Page 13 of The Non-Hook Up

They were not perfect, but they were mine, and now they were no more.

It's all happening so fast that I don't realise my knees have given out on me, until the spots around my vision start to go black and all I see is the porch beneath me. All I hear are panicked screams of Hunter and Ava coming out the door. “Mia? Mia!”

CHAPTER 7

MIA

Days Later

Ithought I would have more time to grieve, but of course, why would that be the case? After Hunter told me the tragic news, my body must have gone into shut down mode because the next thing I remembered was waking up on Ava’s couch with four heads hovering above me like they do in movies.

Ava had watery eyes, signalling her tears. Pity looked down on me from Conner, which was a punch I wasn’t expecting. Hunter looked back at me with broken eyes, I’m sure resembled my own. Riley regarded me with a concerned and a thoughtful expression.

Strangely, I was grateful for it not to be pity or anything resembling my own. I found myself focusing on his dark eyes, diving into them to block out the voices of those around me and what my new reality is.

Eventually, I was pulled out of that world and pushed back into reality with questions of what would happen now and the events that led to our parents deaths, which only wrapped up with strong embraces and words of comfort and kindness.

I appreciated it, but it wasn’t what I needed. I needed space and room to breathe and think and process.

I retreated back to my apartment and laid around in a pair of stained sweats that Mom would disapprove of, drowning out my thoughts with loud music or distracting myself with a classic horror flick. I stayed like that, until a bang on the door pulled me out of my hovel and into a pair of clean clothes.

Hunter arrived at the apartment, talking about the will and a meeting with the lawyer that just opened up, but it all fell on deaf ears.

It felt like I was in limbo, living my life, but not really. I’ve spent years doing what my parents wanted and now that they are gone, does any of it really matter now?

“Mia?” I blink up from my place in the waiting area to see Hunter dressed in a nice button-down shirt, an older man with a thinning comb-over standing before him with his eyes on me expectantly.

I sit up a little straighter as Hunter asks, “You coming?”

Wordlessly, I rise from my chair and offer them a tight smile as I follow them into an office with glass walls that overlook the city. Awards line the walls and a desk sits in the middle of the room, covered with stacks of papers.

I follow Hunter's lead and sit, wishing I had a few more days to mourn and process everything. It still doesn’t feel real, and I’m still waiting for my parents to call and yell at me for believing this nonsense.

But that will never happen.

I take in a deep breath and school my features, crossing my legs as the lawyer who introduced himself as Walter Bates sits on the other side of the desk, leafing through some papers until his eyes light up when he finds what he is after.

“Hunter and Mia Belfort,” he says to himself as he peruses the documents in his hands before lifting his eyes up to regard us with a look of pity, a look that seems practiced and ingenuine, so it only irritates me, but I keep my face neutral as he says, “First off, I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Hunter nods with a tight smile of his own, clearly not wanting to talk too much about our parents. “Thank you, sir.”

With another smile, Walter chimes, “Well, let’s get to it, shall we?”

Walter gives the document one last look before clasping his hands in front of him in a business-like format, his eyes moving between us. “Your parents were very clear.” Walter Weston goes through our parents’ wishes and where everything will go, and I drift off, focusing so much on the one picture on the table behind him. It's a picture of Walter with his arm around a woman with greying hair, who I assume would be his wife, and his other arm around a young blonde with a cheerful smile, wearing graduation robes and holding a diploma in her hands. I cock my head at the look of happiness and pride on Walter's face, the way he held who I assume is his daughter.

I never had that. My dad couldn’t make my graduation due to animportantbusiness meeting. Ava’s mom wasn’t there to take photos and her dad didn’t turn up either. It was just my mom, and she took one photo of my friends and I before getting distracted by a phone call. From there, it was selfies and asking passers-by to take more photos. But Hunter and I never had that moment that's comparable to that one Walter's daughter had.

“What are you talking about, we have no money?” Hunter’s outburst pulls me out of my reveries, and I blink, looking between the two men, wondering what I've missed.

Hunter's shoulders tense and his face furrows in a mix of concern and disapproval as Walter looks back at him with an apologetic look tinged with regret before explaining, “They have no money to leave you. Over the years, your parents have been struggling to keep up appearances. They were even struggling to keep the house.”

Hunter shakes his head. “I can’t believe they didn’t say anything.”

I can, but I don’t say anything. Instead, I sit in silence as Hunter asks, “So what does this mean?”

Walter clears his throat. “It means that, unless you’re able to pay for the house yourself, the house will be put up for auction, and”—he turns his eyes to me—“I am aware your parents were paying rent for an apartment for you?”

I sit up a little straighter from being acknowledged, bracing myself for his next words because I know what's coming. I nod.

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