Page 99 of Forever Mine
My friends.
Oh, god. David.
The last things I said to him were spoken in anger. I’ll never be able to take them back.
I’m on my knees, the weight of grief and guilt too much to bear. Ryder is beside me, his arm around my shoulders, his attempt at comfort futile because it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except the pain of loss, the unbearable thought that two of my friends are dead. The unimaginable thought that I could have lost Julien, too.
Fallon kneels in front of me, his hands circling my neck. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
All I can do is cry, the sound of my anguish filling the sterile halls of the hospital with my pain.
I’m sorry, too.
I’m so sorry, David.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
JULIEN
Ashand I step out onto the balcony. I lean forward onto the railing and look across the distance to the curved horizon. The sun is big and bright, the sky a vibrant turquoise blue. The world continues on like normal. But nothing right now is normal.
Charles Worthington has been in contact with Elijah and me daily. After the initial assessment and preliminary traffic collision report, the District Attorney’s Office cleared us of any liability in the accident. GC and FID tests during autopsy showed that David and Lamar’s blood-alcohol levels were over twice the legal limit. David was driving, Lamar was in the passenger seat. They weren’t wearing seat belts. David was doing a hundred and five when he swerved into us coming from the other direction. A blind corner, which is why I didn’t see him.
“How is he?” Ash asks, joining me.
“Hurting.”
Elijah’s heart is broken, a feeling I know all too well because it’s what happened to me when Liz disappeared. He’s not sleeping and is exhausted, so I made him take a nap.
Ash gently taps my foot with the side of his sneaker. “And you?”
“Managing,” I reply.
Because of my concussion, our athletic trainer put me on two weeks’ medical leave. After which, I have to be reevaluated before I’m allowed to start playing again.
“Shaun wants him there tomorrow.”
For David’s and Lamar’s funerals. Two separate wakes. Two separate graveside services.
“We’ll be there.”
Elijah would regret it for the rest of this life if he didn’t go, so I’m going to make sure that he does.
Ash turns and looks at me. “I don’t know if I should tell you something, but my conscience says I need to for Elijah’s sake.”
He has my full attention.
“Okay,” I warily reply. “Is this something I’m going to want to sit down for?”
“I think that’d be best.”
Ash lowers to one of the Adirondack chairs and waits for me to do the same. He’s never this serious, and my heartbeat palpitates in trepidation over what he feels the urgent need to tell me.
He takes an elastic band from his wrist and gathers his hair into a short ponytail before saying, “It’s about David… and Elijah.”
My heart gives one giant thud before stuttering to a halt. DavidandElijah. Of course, my mind jumps to a specific conclusion. They hooked up. My worst fear come to life. Do I want to know if they did, or do I want to remain in blissful ignorance? Too late now.
“Just tell me.”
