Us.

Chapter 30: What?

Claire's P.O.V. (Continued)

Um what? My heart falls to my feet and my stomach turns inside out.

What?

He's leaving?

What?

I take a deep breath and open the paper.

Claire,

I hate to have to tell you this way, but by now I'm long gone. I can tell you that right now my life sucks because you're not here with me. And before I tell you what is happening, I want you to know this was not the way I wanted to tell you. I just couldn't bare the thought of seeing your face when I told you.

Okay, here it goes.

Cindy is sick. Really sick. We found out a while ago, and the odds don't look good. And since my parents are in jail, and my grandma died, I have to go live with another family member until I'm eighteen. My only other family member who isn't dead or insane is my uncle on my dad's side of the family.

My uncle lives on the other side of the country. My uncle lives in California. So that means I will have to move there. I don't know when I'm leaving, but since you're reading this, I'm already gone.

I was so lucky to meet you, I was so lucky to have you in my life, and I was lucky to find out how close Cindy lived to you. I was lucky in finding someone who cared so much about me, I was lucky to have someone as amazing as you in my life, and I was lucky enough to call you my girlfriend. But luck isn't eternal.

And I'm out of it.

I can't believe I'm telling you this way, but I figured that once you hate me for telling you like this, that maybe you would forget about me. But I want you to know that I never wanted anything bad to happen to you, and that I will always love you. I hope that I'll be able to visit you, if you could stand to be around me after what I did to you.

I'm sorry for leaving like this. I never wanted to hurt you.

I love you so much,

Braden

What?

He's? Leaving? He can't just leave like that. I don't care if he's asleep, I'm talking to him about this.

Rage runs through my veins as I walk out of the bedroom, with pain in every step I take.

"What the hell is this?" I scream. Braden doesn't react. I walk over to him and take his water bottle, and I pour the water on top of him. He sits up quickly and coughs.

"What are you doing?" He yells.

"What the hell is this?" I scream, holding the note in front of his face. "You're leaving?" I scream.

His eyes go wide and he drops his head. He shakes it back and forth, and then drops his head in his hands. I can see his back expands and contract with every heavy breath.

"You aren't explaining! What are you gonna do? Say you love me, go home, I wake up the next morning and you aren't there?!? Is that what you're planning on putting me through?!?" I scream as tears of hate and sadness flow down my cheeks.

"I don't know." He says quietly.

"You don't know?" I ask while raising my eyebrows.

"I don't know." He says louder, and I can hear that he's crying in his voice. But he's still not looking at me. Okay, no. He doesn't get away with leaving me that easy.