Cadence

26. Grief

Cadence

Circling my finger around the rim of the glass of whiskey, I reminisce in the light sound it makes.

Removing my fingers, I lift the glass throwing the remains down my throat. An arm grazes my own resting on the sticky bar table, looking up lazily, I see Hope.

She smiles down at me weakly, her own eyes nearly as sad as mine. And her red hair thrown into a messy  bun on the top of her head.

"Want some company?" She asks.

"Sure." I mutter raising my arm and calling over a waiter.

"Another please." I smile up at the woman pushing my glass to where she's standing on the other side of the table.

She picks up my glass with a genuine smile and walks off.

"He wouldn't want you filling yourself up with alcohol you know." Hope says nudging my arm.

I ignore her and stare off into the bar, a large variety of people all in the same situation as me. Drowning their sorrows, for whatever wrong doings they've either done or been the victim to.

He had so much to live for. And George. Shit, does George even know? I've got to tell him. He has to know.

"I have to tell him." I say to Hope searching my pockets for my phone, finding it in the back of my jeans pocket I take it out and dial his number.

He answers on the third ring.

"Hey Cadence, what's up?" He sounds fine. He definitely doesn't know.

"Hey, George I need to tell you something."

"Cadence no. Not over the phone." Hope whispers to me.

"Yeah anything, what is it."

I pause. Closing my eyes and trying to figure out the best way to say it. I should just tell him outright. He deserves the truth. The hard truth.

"Ben was shot on the job, he didn't make it." I finally breathe out, a tear slipping down my face, to my chin then dripping off onto my shirt.

"W-what?" He starts breathing fast, sounding exasperated. Then I hear the phone drop, and it cuts off.

Dropping my phone on the table I get up from my seat, not caring about the drink I just ordered. I throw down $50 and walk to the exit. Hope shouts after me. But I only shake my head and continue my path.

I need air.

Pushing open the doors, the cold air hits my face, instantly cooling my hot skin. Putting a hand to my forehead I lean against the nearest wall closing my eyes.

FLASHBACK

"Hey no fair, give that back." I say, looking at Ben holding the flask he had in his bag.

"This is mine." He laughs, taking a sip of the alcohol.

"You said we could have some." Jules pouts next to me.

We're all in one of the empty classrooms down the hall from the science block, it's 2 am in the morning.

We may or may not have broken into our old school, it was easy to do. We only had to jump the gate and slip through one of the windows.

"Okay fine." He says passing Jules the bottle.

She claps before taking it and sipping.

"Do you remember when Mr Holl sent you out because you were wearing a pink scarf." Jules says with a smile.

"He was such an ass." Ben nods.