Him or his Best Friend

𝐂𝐡. 𝟓𝟎 | 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞

Liya

I requested Chase to bring me to Luka's house. I was eventually going to go after work and if I was to take a few days to process whatever had just happened it would be a waste.

A waste of grief over morons who took advantage of me when they were supposed to be my family.

Chase was hesitant in entering Luka's house and I didn't force him either. He was going to eventually come in. A blast set off in my heart the moment I saw mine and his home come to my sight. It was like he had left it.

My first instinct was to walk to the garden. The garden of roses he had made for me. The roses had bloomed even more. Bigger, and redder.

They looked more abundant, alive and happy. The strong scent reached my nostrils nicely.

"This was where I came for my morning and evening runs," Chase spoke behind me.

My head looks to him, recalling the moment he had seen me and Luka dance in this same garden, in each other arms. I recall his jaw clenched so tight he wanted it to break.

Turning back to the flowers. I ran my hand over the roses.

"I told him this garden was beautiful," my voice softly spoke recalling back to the moment.

"And he said not more than you," Chase finished off with a painful chuckle.

"How did you know?" I turned my head back to him because he wasn't there when he said that to me.

"Nothing ever fazed him more than you," his eyes hardened but his words only came out soft.

I looked back to the garden of roses. I must have been a real idiot if I thought it was normal for friends to plant an entire garden of each other's favourite flowers. No one does that these days.

"You must have known... every bit of his feelings for me," my mouth was so hesitant to ask him.

"I did," he agreed.

Moving along these roses slowly, his steps crunched on the grass behind me.

"There wasn't a moment where he didn't think about you, or talk about you. When you weren't with him, he missed you. When you were with him, he couldn't get enough of you," Chase expressed, making my heart flutter.

"You're something so unreal. No one can ever get enough of you, Strawberry," his tone became solid and concrete.

"Even you?" my steps stop for his answer.

A few seconds of silence eroded between us. I didn't dare to turn and look at him for my answer. I didn't deserve it.

"Even me," he confessed, breaking the silence.

Without another word, I continued to brush through these roses. I wanted to keep these alive. It was a part of Luka I had.

I wanted to move back here. This was my home and always had been from the moment Luka gave me a new life. Walking into the house, I walked up the stairs he would scold me at for not wearing shoes.

Slowly approaching his room, my heart clenched painfully. Tears were only seconds away from reaching my eyes once I entered his room. It was dark. My hand goes to flick the light on. It had not been cleaned.

"Mira said, that the night he..." Chase couldn't bear to say the word.

"He said that no one was allowed to clean his room, but you. Not even his mother," he told.

Luka always hated it when anyone cleaned his room because they wouldn't know where to put things.

But Luka also lived like a messy guy so obviously his room needed weekly cleanings. He never complained when I did it. Even if I had misplaced things.