They Could Care Less

54: Death is Inevitable

"More salad?" Damon asked and pushed the bowl of salad over.

"I'm good," Thea replied and moved her potato around on her plate.

"You seemed... distant when you came back out from the church after you had gone inside to look for your jacket, which was in my car, did something happen in there?" Damon stated more than asked. Every single word the psychologist had told Thea was replayed in her head. She bit her lip not to break out into tears and looked up at Damon.

"Why do the most beautiful people die?" Thea asked and Damon stopped eating. He looked up and put his fork and knife down.

"Why do people look up at the sky during the night?" he replied with a question, a question that Thea in no way could connect to her own question.

"To watch the stars?"

"Exactly, although it isn't true that all stars in our sky is dead, a few of them are. And we watch them as they all die, oblivious to the fact that some are already dead." His words sunk in, but Thea still didn't fully understand what he meant. He noticed her confusion and tiredly smiled.

"You'll understand one day," he said and picked his cutlery up again. "Death is inevitable, we're all dying. God gifted you with the people around you, and he can just as easily take them back," he said and continued to eat his dinner. Thea kept staring in confusion, doing her best to put some sort of meaning to her dad's words. He noticed the confusion in her face again and sighed, he gave up on trying to make her understand. "Call Jackson, talk to him."

"Right now?"

"Yes!" he yelled and Thea was already out the door. She found her phone in her room and began a text to Jackson.

To: Jackson

Hey, wanna meet?

Her thumb hovered over the send button, but soon it moved to the delete button and she tried again.

To: Jackson

What's up? Drinks?

No, she sounded to cheerful, and she was far from cheerful. She pressed the delete button again as Amelia came walking in with her tail gracefully in the air. She jumped up on the bed and made herself comfortable.

To: Jackson

I'll be over in ten minutes.

She pressed send before she could overthink it, she grabbed her phone and keys, and made her way to the front door.

"I'm going out!" she called and heard Damon hum something short in reply, Thea also heard the TV. He was probably watching some game as always.

With a heart that was pumping too much blood for her body to use, she pulled her keys out with slightly shakings hands. She hadn't been here for over a year, nor had she ever returned the keys. Not that Jackson would know if she did, he was never home. She unlocked the door with a much familiar click and walked inside. She locked the door and looked around, it looked the exact same as before except... it now looked like no one lived here. The warmth this penthouse once had was gone, and the little messes scattered across the rooms were now gone.

"Hello?" she called out and walked towards the kitchen where she heard someone fumbling. She walked in and saw Jackson cooking cup noodles for himself.

"Want one?" he asked and looked up with a weak and tired smile. Thea nodded and hesitantly sat down. Is this a good idea? she asked herself and took her jacket off.

"What have you been up to for the past year then?" he asked as if nothing had happened and put a cup of noodles in front of her.

"Travelling," Thea answered and picked her chopsticks up with expertise.