Heaven By Your Side

Chapter Three

Everybody has that point in their life where

You hit a crossroad and you've had a bunch of

Bad days and there's different ways you can deal with it

And the way I dealt with it was I just turned completely to music.

_____________________________________________________________________________

In the end, Mick only lasted five minutes before he claimed he had something important to do at home.

Coward.

So much for trying to win me back. He can't even handle Lo so how the heck is he going to handle someone like me?

Fuming, Lo stomps back in my room and slams the door shut.

I flinch. "Careful. My door didn't do anything to you."

Instead of replying, Lo picks up her abandoned novel from before and holds up her index finger to signify, wait one moment.

Ten seconds later, she takes a deep breath and place the Bloodlines novel back on my desk.

I raise an eyebrow at her. "Um...okay? Do I even want to ask?"

She gives me a defensive look. "What? It calms me down."

If possible my eyebrows went up another inch. "Err..."

Lo ignores me and throws her hands up in the air, "Thank goodness you got rid of that prig!"

Once again, bless the guy who ends up with Lo.

~

Gabe

Parking my motorcycle in the garage, I throw my backpack over my shoulder and head to the door.

Before I could pull out my keys, the front door flies open and my older sister, Madeline stands there with her arms crossed.

"It's 2am, Gabe," she says, glaring at me.

I sigh as I push past her inside and bracing one of my hand on the wall, I take my shoes off. She closes the door behind me and sighs.

"Well?" she asks, "Why were you later than usual?"

I shrug.

"Gabe," she says warningly.

"Got distracted and time flew by," I finally say, because it wasn't exactly a lie. I was distracted and time did fly by.

Gaps of my childhood life. Something that's haunting me. Something significantly important. Something that happened twelve years ago.

I shake my head to clear the thoughts.

So much stuff happened—my parents splitting up, fights; so many fights, and then moving schools and leaving for a bigger city. It's not a very pretty chapter in my life and I wanted to get rid of it. Forget that it ever happened.

Perhaps I was so busy trying to forget, that the only pretty part of that horrible chapter has disappeared too.

Damn it, what am I not remembering?

Who am I not remembering?

I only glimpse bits and pieces of the past and there isn't enough pieces to form something decent.

I only know that there is a part of me that feels hollow.

Let me correct myself. There is a part of me that feels more hollow than usual.

An important part of me that's missing.

Except I do not know what.

Madeline goes quiet and then, "It's bothering you again, isn't it?"

Silence.

I shut my eyes and then breathe out deeply. "Yeah."

A hand touches my shoulder and squeezed. "It's been doing that lately."

I open my eyes and stare off at the ceiling and admit, "More so than ever."

"Why do you think that is?" she wonders.

I let out a deep breath. "I've no idea, sis."

Madeline ponders for a moment. "In the past, it usually comes up once in a while. Why so much now?"

I push myself up from the wall only noticing that I was leaning against it. As if I couldn't handle anymore from this world.

"I don't know, Maddie." I say tiredly, "But I'm going to crash now. Sorry for making you stay up late."

She goes pink and glances around the room. "What? I wasn't waiting for you. I was just...uh..."

I smile at her teasingly. "Just having one of your late snacks because you got hungry again?"

Madeline bristles. "Exactly!"

I laugh softly and ruffle her hair. "Whatever you say, sis."

Madeline pushes my hand away. "Hey! Don't mess that up!"

I grin at her and then sober up. Her smile fades away instantly too.

Locking my eyes with her, I say quietly, "Thank-you."

Thank-you for always being there. Thank-you for not abandoning me. Thank-you for understanding. Thank-you for everything.

Madeline understands without me uttering a word and throws her arms around me.

She sniffs. "If I could I'd help you figure this thing too, Gabe."

"I know."

"But I can't because it's something important that you left behind. It's waiting in the shadows for you to come," she says firmly. "You'll uncover it. You always do."

Madeline pulls back and walks towards her room. Watching her leave I'm suddenly grateful for having her around. Without her I'll be lost. Literally. How does she handle these crap?

I jog up the stairs and head to my room.

Sighing aloud, I throw my backpack on the floor as usual and slam my bedroom door shut.

Just another typical night of dancing away my worries.

I walk over to my window and stare intently up at the full moon.

"Who am I forgetting?" I murmur, "And where are you?"