Forever August ✔️

chapter twenty

"baby we're just reckless kids
trying to find an island in the flood."
- max
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AURORA WANDERED through the hall, head pounding, heart breaking. She wanted to find Gus and apologize, to close the distance that had opened up between them like a dam but the words from the promise she made to her brother lingered in her mind. The pain from losing Josephine lingered in her heart.

She found herself at the bar, swirling the contents of a drink she couldn't remember ordering, watching the way the liquid sloshed over the rim like the dark waves of the ocean. Thoughts of the sea brought her back to Gus, an endless cycle with no hope of escape.

When a man sat down beside Aurora, her eyes met his. He couldn't be more than a year older, eyes shining with the hazy glint of alcohol, tie hanging loose around his collar. He smiled, lips moving as he spoke words she paid no attention to. She couldn't stop staring at his eyes that were both the same colour, or his messy blond hair that was cut short instead of spilling over his forehead in tight, tangled curls.

The man watched as she searched his face for traces of the boy with discoloured eyes, but nothing about this stranger was familiar to her. Not like the pair of brown and blue eyes that had a firm grasp on her heart, whether Gus was aware of it or not.

Aurora sat up quickly, heart hammering, and left the stranger behind before pushing through the large wooden doors and out of the hall. The air in the foyer seemed lighter, allowing her to breathe easy without the tinge of sweat as her eyes scanned the area quickly, looking for him.

She searched the foyer top to bottom, running up the stairs and through endless halls lined with white marble and bouquets of roses until her feet ached and her heart pounded in silent alarm. Every time she saw a dark navy suit her breath caught, only to realize it didn't belong to the boy she was searching for.

With a sigh, Aurora sulked down the stairs and out of the hall, hungry for fresh air to fill her aching lungs and cleanse her beating heart. She stepped outside and closed her eyes, allowing herself to breathe freely. With her mind firmly latched onto Gus, she thought she was dreaming when she opened her eyes, gazed to her left and saw him sitting solemnly on a metal bench, head hanging low, staring into his lap.

Her heart seemed to fly through her chest, lodging itself in her throat at the sight of him. She paused before rounding the corner, taking a moment to admire him before she announced her presence. Not only was Gus beautiful to Aurora, but his complete unawareness of it was special in its own way. He had the credentials for a heartbreaker, but he smiled instead of smirked. He reached for her hand before reaching for her body and he said things that made her laugh, not blush.

He was special, she realized. Very.

With her hands trembling at her sides, Aurora walked towards the bench and sat down. Gus' eyes flickered to hers quickly before returning to his lap.

"Gus?" she asked softly. Her hand wavered between them, debating between reaching for him and giving him space. After a moment of hesitation, it fell back onto her lap.

"Did you pick the perfect guy?" His words were strained, like he was forcing them out.

Aurora sighed, wishing she could go back and redo this entire evening. She relaxed on the bench, leaning back and stretching her legs in front of her. The wind blew Gus' curls off his face and she resisted the overwhelming desire to reach out and grab them, just to have something that belonged to him to hold onto.

"Perfect guys don't exist," she replied. Except for you.

The thought was dangerous. She pushed it to the back of her mind.