Letters by Her [Book 2]

Chapter 24

Dusty sat looking out of her bedroom window at the trees swaying lightly in the breeze. Her heart felt heavy as she watched the leaves dancing to a silent song. She liked to just sit and watch the world from her window; it helped calm her.

A tactic she had employed since she was a young girl. Normally when she sat in such a melancholy stance, it wouldn't take long for her father to gently knock on her bedroom door before entering and asking what was wrong. He was always so in tune with his daughter's feelings, knowing instinctively when something wasn't right. Kayla Black had never been able to hone such intuitiveness between herself and Dusty.

Sighing, Dusty allowed herself to momentarily mourn her deceased father. She tried to limit the time she spent missing him, knowing it did more bad than good these days, especially since she was so often wracked with guilt as minor details no longer had room within her memory bank. But today she missed him. She knew that if she were back in their grand home in West, he'd be outside tending to the garden and notice her gazing forlornly at the trees. He'd wait another half hour or so before coming up and asking, his face pinched with concern, what was wrong. And whatever the problem was that was occupying Dusty's thoughts, her father always knew the answer. He was the greatest man she had ever known, and she knew that no other man would ever come close to him.

Dusty scowled at the thought of him, wishing she could remove him from her mind, erase their time together so that she didn't have to feel this constant pain, this never-ending sense of emptiness. A gentle knock against the bedroom door surprised Dusty, and for a moment she wondered if she was dreaming and somehow magically back in West and when the door was pushed open, her father would be there, ready to solve all her problems. But it was Ashley who entered.

"Ash, you don't need to knock in your own room." Dusty turned briefly to address her friend, who remained hovering nervously in the doorway. "What's wrong?" Dusty turned from the window, giving Ashley her full attention.

"I didn't know whether to come up here and get you or not." Ashley wrung her hands together repeatedly, her feet pacing on the spot.

"Tell me what?"

"You know her of whom we do not speak?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, sadly I do." A few days ago Ashley had made Dusty swear never to speak of Kyera again, insisting it was essential to her recovery from the relationship that her lips never again uttered her name. In theory, it sounded like a decent enough idea, but in practice Dusty had found that it wasn't working.

"Well..." Ashley glanced nervously around the room, biting her lip as she thought about what to say next.

"What is it?" Dusty was growing anxious.

"She's here, at the front door. Asking to see you." Ashley dropped the bombshell and let the dust settle around them before speaking again.

"I wasn't sure whether to even tell you or not, but I thought that I should."

"No, thanks. I'm glad you did," Dusty managed to reply, though she felt sick to her stomach and was struggling to suppress the urge to vomit all over her bedspread.

"Are you going to go and see her?"

"I... I guess that I should." Dusty didn't sound certain.

"You might finally get closure," Ashley suggested.

"Yeah, maybe."

****

Kyera Aroura was leaning against the open door frame of the Kappa Pi house as though she didn't have a care in the world, an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips. She was too preoccupied with looking into the room to notice Dusty descending the opulent staircase.