Please Don't Leave Me Behind Again (Completed)

Chapter Sixty

Woot! Look at that beautiful number. Sixty. Wow! Thank you for all your support and for taking the time in investing in Sang's journey for this book. We still have a bit to go so don't worry! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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**| Sang's POV |**

Thursday couldn't come fast enough. I kept checking my phone, hoping North or Silas would reach out to me because I wasn't supposed to reach out to them.

After the box opening, Nathan brought me home and stayed the night while they waited for Brandon and Corey to come pick me up. I worried Maria wasn't going to show up because she didn't come home last night even though she was at school during they day.

When Maria came back home that night, I was relieved despite the fact that she had glared at me before locking herself in her room and blaring the music loud enough to shake the walls. At least she kept going to school and came home. That was all that I asked, that she kept going to school and stayed out of trouble.

When Wednesday finally came, I was a disaster. Everyone did the best they could to distract me but I just couldn't. I knew tonight, North and Silas were going to the dinner party the Toma team mentioned on Monday. My mind kept flashing to those photos in the box. All I knew about it was that Corey and Brandon were the ones shifting through it, trying to connect everything that needed to be connected. I didn't want to know more and Mr. Blackbourne must have sensed it because he didn't tell me more even though I knew there was more to be told.

And to make things worse, it was like once I met Helen and talked with her a couple of times, I began seeing her everywhere. I spotted her in the halls a few times between classes, there was even a flyer up for cheerleading and she was on it. And now she was here, in the courtyard, eating a packed lunch with Jade and the rest of the cheerleaders. It hurt to see her. I did miss her. I had opened up to her about my family and what my stepmother did to me and she listened and supported me. A couple of times, she even patched me up.

But now. We were strangers and she wanted nothing to do with me. I wasn't a connection. I wasn't someone she needed. She was no longer that little girl daring me to jump from tree to tree or racing me across a field, or spinning until we were too dizzy and fell onto the ground. She no longer told me about what she wanted out of the future, about her dream to travel the world and see everything, all while being an acrobat.

She wouldn't even spare me a glance anymore. I was nothing to her. It hurt.

"Stop looking at her," Gabriel said, moving into my line of sight and blocking my view of Helen. "She doesn't matter anymore and you need to stop doing this to yourself." He gripped my face and tilted my face up so I could look up at him. "I don't like all this sadness in you. It doesn't belong there," he whispered and leaned his forehead against mine. "Please come back to us. We miss you. We miss hearing your sweet giggles and that beautiful fucking voice."

I drew in a breath and focused on Gabriel's crystal blue eyes which were watering up and beginning to look like ocean water.

"I'll stop," I said. "I'm sorry, Meanie. I'll stop."

His body slumped as he let out a rush of air. He stepped back and I realized I was worrying all of them, making them hurt. I was letting Helen destroy the only relationships that really mattered to me right now. I needed them.

I gave everyone a weak smile. "So what were we talking about?" I asked.

Victor's eyes lit up, the fire in them deepening. "Gabe has a piece of artwork that will be put in the school's art exhibit," he answered.