Page 109 of Exactly What I Needed
All those years meant shit to those two girls. But jealousy had done crazy things to them, and my therapist helped me find closure and peace despite never really getting answers.
However, the emptiness, although a different kind than before I left, still remained. And the silence in my head was deafening.
But Asher… None of what happened was his fault, yet I hadn’t been able to stay even though it wasn’t.
“Miss Cosi?” Luna said, again, and I blinked. Snapping out of my thoughts, I gave her a forced smile.
“I didn’t know you girls were into that stuff.” I pretended to have heard what they were saying.
“We’re into them, if that makes any difference.” Aurora giggled and leaned back in her chair, plopping her backpack down beside her.
“They’re like almost thirty.” I chuckled.
“They can be my daddies,” Luna stated, and my eyes popped wide.
“I’m sorry, what?” I gasped, and Luna grimaced.
“Right, I forget you’re kind of old and it’s inappropriate to say something like that around a teacher,” she mumbled, pulling her lips betweenher teeth. That wasn’t why I’d reacted that way. Something stirred in me that I hadn’t felt in years.
Since Asher.
“Anyway, even though that music genre isn’t really our thing, or your thing, it’s really incredible music lyrically, and the talent of all of them,” Aurora gushed as Luna sat down beside her, and I spun in my chair to face the two girls.
“Right? And the lyrics that the Dark Banshee comes up with…” Luna added with a dreamy look in her eyes as she flopped back against her chair.
“They’ve been kind of hauntingly painful the past couple years, though,” Aurora said, and Luna nodded.
“Yeah, like he’s desperately yearning for something just out of his reach.” She sighed. “It’s beautiful.”
I furrowed my brows, actually tuning into what they were saying. “What do you mean?” I asked, and the bell rang, indicating that lunch was done.
Groaning, the two girls sat up. “Can we please have a lesson about how you do the screaming and vocal fraying stuff that Asher Stone does?” Luna begged, snatching her book bag from the ground.
My heart leapt to my throat. I hadn’t heard his name spoken out loud to me since I’d left.
“I don’t know, girls. I’m not really—”
“Yeah, yeah. I know screaming and metal and that stuff isn’t really close to classical music, but come on. They’re coming in concert on Saturday. It’s Thursday, is this not the perfect timing?” Aurora added, whining.
“Get to class, you two,” I stated and swung away from the chairs. They both groaned and stomped out, leaving me once more in silence. It was my prep hour. I was one of the lucky ones who ended up with good timing for it.
But I couldn’t seem to focus. Not today. I had things I needed to print off, grades to put in and assignments to work on, but my hand slid to the chain dangling around my neck. Tugging it up out of the neckline of my dress, my fingers brushed across warm metal.
I glanced down at the familiar necklace. The charm he’d given me. But mostly, I studied his ring.
The one thing that I hadn’t managed to let go of and get rid of when I’d escaped to a new life. A life that was good in general. Or it should be. I wasn’t hurting for money or a place to live. I wasn’t in danger.
I spun the ring between my fingers, my eyes staring at the nothingness around me. Why couldn’t I hear it? I was fixed. I’d worked hard to heal from everything, but I still couldn’t hear it. I hadn’t been able to hear the music in three years, and I was beginning to hate the silence in my head.
Taking a deep breath, I plunked the ring back down into my dress, hiding away the singular evidence that kept Asher and me tied together. Dwelling on things wouldn’t change that. I snatched a couple papers from my desk that I needed to copy and stood up.
Walking around my desk, I exited the classroom and mindlessly wandered the empty hall. A few straggling students sprinted toward whatever period they were late for while I made my way around a corner and then headed to the main office.
A couple muffled voices bounced off the walls as I approached, rounding another corner, and then I froze.
“A Miss Duval. Miss Cosette Duval. I’m looking for her,” a voice I recognized asked again. My body remained cemented in place.
A voice so deep and eerie, one that had stolen my heart once before.
