Forevermore

12: One Week Later

One week later

________________________

It's night. We're in a small town in Florida. (No, I'm still not going to give our location away.) Right now, we're sitting on a deserted beach. I'm on watch while the others are asleep. Angel and Nudge are curled up next to each other a few feet behind me. Gazzy is to my right, Iggy a few feet away from him. Kenzie is back to back with Iggy, holding on tightly to his hand. Her other arm is over Alex, and he curled into her. And Fang was off by himself, laying on his side, looking out at the waves as they crashed before him.

He hasn't spoken since we left the school. I'm used to him being quiet, but not like this. He would at least say a few words to fill in an awkward silence. He would talk to me. When it was just me and him, sometimes he talked more than I did. He was so open. But now he's not. All because the freaking school got their greedy hands back on us.

A few hours after we left the school, I realized we had left Andi. But Fang said nothing about it. I even asked him, and he just shrugged. So we didn't go back for her.

I stand and slowly walk over to Fang. I sit beside him, but not too close. He gets jumpy if someone gets close to him.

"Hey," I say quietly. He looks up at me, then back at the water.

"Still not talking, huh?" He blinks, staying silent.

"I'm sorry for what they did to you. It must have been pretty bad since you're acting so strange." He still says nothing. I slowly push a strand of hair out of his eyes. He tenses when I touch him, but he doesn't recoil. I push his hair out of his eyes, tucking it behind his ears so I can see his eyes. His dark, empty eyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get there fast enough," I whisper. "None of this would have happened if I could have stopped them." He looks up at me, but stays quiet. I pull my hand back from his hair. "I'm here whenever you want to talk. Or if you just want someone to keep you company." He nods slowly and I smile. I stand and go back over to where I was sitting before. I keep watch until the sun starts to rise.