The Shadow's Grip • bxb [COMPLETED]

-42-

Dimitri's P.O.V.

We take the bus to the place I've always wanted to show Felix. Maybe ever since I started being comfortable around him. Ever since I felt the need to share it with someone. Someone who isn't Violet or Luna.

The ride is calm and comfortable. We share my headphones and I have to apologize for the depressing songs I usually listen to. But Felix doesn't seem to mind at all.

I'd like for us to do it again some time. Go to any place, on the bus, sitting next to each other while listening to Conan Gray. Seems like the perfect date for me.

It's a bit weird that I'm thinking that far ahead.

When we arrive I have to take a few deep breaths and then walk. Felix follows me until we arrive in front of it. My eyes already fill with tears and can barely make out what is written on it.

A tomb. In a graveyard. Among many other tombs that were once people. People that loved, that cried, that laughed. Parents, siblings or children.

"This is Harper" I slowly brush my hand against the stone in which his name is engraved.

To think that he was a person. He was next to me, just like Felix is now. But he's gone. He has been gone for two years and I still can't grasp the fact.

"I'm sorry" Felix puts his hand on my shoulder and I'm instantly filled with warmth, making me start crying.

I grab his hand and interwine our fingers, then wipe my tears and close my eyes. Again, I breathe in and out and then tell him everything I've been meaning to tell him.

Holding his hand tightly, afraid to let go.

"Harper was... Well, I loved him. A lot" I smile and for a moment I relive all the memories we've made together.

I tell Felix our story.

How I met Harper in that awful neighborhood. I was working at a shop and it was late at night after my shift. Walking home, but randomly seeing a guy on the side of the street.

He was drunk out of his mind and I couldn't help but ask him if he needed help. Instead of replying to my question he asked for a lighter. I felt pity in that moment and gave him one that I had on me.

But I knew he was bad news and decided to keep my distance if I see him again.

And I did see him again. He became a regular at the shop I was working at. Coming in every day, sometimes not buying anything, just asking me how I'm doing.

Violet, working with me, thought it was fishy but didn't really said anything.

At one point, he spent most of the time there with us, even though he wasn't employed. He would help us around the shop and go on cigarette breaks with Violet.

Harper was laid back, relaxed. I don't think I've ever seen him stress over anything. Being unemployed and with no future didn't seem to bother him, not one bit.

He would usually come by and talk to me about his mother and how she's making a fuss about everything.

"I'm still young. I have time" he would say, rolling his eyes and lighting another cigarette.

He had brown hair that he usually kept longer, brown eyes and a smirk on his face, taunting me.

"Oh poor Dimitri, always working. Who will take care of you?"

"Don't worry about that. I can do it myself"

At first I thought he's arrogant, thinking too highly of himself. But slowly I realized just how much of a beautiful person Harper was, inside and out. With a weird and dark sense of humour that we usually didn't understand, him insisting that it's funny.