We'll meet again

Chapter 5

Gale's pov

Pre-skip to when Atlas was waiting for Gale.

I was laying in my bed, my head rested on my hands that were pressing against the soft pillow beneath. My gaze fixed on the ceiling of my bedroom, and my mind somewhere else. My thoughts were so loud that I didn't hear my name being called, the only thing I could hear was my thoughts as well as a child's voice somewhere in the background, that became louder and louder. I was so lost in my mind that I didn't realize that the child's voice belonged to my little brother, Killian. I snapped out of my thoughts as soon as a small hand was placed on my arm. I jumped a little to the sudden touch, and laid my eyes on the  little boy beside my bed. His eyes were staring softly into mine, confusion was written all over his facial expression.

"Galey?" He almost whispered, "What are you doing?" he said as his head tilted sideways. "Oh, nothing, is there something wrong?" I said, forcing a smile on my lips, not wanting to worry my younger brother.

"Ruthy is sleeping, and we're hungry" he murmured while fiddling with his fingers. I turned my head, now looking towards the opened door with a small figure leading against the doorframe. I turned back to Killian, "come up here" I said, patting the area in front of me. "You too, Sienna" I said, calling my little sister and gesturing her over as well, who was still standing in the doorway. With the twins now sitting in front of me, I ask them "So, what should we eat?" Their faces lit up as they started rambling all sorts of foods to each other, while I was just admiring the concentration marking their faces.

After a few moments, they began whispering to each other, it felt like I wasn't even there. They suddenly shone up and turned towards me and said "Hotdogs!" In sync, with wide smiles on their faces and puppy eyes, begging me to cook it for them. "Of course! Let's head to the kitchen" I said, as I stood up from my bed, heading towards the kitchen.

After about 10 minutes, the hotdogs were done. I placed the ones I'd made on the kitchen table and told them to dig in. I wasn't really feeling like eating at the moment so I just sat by and watched them devour the food. As I was waiting, I picked up my phone after feeling the vibration of a notification in my pocket. My whole body froze at the name that appeared on the screen, 'One unread message from Atlas', it read. I didn't dare to open the message, I couldn't think of any reasonable excuse, so I put it away, redirecting my focus to my siblings. But I just couldn't get rid of the guilt that had started to build up inside, the guilt of ignoring someone, it made me sick to my stomach. 'How can I possibly do this to someone, he's never going to forgive me, he probably hates me now,' The thoughts began spinning in my head as I blankly stared down at the table surface. I knew my eyes were open, yet I couldn't see anything. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice Killian grabbing my phone. He began looking through it, checking out almost every app that I had. I didn't have a password since I tend to forget it, so it was no problem at all for him to access my phone. I suddenly woke up from my spinning thoughts when I heard a certain name.

"Who's Atlas?" Sienna asked, who were peeking over her brother's shoulder looking intensely at the device.
"W-wh..who?" I stuttered. "Atlas" they said at the same time, their confused looking eyes meeting mine.
"Eh...eh...ehm" before I could answer Sienna's question I froze as I heard my phone start ringing. They called him. Without saying anything I shot up from my seat and snatched my phone from Killian's hand and walked back to my room. I began to panic, 'W-what should I do? I can't just hang up, oh God i hope he doesn't answer' the thoughts began spinning again. My breathing felt heavier every second that passed, my eyes stuck on the name on the screen I was holding firmly in my hand. I wandered around in my room, not being able to sit or stand still. Then the dialing tone stopped, for a moment I felt relieved, until a raspy and tired voice began speaking through the phone.