It All Started At 6 a.m.

Chapter 26

Leah

It's funny how easily we accept the idea of our own demise, but it becomes unbelievable for us to actually accept someone else's death, especially if the person is your loved one. It's as if you can't let that person go to that place from where returning isn't possible.

I had never seen my grandpa. He'd passed away when mom was in high school. And the only time I'd attended a funeral was when I was around seven years old that too of a distant relative, whom I'd never met before.

Grandma had left us.

I wasn't feeling the grief from losing her. I wasn't sad that I didn't get to say goodbye. I wasn't even angry at myself for not telling her how much I appreciated her presence in my life. In fact, I wasn't feeling anything at all.

I was numb.

Empty.

Hollow from inside as I sat on the bed, my knees pulled up to my chest and my head resting on top of it. My eyes felt heavy from all the crying. My tears would stop for a moment but then grandma's happy face would appear in front of my eyes and the tears would start all over again.

Dad had asked me to come to Eugene when he had called to break the news of grandma's demise. The funeral was to be held tomorrow morning and dad had asked me to not make the eight hours journey at night.

"Leah, are you ready?" Savannah asked me as she appeared on the doorway. I nodded my head and took my bag with me to go downstairs.

"Ethan will go with you." She said and I glanced at him whose shoulders went rigid and all the colour from his face drained as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Mom..." he trailed off, his face pale as he continued to stare at his mom and the duo seemed to be communicating through their eyes.

"I'll call in your school to let them know you both won't be present today. Ethan, you'll go with her, right?"

"Yeah." He shut his eyes tightly, his face twisted in pained expressions. "Yeah, I'll go. Give me two minutes to pack my stuff and we'll leave." I again nodded my head and remained silent.

The last time I had spoken was in his car when I had asked him to take me home. Thereafter, I couldn't utter a word, every time I tried speaking, a sudden wave of nausea would make me close my mouth.

"Let's go," Ethan said emerging from upstairs with a small duffel bag. He took mine from my hand and walked out of the door, me following closely behind him.

"Inform me when you reach there, yeah?" Savannah appeared on the driver's side window and Ethan nodded at her.

The car ride was silent as we drove, the familiar streets of Castroville changing into the unfamiliar roads as we maneuvered our route to Eugene.

__________

Ethan

After Nathan's demise, I'd never openly talked about deaths, let alone attend anyone else's funeral. It was a sensitive topic for me. It still is, as I've never talked about Nathan's death with anyone.

But with Leah, I don't know why I blurted out bits of my past. Maybe it was this vibe that she radiates that makes you want to trust her. Maybe it was her gaze, that non-judgmental gaze of her, that makes you want to confide in her. Or maybe it was just her simply being there for you, patiently listening whatever it is that you have to say. She'll listen to your darkest of past without any trace of pity for you. And that's one of the many good things about her that I adore.

Right now, she was sitting in the passenger seat, her shoulder slouched as she gazed out of the window, a distant look on her face. Her face had become blotchy and her eyes puffy because of all the crying and lack of sleep. She didn't sleep even for five minutes last night and just kept tossing and turning and sobbing as I held her while she wailed for her grandmother.

I've never seen her this shattered before. Yeah, she has had her moments before. But she never looked this defeated.

Leah had talked about her grandmother during one of our late-night conversations at our balconies. How she'd inherited her geekiness for fiction from her grandmother and how her grandmother used to make the most delicious cinnamon rolls.

I have never seen her grandmother in person. She'd never visited the Scotts' in the past four years that we've been their neighbours. But then again, she was pretty old to be able to make the eight hours journey to Castroville. It was always Leah's family visiting them in Eugene.

But by the looks of it and Leah's reaction to her grandmother's death, she seemed to be very close to her grandma.

A sniffle broke me out of my reverie of thoughts and I glanced to my right to see Leah wiping her cheeks. It hurts to see her cry. It hurts to look at her tear-brimmed eyes that were always filled with life.

"Please don't cry, Leah," I said as I took her hand in mine and gave it a subtle squeeze, placing it in my lap. I could endure all the pain but the pain of seeing Leah cry is something that I cannot bear. It's like an instinct, that's always there, to keep her safe, to keep her away from all the negativities that were out there.

After a couple of hours of driving, embarrassingly, my stomach let out a loud rumble of hunger and I glanced at Leah who had a faintest of smiles on her face as she looked at me with those amused hazel eyes of hers. I don't mind this embarrassment if it made her smile, even though it wasn't one of her usual ones.

Call me whipped, but I don't care.

I pulled into a gas station to get something to eat as well as fill on the gas.

"You coming?" I asked her, hoping to hear something from her, but she just shook her head. I sighed and went inside, grabbing a few energy bars and two bottles of water, paid for them, and got back to my car.

"Here, eat these " I pushed a couple of energy bars into her lap and unwrapped mine. I saw her shaking her head as I bite into mine. "Leah, I didn't ask you, I told you to eat them." Again, she just shook her head. She's really stubborn.

"C'mon Leah, you can't neglect your health." I huffed and rolled the windows down. "I won't hesitate to shove it down your throat if need be." That had her smiling as she shakily unwrapped the bar and took a small bite of it. "Wasn't that difficult, now, was it?" She finished it up and wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve. "Drink. And don't you dare shake your head again." I warned and she chuckled, taking the bottle and drinking from it.

I cranked up the ignition and pulled out of the gas station, following the directions of the GPS. The wind blew in through the open window and ruffled up my hair, making them stick in my eyes. A hand appeared from my side and pushed my hair back while I rolled up the windows. It was a small act but it was enough for the heat to rise up to my ears.

I was hesitant to come with Leah to Eugene. That town was associated with my past. Four years ago, when we had left that town for good, I wouldn't have thought I'd be visiting it again. For me, Eugene was the place that I wanted to erase from my memory permanently.

But here I was, four years later, driving onto the familiar streets of Eugene as I navigated my way through the town, towards the address Leah had set on my GPS. I knew this neighborhood like the back of my mind.

These were the same streets that I grew strolling through.

The same streets, that hold so many memories of me and my brother when we'd roller skate on them every night of the summer.

The same streets that now haunted me at nights, almost every single day.

And as I parked the car in front of the grey, two-story house, I remembered why I was hesitant to come to this town in the first place.

Because these were the same streets where, five years ago, Nathan was killed.

******

The original plot that I had planned was way different than the one I'm writing. The previous one didn't have much drama and yours truly over here freaking loves drama. I mean, who doesn't, right?

Oh, and I love reading your comments. So comment down your thoughts on this chapter.

Until next time.