James' POV"Yes,Aunt Kathy it's fine." Calla spoke into her phone she held between her neck and shoulder as she tried to pull something from her bag. "NO,no..no need. I'm fine. I'm with James.""James?" I heard my name screeching through the phone as I tried to focus on the road. It was my first time driving back to my new apartment this late at night. Well,it was just 7pm but it was still hard to really navigate it compared to when it's daylight. "I'd be back before midnight." She said as she grabbed a lip gloss from her purse and began to apply it. The smell of strawberry scened flavor filled the car and lunched me back to the memories of my grandmother's house in Paris. "Okay,love you too." She ended the call and adjusted herself on the seat.We got to my apartment complex shortly and took the elevator up to mine. In that moment I took a quick glance at her lips covered in strawberry lipgloss and I wonder how she'd taste if I kiss her-- the perfect mixture of her soft lips,her es
Calla's POVMy foot sank into the soil as I approached my mother's tombstone. My body felt heavy with every step I took as I reluctantly got closer. The hair on my arms raised like I had been electrified as I stood there frozen letting the cold breeze brush my skin.'In loving memory of Hannah Rhode Grayson,September 7th 1969 - June 28th 2022' was craved on it. My thoughts could not fathom how gutwreacking I felt reading it. The cement of my mother's tombstone was still novel and on it were a bunch of fresh flowers piled on top of dried one. I thought of how many somber eyes had stood in this same spot as I did mourning the loss of my mother. I wanted her for just myself,but she was more than just my mum. She was so much more to so many people than I'd ever know and they were hurting just as badly as I am.I wiped the tears that escaped my eyes and I stood there staring at the concert and the titles the flowers,the grass, everything and anything because I still couldn't accept that
James' POV Two weeks had passed since the funeral of Mrs Grayson and by the middle of July, Calla had become a face I could only see in my dreams. Two weeks-- the longest two weeks of my life.I haven't heard for my family either since I got back to Boston. I packed up my stuff from my old apartment that was paid for in my family's name,sold some of my stuffs and rented a new apartment in town. I wanted to believe that dad must have gotten tried of tracking me down but that was something I knew would never happen and it felt like holding my breath before the next boom or ugly thing he does.I didn't want to care too much about my Father's wrath. I was already in enough pain.The brown boxes filled with my stuffs were scattered around the empty apartment,most untouched than the others. It felt like a relief from being in Gus's choked up apartment. I wish that was the reason though, everything had become unfamiliar,my motion was out of my bound.I stood in the kitchen as my thoughts sp
Calla's POVIt's been days since I watched my mother get put into the earth. I drowned in my grief, depriving myself any form of vitamin D from the sun, laying in my room merging into my furniture, especially my mattress. I took care of my mum,I held back her hair when she puked from her first chemo,I wrapped her in blankets when she was cold,I pretended not to hear her cry in the middle of the night because she was scared,so I'd act like I didn't see her. Instead, I brought her fruits and we'd talk before she falls asleep and when she does,I'd kiss her forehead and pray to God to keep her.The scene of her body in the coffin was stuck my mind, hunting me. It was a real life nightmare I had fallen into and couldn't wake from. When they put her into the ground,I broke in ways I've never been broken before. Parts of me intertwined with her was buried that day and I'd never recover. 'That's the thing about pain,it demands to be felt' it was a quote from John Green's The fault in our s
James' POV I knew she was going to die anytime soon. She told me,it was a secret she swore to me but I couldn't stand the thought of her gone.We're all gonna die one day,but we're never truly ready. Mrs Grayson had choose her fate to wait for death than to fight it. Both are very two hard decisions,and she chose to wait with our worrying eyes from her daughter.I had to be there for Calla. The suffocating thought of knowing that Mrs Grayson wasn't going to make it baffled my mind. Now,I had come true. I have to come clear to Calla but this--this was too much than I thought. It was a weight I'd have to carry with me forever. A one way ticket back to Boston isn't the smoothest way to hide from my father,but I didn't care about that anymore. If I suppressed one more voice in my head telling me to run to her I might just explode. I got to Boston and took an Uber ride straight to her house. I got to Calla's house at 8:05pm, my two headlights shun on pavement as the sun disappeared from
Calla's POVI hated the bright lights in the hospital more than I hated the smell of hospitals.I felt heavy weight in my head and my eyes hurt from the soar sight as I walked into the room. The beeping of the machines and the sterile smell of the hospital have become all too familiar in the past four months. This time was different, it felt like I was going to be here for the last time. We've been here since last night waiting, hoping, praying-- for a savior,to God to change the script.A quarter past 8am ,the doctor broke the news to us. I remember sitting on the bench outside the ward,and I thought about the first day mum was diagnosed. I tapped my feet on the floor waiting as the ICU door creeks whenever medical staffs walked in and out. I should have known when the third nurse looked at me with somber eyes and a face hidden under a nose mask,that something very bad had happened.Right after,the doctor came out with sorry eyes and I could feel my spirit pulling out of me. He didn'