CLANDESTINE | HS |

THIRTY FOUR

Harry

Glass shatters at my feet.

Bubbles drip from my hands, the soapy water drenching the socks on my feet.

But none of that matters when I turn to look at the woman who holds my heart— the very woman who's agonizing scream still feels like it echoes through my house.

Through my bones.

In this life there are a million things that I don't know, however, I know that sound will haunt me for the rest of my life.

For every breath that I take.

Stepping away from the glass and dropping to my knees in front of Logan, I feel the ice spread through my veins as a heart wrenching sob rips through her body.

"Logan—Lo—" Wrapping my arm around her waist and tangling the other into the hair at the nape of her neck, I press my lips to her forehead. "Baby, talk to me—"

"She's—She's—" Those hands clutching my shirt as if I could be her lifetime pull me closer. "My mom— Warren called and she's—"

"Lo, take a deep breath for me. Come on, in and out." Tears cloud my vision as my hand slips under the hem of her shirt, any attempt to comfort her. "Breathe with me— You can do it."

Shaking her head, she cries. "No, no I can't— I have to go."

"Logan, please—" I beg when her hands push against the hard planes of my body. "Talk to me."

"No, I can't." Ripping away from me, her eyes are dull as tears fall from them. Before I can help myself, I reach up to wipe them away only for her to push them away. "Don't. Don't fucking touch me!"

Reaching for her phone, the shattered screen glitters in the overhead light of my kitchen. When her eyes find mine again there's a hardness there that I've never seen from her as she shoves her body off the ground.

"Logan—"

"I have to fucking go." Running her hands through her hair, she looks around for her things scattered around the room. "This was a mistake. My mom— She needs me."

"I'll go with you." Following her a couple of steps, I reach for my keys on the counter. "You don't have to handle this alone, Logan."

Turning on her heel, anger flashes across her features as she steps closer to me. "I don't need you, okay? My mom— The most important person in my life is— is— She's laying in a bed with a tube down her throat right now."

Emotion flares inside of me, knowing that her mom was still alive, holding on. "I want to be there for you, Logan."

"Yeah? Well I don't fucking want you!." Shaking her head, the tears fall even faster as she looks at me. "I should have been there— I shouldn't have to hear my stepdad sob through a voicemail that my mother was rushed to the hospital because she collapsed and stopped breathing. But instead, you know where I was?"

Venom laces her tone as she reaches forward, her hands pushing against my chest, doing nothing to move my hard body but enough to show the anger and desperation inside of her.

I swallow, looking down at the floor. "With me."

"I was with you!" She cries, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "Instead of spending my time with the woman who had given me everything, I was too busy wasting it with you— wasting the only time I could have had left."

"You know it's not like that—" My voice catches in my throat. "I love you, Logan. Don't walk away from me. Let me go with you, let me be there for you."