End Game

Father Figure

SPENCER

They say that time heals all of your wounds. I didn't know if that was true, but so far, it was not for us.

Three weeks had passed since Coach's funeral and home going ceremony, and life was still a slow hell for his close people.

Mrs Baker's grief was complicated. She had lost the person she spent the last twenty-five years of her life with, with no warning. We all had to be there for her.

Jordan's process was quite sporadic. One day, he'd be his family's rock. The next, he would be the ghost of himself. I feared that he was trying too hard to be there for everybody but himself, neglecting his own grief in the process.

I was definitely pushing mine away because if I let my brain understand what was really going on, I was afraid I'd never be able to recover from it. I had no one I could actually lean on to.

Because Liv... Liv was taking it the hardest. She refused to talk about it, to think about it. Being around her and seeing the way she moved was the only indicator of her grieving heart. Trying to make her speak her true feelings was of no use.

She was shutting down everybody, me included.

Life was odd sometimes. We, as human beings, keep making plans, having dreams, and setting up goals to achieve as if tomorrow was ever promised. We can be so naive at times.

Mrs Baker moved back into their Beverly Hills home because she couldn't be left alone or stay in her and Coach's house at the moment. Everybody wanted to be able to move on, but it was just too damn hard.

"Is she still sleeping?" I asked Jordan when I arrived at the Baker's residence.

"No, she just ate breakfast and went back upstairs. You can go see her."

His tone was a bit aggressive, but I was learning to accept his grieving process. I stopped for a second, turning to him.

"How are you feeling today?" I questioned.

"Fatherless."

I didn't have a come back to that one. It just simply hurt.

Especially knowing very well the pain of losing some of the most important people in your life, overnight. But I didn't have time to focus on my pain because I had to be there for him.

"I'll be upstairs if you need me." I told him.

He faintly nodded his head before heading back to the patio. Layla was away on a business trip for the week, so it made things a little harder on Jordan these days. Not having your closest person to lean onto on the hard days is difficult.

I knew that because I was the living proof of it. I held onto my bag full of Olivia's favorite snacks before heading upstairs. After knocking on her door and hearing her almost inaudible response, I walked in and found her burried under the covers.

"Back in bed already?" I asked, putting the bag on the floor next to the bed.

"There's not much to do anyways." She replied, without even peeking out to look at me.

"Did you manage to get some rest?"

I left around 5 A.M. to go for a run, then stopped at the store, so we saw each other for the first time since the previous night. Well, seeing was quite the hyperbole since she was still hiding under the sheets.

I used to get frustrated the first few days she did it until I realized she was just trying to hide her puffy or reddened eyes, which would y usually signal that she had been crying.