Forever

XIV

A week later

Almost everyone was wearing black, the Anderson's house were crowded with people sending sympathies and condolences to Olivia's parents—from neighbours, collegiate acquaintances, to the people that they didn't know that much until that time. Austin and Lauren stormed in their house, and they were eventually met by Olivia's mum who was the done talking to the mayor of their place. Lauren walked towards her, opening her arms to which her mum accepted.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Anderson," she said, and Olivia's mum hugged her tighter, burying her face on the crook of her neck.

"Thank you for coming," she replied to Lauren, to which she nodded at.

"Of course, Mrs. Anderson," she returned as they broke the hug, squeezing her hand in a reassuring manner. Olivia's mum looked at Austin who was standing awkwardly behind Lauren, giving him a sympathetic smile.

"Austin," she called out to him, letting go of Lauren's hand. She walked towards him and gave him a hug. Austin patted her back comfortably.

When they pull away from each other, Austin hesitantly asked her. "Uh, Mrs. Anderson, can I go to her room?"

Olivia's mum just gave him a faint nod as Lauren went to the living room to meet others. "You know your way," she said to Austin, to which he nodded at.

Excusing himself, he walked upstairs just to find Olivia's door slightly opened. He held the door knob as he heaved a deep sigh, before pushing the door open. The room looked like it had been before, but at that moment it has an aura surrounding it that made it feel... empty.

"You know, there had been two news that came to us today," Olivia spoke up, as Austin sat on the edge of her bed. She swivelled on her seat, just as when Austin noticed she had been crying. "One, my doctor called us about the result of my test yesterday. He said that it came positive and my body is responding cooperatively with the medicines. I have been also assured that if this continues, I can actually outgrow it," she said to him as she smoothed down the fabric of her black dress. "We were so happy about that, Austin. We were happy," she stated, her voice failing her to articulate the words comprehensively. Austin stood up from the bed and walked nearer to her. Olivia kept her gaze down through all of it, so she saw the moment Austin kneeled in front of her and held her hands.

"And then this came..." She continued, sniffling. "The army called and said my brother was dead-on-the-spot on their encounter with the rebels. And you know what's worse? We can't even recognise him because of how worse the attack was! Austin, tell me, why is it all like this?" She exclaimed as she cried mercilessly in front of him. Austin didn't know what to do, and seeing her like this made his heart ached. He hugged her like a lost child and he tried to send her comfort, but he knew that it will not mask all the pain she had been feeling. At that moment he just hugged her with all his might, knowing that was all he could do to at least help ease even a little of the pain.

Her sobs turned into a faint sniffs, until after quite some time she felt heavy in his arms. Austin pulled back to look at her, only to see that she had drifted off to sleep. Pushing back the hair that had covered her face, he kissed her forehead before carrying her to bed. When she was settled and sound, Austin went to her study area to arrange the chair she had been sitting on when he noticed a notepad opened, with a lot of scribbles on it. But what had caught his attention were the underlined words on the upper middle part of the paper.

Song for Austin's competition

Under that line greeted him several stanzas of lyrics, messily scribbled and even with erasures. Austin grabbed the notepad, examining the lyrics, the melody he made long time ago dancing in his head as he read the words. He let out a chuckle of disbelief and amazement, looking at Olivia who was looking peacefully sleeping on her bed.

Right then and there, he sat on the chair, grabbed her pen, and started writing down the words to continue Olivia's work.