The girl next door, - ᴛ.ᴋᴀᴜʟɪᴛᴢ

chapter fifty-six

SIX
MONTH
FINALE

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"What is the true story behind On The Edge?"

The interviewer read out on a small slip of paper pulled from the question box.

I raised an eyebrow, pulling my cornrows off of my shoulders and adjusting my position as the band, and I all looked at each other, leaning back in my seat and watching Bill while he spoke. "On The Edge? Wow. That's an oldie. Where to start... Well, I'd say it has.. a big message, you know? I mean.."

"Yeah, it goes - it goes for everybody." I shrugged, watching the band nod in response. "But originally, we were going to scrap On The Edge. But Tom told us one day, you know, that we should continue it. I looked at him, and I said, like, are you crazy? The producers were sick of us, and I had the cyst in my vocal cords, so it was stressful," Bill started.

"But we decided to finish it for somebody we lost to some pretty similar things you could recognise in the song." He continued.

"Is this the girl caught on camera many times last year? With Tom?" The interviewer asked, gesturing towards me. My legs bounced slightly, watching Bill nod. "Yeah. They dated for a while until things came to an end."

"What happened between you and the girl, Tom?" She asked, glancing at me again. "Was she the right one?"

"Of course she was the right one," I grinned. "She was blonde, pretty tall, had a killer figure, looked great. But nobody knew her, that's why it was so difficult. But I dated her for a short amount of time." I nodded. "Why only briefly?" She asked.

I looked back at Bill and watched him give me an almost "Don't" look. But when I turned my head back towards the interviewer, I decided to speak. "She passed away from a brain aneurysm on her birthday. It was brief, and it just wasn't the right timing. There's nothing you can do about that."

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My eyes flickered around, dragging from my cigarette as I walked with Bill. "You sure?"

"Yeah, leave. I'll be fine." I shrugged, dropping the bud and crushing it under my sneakers. I glanced at Bill, watching him step back and get in his car. I turned to walk, the gravel crunching under my feet.

It was about an hour after the interview.

I sat down, sighing and shaking my head as I looked at Mandy's grave, looking down at the Everlong CD I'd put there, along with some other things over the past few months.

For a while, I didn't have the courage to go here because I felt like shit and just felt so incapable. But I never gave her the birthday gift.

"You said you needed time, Mandy," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a small box. "And I'll give you all of the time in the world." I said as I placed the golden watch on her tomb, biting my inner cheek as my eyes flickered over the picture of her, then on the engravements on her grave.

Mandy Katsaros. Daughter, sister, forever young.

1991-2007.