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raine

It's been three months. Three months since Prim died. Three months since the funeral. Three months since I've seen Arrow.

He stopped coming to class. I don't ask Lilah or Merrick about him, because it's too painful. This is better. Healthier, safer for me to stay away from him.

I'm leaving, anyway. Word came back quickly— I got accepted to attend Juilliard, but for some reason, I wasn't thrilled. I didn't have anyone to celebrate with.

My brother, Rowan, and Ava were getting married in August, so at least I had something to look forward to. And I would come back to Rhode Island to visit Lilah whenever I could. It wasn't too bad a drive, either.

"Packing again?"

"Yep," I answer, throwing clothes in a box without folding them. "Saved it for the last minute."

"You're so fucking lazy." My brother says from my phone, which is lying on my bed with the speaker turned on.

"Shut up, asshole." I strangle the cardboard box shut, pulling at the packing tape and sticking it on to the flaps. It looks like it's about to burst, but I couldn't really care. My closet is almost clear, and I feel a burn in my chest, because I'm going to miss this place.

Rowan laughs through the phone. "What time does your flight land?"

I grab my phone and open the Delta app. "Around 6:30 p.m." I plan to drive to NYC to drop my stuff off in the new apartment and fly down to Florida to visit my brother and his fiancé for a couple days. While I wish I could stay for the entirety of the summer, I had things to sort out with school and my partner.

"Perfect. I'll be sure to arrive extra late just for you."

"Thanks, Rowan."

We talk about nothing in particular, absentminded conversation, really, until he brings up the one thing I refuse to talk about. "What about that... boyfriend... of yours?" he asks over the phone.

My chest constricts, and I feel the urge to end the call right away so I don't have to explain myself. But he's my older brother, and there's no way he could've known, so I take a deep breath and answer him. "He ended things a few months ago."

A pause. It's so long that I start to think that he's fallen asleep. Finally, Rowan says, "He did what?"

I bite back an acrid remark and repeat myself. "He broke up with me in the beginning of March."

"Why?"

Ignoring the headache that begins to pulse in the back of my head, I answer, "It just wasn't working anymore."

"I thought he went to New York City with you. You sent me that picture of you two at a restaurant."

Were all older brothers like this? Pressing and overtly overprotective? Or was it just Rowan? "I don't want to talk about it," I snap suddenly, feeling a burst of red-hot anger in my belly. I've worked too hard to get rid of these painful feelings, only for them to come back. Shoving the resurfacing emotions down, I try to worm my way out. "I have to finish packing. I'll see you in a few days."

I hear a sigh on the other end. "Raine–" I press the red call button on the screen and chuck my phone across the bed. It lands at the edge before tumbling to the floor. Groaning, I pick it up and plug a charger into it.

Clanging sounds from the kitchen. I smile to myself. Lilah had claimed earlier that week that she would be cooking a goodbye feast, and when I had mentioned that I didn't want people over, she merely said, "Who said anything about people? We have it all to ourselves."