Hers Only

Epilogue

Two months later

"Do you really have to go?"

Dustin closed the car door and turned to face Linda who had followed him to the curb.

"No I don't have to, but I need to get away," he replied.

She stared down the empty road and then back at him. He tried hard to bring his life back to normal but nothing could take away the darkness or the emptiness that Misty had left behind. Not even the band was enough to keep him from drowning in his sorrow and their parents had decided to send him on a sabbatical.

She had a vision of him driving away and never coming back. She pushed it away and pulled the present she had for him from her pocket and handed it to him.

He looked down at it and smiled as he took it.

"Just a little motivation as you traverse around the country," she smiled back.

Linda was not prepared for the kiss but when his lips claimed hers she melted into him.

"Thanks, Linda," he said when he pulled away ."I could not have made it through these two months without you."

"Think nothing of it," she said, pulling the car door open and indicating it's time for him to go.

She was a few seconds away from crying and too many tears had found their way into his life of late.

"Go," she whispered her voice laced with unshed tears.

"I will miss you," he said and reached out to caress her cheek with a finger that no longer bore his trademark ink blue nail polish.

So much has changed she thought as she leaned into his caress. She thought back to Lisa and Karin's friendship that lay in pieces as Karin wraps herself in guilt believing her action to be the cause of Erin's death and Lisa's brokenness that left her nothing but a broken reflection of her former self.

Gone with them were all the happiness that once fueled their existence. This void left behind only seemed to get bigger. She only hoped as time went by these unwarranted circumstances would mend and not break them further.

"Promise to text or call every day ok," she said, wanting to have even that link with him as she knew life brings with it its own rule book that manipulates the outcome of everyone unfortunate to land in her grasp.

"Promise," he smiled, giving her a peek of the old Dustin.

But they both knew it was a lie. He had spent days locked away in his room sinking further and further into despair but he was the only one who knew it was not because of Erin's memorial, or the shame and guilt that came with what Misty did. It was because he was afraid that his time of discovery was drawing near. He feared the truth would finally catch up to him.

It never came no, he was still free to be a part of the Biden's life and he was gradually fitting in again until a few days ago he found the courage to go into Misty's room. He was finally ready to tell her goodbye. He was ready to break free.

He walked around the untouched room,  seeing Misty everywhere. He trailed his fingers over her belongings as his eyes roamed here and there. He found himself going to her closet. As he opens the door a shoebox fall at his feet from the above self its contents spilling at his feet.

He leaned down to retrieve the box and the spill contents when he paused in dismay. There at his feet was a clear sign that Misty was not through. She had another making of her collage of obsession.

Family photos of the Bidens had Linda's face cut out and hers paste over it. She had even incorporated him in the pictures by taping cutouts of him from other pictures on the ones she had defaced.

He knew then and there what he had to do. His time here with the Bidens, his friends, his band and yes with Linda was over. He had to leave.

They stood in silence for a few more seconds before she stepped away and turned towards the house letting each step take them farther apart, however it was not the sound of his car door closing with a resounding thud nor the engine starting that placed the biggest rift between them it was that deep down brokenness that came with the knowledge that he was never coming back.

He was gone.

Dustin would never be Hers Only. Maybe in another lifetime where everything wasn't so broken. She wiped the tears away but they kept on flowing.

Dustin fumbled with the bow on the gift box that Linda gave to him. Inside he saw a bare CD which he slipped into the disc player. On pressing play, the sounds of the last song he ever played with the band filled the car but Linda had recorded herself singing to the melodic composition of musical instruments.

He listened with tears running down his cheeks as he drove away from yet another place he could never call home; another family he could never claim as his own.

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