Blocked number. No message preview.
It’s not an accident.
I know it.
I fucking know.
My fingers shake as I unlock it and open the text.
