Escaping you |EDITING|

Chapter 16-Everette

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1 month later

I groan as Atlas's pounding alarm goes off and I reach over her body and turn it off. She shuffles and I kiss her head.

She deserves so much better. The past month has been hell, for everyone. We all go throughout our days pretending like nothing happened. We all still go to school, River and Carlos still go to work, but it's not hard to notice the way everyone stares uncomfortably at Eli's empty seat at the dinner table.

At his funeral, everyone was a wreck. An absolute wreck of sobs and tears and words that ultimately amounted to nothing.

I notice it in Atlas the most. Whenever Eli first died, it took her a few days to stop crying, which was to be expected. But what I didn't expect was for her to completely stop feeling. Every ounce of light she used to have in her eyes slowly drained from them after he died and I don't know what to do.

She's still Atlas, but she's, not. I even see it in the way she walks. She drags her feet and walks slowly, her arms always dropped to her sides, not like before, she used to walk fast, sometimes even faster than me despite her being so much shorter than me, and her hands were usually pressed to her hips, I miss it, I miss her.

But I don't blame her, for not being the same, and I can't expect her to be, none of us really are. Eli dying didn't have as much of an effect on me as it did the rest of his family, of course. But he was my friend, and seeing the way that him dying hurt the person I love, and the people she loves, hurts me.

I walk to Atlas' and Leah's's bathroom and change, brushing my teeth and splashing water on my face. I walk back to Atlas's bed and wake her up.

"Come on, get up baby." I say gently and she lifts her head.

I chuckle slightly at her cute expression and walk out of the room, leaving her to get ready and wake up Leah. An hour and a half later, her and Leah stroll down the stairs, Paige not far behind them,holding Athena.

Atlas takes Paige to school now, sometimes Leah rides with me and sometimes with Atlas, it always depends. Today she rides with Atlas.

Atlas kisses me before leaving the house and I follow shortly after her. I take Athena to daycare and drive myself to school.

During my classes I mostly pay attention, sometimes letting my mind drift off.
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During lunch I sit next to Atlas, her head leaning on my shoulder and Leah's hand interlocked with James's.

Throughout everything going on, the one thing that has stayed stable is me and Atlas's relationship. Whenever she's with me, sometimes, I still see glimpses of who she was before Eli died, who she is now is fine, is perfect actually, there will never be anything wrong with her.

I just wish she was happy, that's the one thing that I will ever wish I could change about her.

"You okay man?" James asks.

"Peachy." I respond.

Atlas plays with my hair that sits on the side of my head and I smile at her.

"Come with me." She whispers and gestures outside.

I nod and we walk outside, she leads me to her car and sits on the hood.

I sit next to her and she looks over at me.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." I respond

"You'll never leave, right? I know it's hard for you, because I know that everything is different, but I need you Everette and I just can't stand having to worry that you're going to leave."

"I'm not going anywhere, why would you think that?"

"I can tell. You act different around me now, like I'm not really here. Like I'm a completely different person, and maybe I am, I don't know."

"You're you, Atlas. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry if I've made you feel like you weren't. Of course you're different, you lost your brother, I don't expect you to be the exact same person you were before because you won't be and I understand that. I think all of us disappeared a little when he died, and that's okay. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you, ever. You're everything, everything that's important to me I find in you." I finish.

I pull her closer to my side and she looks up.

"I miss him so much."  I press a kiss to her head and nod in agreement. We both eventually slide off the hood of her car and walk back into the school building and go to our classes, meeting back up after school.

Paige rides with me back to the house and to Athena's daycare, Atlas and Leah deceived to go out and do something with Hannah.

I walk upstairs and I pass Eli's room. Ever since he died none of us has went in there.

The thought crosses my mind but immediately dismiss it. That's not my place.

I walk to Atlas and Leah's  room and sit at Atlas's desk, pulling out homework and starting on it.
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A few hours later, Leah and Atlas walk into the room, multiple shopping bags in hand and they both throw them down on their beds and start laughing and talking as they look through everything they bought.

Atlas smiles and try's on everything for me, to which I happily sit there and watch as she shows me everything.

I love you.

"Does it look good?"

"It looks great."

"Okay."

"Hey what do you want for your birthday?" I ask her and she turns around suddenly

"How'd you know when my birthday is?"

"Magic. So what do you want?"

"To get away."

"I don't want anything expensive, just to forget."

"I can do that." I respond and she smiles. Leah and her go back to talking and after a while I go shower and get ready to go to sleep. Atlas does the same and comes back to her bed, we both fall asleep with our arms around each other and her head resting in my neck.

I love you.
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Word count: 1111

I'm so sorry this was so short I've just had no motivation to Write but yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

I love this chapter personally because I like seeing how Everette is feeling about all of this, about the change in atlas and how it's affecting him.