Golden Rain [COMPLETE]

°•° 25 °•°

I was extra exhausted Monday morning. I'd stayed up the past two nights, monitoring Abigail's breathing. Luckily, nothing serious had happened. She'd had a few hitches of breath here and there but nothing that made her monitor start going off. But still. I didn't want to take any chances.

Rico had a baseball game four hours away and so his obnoxious voice wasn't at my side, waking me up today. Nope, I was just a zombie and that's just how it was going to have to be.

At lunch, I decided I wanted something greasy and indulgent, so I started toward my car to head to a pizza place nearby. Looking down at Abigail in her chest carrier, I noticed her squirming.

"Ready to try New York's famous pizza? I bet you'd love it."

She looked up at me and wrinkled her brow, letting out a whine. I guess that was a no.

"A bottle it is."

I decided that my hunger could wait for me to satisfy Abigail's so I slipped into the DESH—really named the Damen E. Shusterman Hall that served as our cafeteria—to use the water fountain and microwave. As I prepared her bottle, Abigail's whines only got louder and her squirming only got more wild. I tried to calm her by bouncing around so that she wouldn't draw the attention of the few other people in the hall, but she just wasn't having it today. Maybe she was as tired and cranky as I was.

"Shh, I'm getting it ready," I muttered to her as the microwave counted down. It beeped and I pulled the bottle out and then scooped in the formula.

She started screaming as I shook the bottle and I tried my hardest to quiet her. I didn't dare look over my shoulder to see everyone else staring at me; I could feel their eyes already anyway.

Finally, her bottle was ready and I slipped it into her mouth. She instantly quieted. I released a relieved breath.

Deciding we would draw less attention if I sat down, I turned to head toward a table. But when I looked up, Mora was standing a few yards away, staring at me.

I clenched my jaw and kept walking, ignoring her.

"Wait, Kason." She approached me, but I kept my back toward her. "Kas, please."

"Why should I wait, Mora?" I asked. I expected my voice to reflect the slight anger and irritation bubbling in my chest, but I mostly just sounded exhausted. As I was...

"Because we need to talk."

"No, we really don't. We've both moved on so I don't see a reason to keep bringing this up."

"That's the thing." Her small hand slipped around my elbow causing me to slowly turn to face her. Her deep brown eyes stared up at me pleadingly. "Kason, I don't know if you saw my text but... I broke up with Nick."

Licking my lips, I nodded, mumbling, "I saw it."

Her long lashes fluttered as she closed her eyes and sighed. "So you were ignoring me."

"You've given me every reason to."

She opened her eyes again and I was surprised to see tears lining her bottom lids. "I know. I have. But I've realized what a fool I was. And I'm so sorry. I..." She had to swallow. "I never should have given you up, especially for someone like Nick. He's a jerk. More than a jerk. And I was just... scared. I don't know. I was stupid." A tear leaked free of her hold.

I steeled myself and tried to ignore all the memories of times I'd wiped her tears away. That wasn't us anymore. And there was someone else I would rather comfort than her. "Look, Mora. I get that you're sorry. But sorry doesn't fix what you did."