Before I Forget

The End of Love

"Give it back—!" Those were the first words that came out of Sky's mouth. No apology, no regret - only pure, raw anger. "It's mine! You had no right to take it!"

She ripped the bottle from Dad's hands—

Only to realize how light it was in her grasp, how there was no sound of pills rattling in the bottle. Her heart turned into a cold lump, it almost stopped beating.

The pills were gone and with them any hope she'd had.

"What did you do?" Panic and despair made her voice tremble. "What did you do to them—?"

Dad looked at her with such sadness and disappointment in his eyes that at any other moment, it would have shattered her.

"Flushed them down the toilet."

"No—!"

"They are gone. And you are not getting more."

Despair hit Sky with the force of a trainwreck. She started crying, still gripping the empty bottle in her trembling fingers. Her knees gave in as she fell to the floor, threw the bottle into the opposite wall, and buried her face in her hands.

"No! I need it, I fucking need it!"

The scrapes on her knees ached as they rubbed against the carpet, tears burned in the wounds of her palms - a reminder of what had happened in school, of Kyler pushing her down the stairs. And with Kyler, always came the memory of Hawk, of his mean words that had started all this and that still lived in her head every minute of every day. She was a slut and a bitch, her heart was broken, she couldn't breathe, she didn't want to face this moment, this reality where she was broken and worthless, where all hope was gone. She didn't want to face Dad who had taken away the only thing that helped, the only thing that was keeping her alive.

Ragged sobs broke through her aching chest, but Dad didn't sit down next to her, he didn't comfort her as she kept crying. For a long time, he just stood there in the doorway, his silence falling around him like a shadow, and when he finally spoke, his voice was harsh, cold, alien.

"Get up," he said, and the tone of his voice made Sky look up through her tears.

She had never seen Dad like this, tense like a string, his face pale, almost gray, his lips a tight, hard line across his face.

"I said, get up." Dad repeated, not meeting her eyes. "And pack your bags."

"What—?"

"You heard me. Pack your bags."

Sky could only stare at Dad, at his clenched jaw, his stricken face, the complete lack of warmth, love, and acceptance she had always seen in him, and suddenly the truth hit her like a punch in the gut, knocking the air out of her lungs.

After every stupid stunt she'd done, after every fight, every drunken night, every suicide attempt, and more - Sky had wondered if Dad's patience was endless, if it was as vast as a limitless ocean, if his love was bigger than life, if it was as neverending as the universe itself - or if a point existed where it ended.

Now she knew.

"Dad—" she gasped but then stopped mid-sentence.

He looked away, as if he couldn't bear to see her, and in her heart Sky felt something breaking.

"Just do as you're told." Nicholas spoke, his voice thin, stretched. "Can you—- at least this once, just do as you're told?"

The tone of his voice forced Sky up to her trembling legs, as his words slowly sunk in. He had told her to pack her bags. Was he—