Snaked

Prologue

Luke's pov

Alex, Reggie, and I all sit in silence, staring at the place where Avery was just sitting, but now that spot is empty and cold. I fall back off of my knees and onto my butt, my mind stopping from whatever it was thinking about.

"Did she-" Julie starts to say quietly as she moves closer to us

I shrug, not knowing what else to do except think of all the ways I could've stopped her. I look over at Alex slowly and see that he's staring where I just was with tears in his eyes as he grips his hair.

"Oh, Alex," I hear Julie say quietly before walking over to him and practically pries his hands out his hair before he leans against the chair to his left, never taking his eyes off of the empty space. "Where did she go?" She asks, waving her hand in the place Avery just was. I don't say anything, not knowing what to say even if I had the words. "Luke," she says making me whip my head up to her.

"I don't know, okay?" I snap, standing up quickly and rubbing my hands through my hair. "If I did I wouldn't be sitting here right now thinking of all the ways I could've stopped this!"

"Luke, you couldn't have known he was actually gonna take her," Reggie says, finally looking away from the horrible spot in the room that none of us are going to be able to forget.

I walk over to the couch and sit on it before standing back up, not wanting to be anywhere that reminds me of her right now. "I could've let him take me, I shouldn't have let her go before she joined us on stage. I could've done anything but I just sat there like a fucking idiot," I say, burying my face in my hands so that they don't see my cry.

I hear people walking around before I feel Alex and Reggie beside me, resting their heads on my shoulders before we all start crying. We cry for different but similar reasons. I just lost the love of life, Alex just lost his sister, and Reggie just lost his partner in crime. But we all lost our best friend, and that's what killed us the most.

That night, we cried ourselves to sleep that night, well, Alex and Reggie did anyways, I however stayed up, thinking about what I could've done and how to get her back. I decide enough is enough so I sit up slowly and change into sweatpants and a tank top before walking into the house, hoping to God that Julie's still awake. I walk up the stairs and knock on her door lightly, not wanting to wake her if she's asleep. I hear bed covers shuffling around before the door opens revealing her in a mixed match pajama set with red and puffy eyes.

"Hey, uh, everything okay? Are Alex and Reggie still here?" She asks, rubbing her eyes.

"Ye-yeah, they're asleep and everything's fine," I say, shaking my head, not knowing why I actually came up here.

"Do... you wanna come in?" She asks, moving out of the doorway, allowing me to walk in as I nod.

I sit on her bed and rest my head against the wall behind her headboard. She walks over and sits beside me, pulling the covers over her legs. It's quiet between us for a moment before I look down at her. "I'm sorry," I mumble quietly. "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier tonight."

"You don't have to be sorry," she says, looking up at me and shaking her head softly. "You knew her better than I did and I realized that I was pushing you for answers. So I'm the one that should be apologizing."

"Fine, I forgive you," I tease before looking back down at her and notice she's smiling at me. "What?"

"What was she like? Like, really like," she says, resting her head on my shoulder, making me remember the amount of time Avery would do that.

I look in the mirror across my bed before looking above it before I tell her how amazing my best friend was. A while later, I look down at the mirror again and see that Julie had fallen asleep. I stop my speech and pull the covers higher up onto her before I start to drift off as well.