Strawberry Fields

8

William's POV

It had happened all too sudden. I don't necessarily even remember what happened or how we had gotten ourselves into the situation we were in.

I remember my brother Nico being daring and telling me to bring our baby sister with us as we sat in the our parents car. We planned on driving to the end of the street and then coming back home before our parents could wake up.

He started the car and we drove down our long winding road, at first slowly and then the speed increased. Nico had told us to hold on and I held her close to me as Nico attempted a U-Turn for his very first time.

He started to turn and once we realized the turn was too sharp we braced ourselves for the worst but what happened was even worse than we could've imagined.

As the car turned, the car began to slid and we hit a large oak tree on our pathway back towards the house. Once the car crashed, we hit the tree with a large crash and I blacked out while realizing my sweet sister wasn't in my hands anymore.

Hours later I woke up with my head wrapped in a bandage and my arm in a sling. My mother sat by my side, tears streaming down her face and my father clutched on to my mothers shoulder. A doctor came in and told me that my arm was crushed in the crash and I hit my head on the dash.

Nico was supposedly fine and was sent away to boarding school after the crash had been discovered by my parents and my sister was dead. My grip on her wasn't as tight as I imagined and she flew through the windshield breaking her skull open on the immediate impact.

I cried for hours that day once I was released from the hospital. My little sister was gone from this world because I didn't hold onto her tight enough. I didn't even think of putting a seatbelt on her because I thought that I could protect her since I was the her big brother. The memory of her has haunted me ever since.

I am brought out of my thoughts of the horrific night when Grace calls my name.

"William?" She says delicately as if I were a bomb about to go off. I turn to her to signal for her to go on with her sentence and then she speaks up.

"I don't know if it's safe for us to be together." She says while staring down at the water that must be getting cold by now. I reach out for her but she moves away just as my fingertips are about to caress her skin.

"Why? I know that it's a lot to take in but I love you. I can back off if you want. You deserve to know how I feel." I say to her while tears threaten my own eyes this time.

"I'm not well enough to have a relationship. I think we should just stay friends." She says while continuing to stare down. I lift her head for her to look at me and she flinches at my touch slightly.

"Grace. Everyone has demons. I have my own. I can help you." I say and as soon as I try to continue to hold her she lashes out.

"I don't need your pity because I pity myself enough. I'm broken and no one can fix me. You don't understand what goes on through my head William. I'm a destructive person and I can't bring you down as well. It's too dangerous and selfish of me to ask such a thing." She says while trying to keep her voice down.

"It's not selfish if I am willing to be by your side Grace. I love you that much. Please don't do this." I say with tears now streaming down my cheeks.

"William, this is what I have to do. It's what's best for us. I can't handle being responsible for your unhappiness but I can't let you bring yourself down in this relationship." She says with kind eyes. She's trying to let me down delicately but my heart feels as if she has just thrown it onto the floor and it's shatter both the floor and my heart.

"But I...." Before I can finish my sentence, she speaks up for the final time tonight.

"I think you should just go ahead and go to bed. We can talk more in the morning." She says and I oblige her wishes. I walk over to the comfy bed and I lay down in the familiar section I was once laying in. I fall asleep to the sound of her crying and my own heart breaking.

...

I wake up in the morning from the sun blaring in my eyes and when I roll over in the cloud-like bed, I see Grace's back facing me. I wonder how long it took her to fall asleep and I wonder why I didn't hear her slip in next to me.

I take the liberty of letting her rest while I look around her room for a piece of paper and something to write with. I don't want to be rude and not tell her where I went so I decide to leave her a note.

Grace,
I thought about everything you said last night. If you want me to back off then I will. I'll remain your friend for the sake of you but I just want you to know that these feelings I have can't go away. I took the liberty of leaving early this morning so I wouldn't wake you and ruin your day. I love you.
William

I leave the note on her nightstand before getting dressed quickly and leaving minutes later. On the way out, I say "bye" to her brothers and sisters who are awake at such an early time. As I get into my car, I think of what I could've done wrong that could've ruined us last night.

On the drive home, I am lost in thought and can't help but let a few tears escape knowing that I've now lost the two most important girls of my entire life and it was because of me and my stupid ways.

...

I lay in bed while listening to Chris talk about some girl he hooked up with yesterday. He goes on about how drunk she was and how he didn't even like her but I didn't give one fuck about him and his sexual conquests

"Dude are you even listening?" He says while checking his phone.

"I am." I say and suddenly my phone vibrates. I throw my phone to the side and hope it's not Grace because I don't want to talk about the terrible night and our terrible confessions to each other.

Chris sees me throw my phone and picks it up from the cold hardwood. He turns it on and then speaks up.

"Ooh. Grace texted you. She says that she's coming over." At the sound of his last breath, I kick him out and suddenly make my appearance look as if I haven't been mourning the loss of our relationship.