I'll Meet You There

Epilogue

The weeks that followed were a blur and Griffin couldn't keep up. The doctors had ended up giving Griffin all of Ally's heart and he should live a long healthy life. But Griffin felt miserable. When he had woken to white walls with bad tasting food in front of him he thought it was a miracle for him to be alive. But his dad had told him about Ally and her heart which was now his heart and Griffin had asked to be alone in his room.

He had ripped the sheets off his bed, smashed a vase of flowers on the ground and tore the papers from the clipboard hanging from his bed.

When he was finished he slid to the ground and cried. Griffin's heart-Ally's heart-was doing it's job. But at the same time it hurt so much.

Ally's parents had a funeral which Griffin was invited to. But he couldn't handle standing with all her family members and parents. So he sat, in a suit, against a tree watching the service.

At school there was an assembly in memory of Ally. Ashton wasn't there, she couldn't be in a room full of people talking about Ally yet. But she was at the funeral.

And now Griffin spent his days in his room. Blasting music from his headphones because his record player was broken from him throwing it on the floor. No one got what he was feeling and he wanted to be alone. And the worse part was that the part that hurt the most wasn't even his, it was Ally's.

"Griffin I know you're in there." Griffin's dad called into his room.

Griffin hadn't come down to breakfast that Sunday morning and it was almost past lunch.

"Just leave me alone." Griffin yelled back.

Sean took a risk and opened Griffin's door. He was sprawled on top of his bed, eyes closed and had earphones in. Don went to Griffin and took them out of his ears.

"What the hell dad?" Griffin cried, sitting up.

"We need to talk. I know that you're sad about Ally passing away but you can't be in your room all the time now. You need to get out there and try to move on. Life is not going to wait for you Griffin. I love you but I hate seeing you like this more. Go live, live for Ally." Don said, sitting on the edge of Griffin's bed.

Griffin sucked in a deep breath before talking, "You just don't get it do you Dad? Ally's heart is in me. Her heart is what's keeping me alive. She died to save my life. I didn't deserve that! And she didn't deserve being the seventy five percent when she should've been the twenty five! We were in the same room when she died and it's not fair. Why did my last time seeing her have to be my last time?"

Sean didn't know what to say and tears were streaming down Griffin's face.

"You can't have the answers I need so just go. I want to be alone." Griffin said quietly.

And Sean left without saying anything else.

Monday after school Griffin had to go to the Bell store to get his phone looked at. The numbers in his phone were getting mixed up. After waiting for a bit, an employee helped him out.

"Okay so we're going to have to replace your number and replace your phone." The guy said.

"Okay, whatever you have to do." Griffin said, looking around the store. He was barely paying attention, he wanted to be anywhere but sitting across from a guy who had too much garlic for lunch.

"Oh, you have a voicemail, do you want to hear it? It's from a few weeks ago." He asked.

"No, just delete it." Griffin said.

"It's from...Ally? Anything important?" He asked.

Griffin turned all his attention on the employee, "Who?"

"...Ally?" He said again. with a confused look on his face.

"I want to listen to it." Griffin said.

"Okay." The guy gave Griffin back his phone.

Griffin practically jumped out of his seat to take it. He held the phone up to his ear and listened to Ally.

"Hey Griff, it me. So I think I left my bracelet in your car. I took it off before we went into the fair so I wouldn't lose it, and I forgot to grab it when you dropped me off. If you find it, that'd be awesome but I can always get it later. Thanks, I love you."

Griffin gave the phone back to the guy, "Will you give me a sec?" He asked before running out through the mall into the parking lot.

He unlocked his car and leaned in, running his hands under the passenger seat and console. Finally his finger caught on something and he pulled it into the light. It was Ally's bracelet, he remembered her wearing it. His breath caught and he put his hand to Ally's heart. There was still hurt from losing her but it was a little less.

Hanging the bracelet on the rear view mirror, he agreed with his dad.

He needs to live. For him, But also for Ally.