All Chapters of Than There Was Us: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

"Grandma", Cole's voice barks from beside me jostling me into action."Oh my God", a faint plea from Justine is like a noise in the background as I reach mom in time.The moment I reach her, I'm shouting again."What the fuck happened?", I exclaim, despite the presence of a child in the room. I look at the blood mixing with the pool of water along with the shards of glass from probably a broken glass bottle around mom and dread fills my lungs. My eyes take in the edge of the counter that's covered in mom's blood and my own blood runs cold.Shit."We don't know. She came in to get water and we were all in the living room when we heard the crash", replies Liza, frantically. Her hands are shaking as she looks at mom."Jason, we need to take her to the hospital right away", Ben's voice breaks through my head's frantic

Silence and then there's noise, deafening noise. Ringing in my ears as I trip back on my seat in disbelief.This can't be.He's clearly kidding me.But... he doesn't seem like it.Somehow, the words seem unreal and yet so much real than anything I've ever heard before.Something inside me wants to believe it to be true, just so there is nothing in between us. Just me and Justine. But somehow that part of me that says it's not true seems almost delusional."What?", I whisper, swallowing hard.Ben looks anguished, like he wants to be anywhere but here at the moment."He's been dead for two years, Jason", he looks away at last.That's when it comes out of me. This uncontrollable laughter I can't seem to get a hold off."Clinton's dead", I laugh out again even more louder than the words I just spoke."T

To say, I was in a phase for a while would be an understatement. I blinked at the cameras, the flashing lights, blinding smiles send my way and the people I didn't remember much, now seemed blurry to my memory.But I nodded their way, smiled at their mentions, answered what I thought was polite enough for them and the only one holding me throughout it was Olivia.Bless her soul, she was really into this.When I asked her about it, she only said, 'I always give everything my best'. And that was it. She matched my vibe, complimented me the way she should've as my date. Light hearted jokes and all smiles despite her playfulness.An aristocrat American indeed. But she wasn't Justine. Who I still hadn't spotted in the party. Nor Ben. Liza and Camilla by the bar, donned in beautiful gowns. 

And so forth, for another week I was MIA. To be honest, nobody even bothered to contact me this time.I would sniff, smoke, inhale the hell out of my stash of pills and weed. The high of the drug would make me feel better for a while like it always does in the beginning. But sooner it's effect deflates, coming back with twice the pain and the hunger for more. You can't help but keep consuming it until it consumes you.Luckily for me, I had been through a dozen of these phases and came out of them, not stable but stable enough to know when I need to stop.To say, it's not easy would be an understatement. Every time it's twice harder than the last time and had I been my younger self, I wouldn't have been able to get out of it without someone's help.Thankfully, I'm not that person anymore. I'm a changed man. My self control has exceeded in the past few years and to say I'm proud would not do me

Inhaling it in, I let it wander down and about before blowing it out.The wind whips past me as I stand alone in the empty graveyard with just a cigarette in hand.I smoke occasionally but today I needed it. Hopefully, I don't make a habit of it.I look down at the headstone I'm standing next to and the flowers in front of it. I had read somewhere once that poppies were a sign of peace after the end of something.Pretty ironic but I didn't know how else I would've done justice to the situation.Clinton's grave was the last place I wanted to be right now.I had avoided Justine for the better half of a month, it was pretty easy considering she wanted to avoid me too.I had caught upto the work, I had made sure I was upto my neck deep into work this entire time. If only to avoid Justine or even let the thought of her enter my mind.It was until Ben sto