The Guardian Wars: Part One #Wattys2016

Chapter Twelve

 Rowan left me on a Thursday. It was the following Saturday before I changed out of my red opera dress. I was consumed with worry, and hadn't been able to sleep until I accidentally fell asleep on Sunday afternoon. I stayed in bed until Monday evening when Mabel inexplicably showed up. On Tuesday, she finally persuaded me to eat something. It was Wednesday before I showered and combed my hair. When I woke up the next Thursday, Rowan had already been gone for a full week.

After Rowan left me that night, the police showed up looking for him. All they found was me in my red dress, sitting on the floor where he had left me. Tears where streaming down my face, and my lipstick was smeared across my mouth from his goodbye kiss. They searched the apartment and explained to me that they were sending out responders to track him down. I begged them not to. I told them what had happened, and how Penn had attacked me. I explained that Rowan was only doing his job by protecting me. They didn't listen. They kept reassuring me that Penn would be ok, and that he had already given his statement. I didn't care about Penn. I hoped he would never be ok. I wished Rowan had shattered his whole face instead of just his nose. When the police left, they offered to call my mother. Again, I begged them not to, and that time they listened. I couldn't bear to entertain her one sided opinion on what had happened.

Mabel wouldn't tell me how she had found out about Rowan. She just showed up Monday night and found me laying in bed with my face still smeared with makeup, wearing one of Rowan's t-shirts. When she asked me if I was hungry I shamefully admitted that I hadn't eaten since Rowan had left. She ripped me out of bed and sat me at the dining room table while she made me dinner. I ate my meal slowly, then went back to bed.

Mabel stayed the night and woke me up the next morning by tossing me in the shower. She told me that if I didn't bathe myself she would get in and do it for me. I showered and found a giant breakfast set out for me at the dining table. I was grateful that she hadn't yet tried to serve me in the kitchen. That was where Rowan and I ate, and I didn't want to eat there without him. Mabel then made me stay up all day when I suggested going back to bed after lunch.

"Rowan is not dead, Olivia. Don't mourn him," Mabel had told me. She was right, I just didn't know how to exist without him there. We spent most of that day sitting around on my purple couches watching TV and talking. Mabel was very good at the art of distraction.

"So, you and Rowan?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. I blushed and looked away.

"Come on, Olivia! You don't have to lie to me!" She tossed a couch pillow at me.

I stifled a laugh. I was still too wrapped up in my own self-pity to allow myself to feel happy.

"I love him," I said with a small shrug, "He loves me. There's not much more to say." Mabel hugged a pillow to her chest and faked a dramatic swoon.

"How romantic!" she giggled. I allowed myself to smile a little before tossing her couch pillow back at her.

"I miss him," I said after a few minutes of silence. Mabel didn't answer. She just gave me a sympathetic nod. I remembered then that she had recently had to say goodbye to her brother, Clive.

"I keep forgetting that Clive had to leave, too," I said quietly.

"I've spent most of my life missing my big brother. What's a few more weeks?" she asked with a sad smile. I smiled back, hoping she understood how grateful I was for her company. Suddenly our television show was interrupted by an urgent news announcement. A "Breaking News" banner flashed across the bottom of my TV screen. We both turned our attention from one another to the newscast.

"All Sectors, please be aware that a dangerous fugitive is still on the run," a man's voice told us. Rowan's face filled the screen as the announcer continued.