On The Edge of Invisible.

Chapter 8 • almost protective

Matthew

I watched as her small body glided away, gentle and swift, like a bird in flight. Leaving me in pieces. One confused, the others worried and hurt.

It was just Aaron and I, alone on the beach. Immediately I glared at him, "You! You did this!"

He glared back at me, a smirk planted squarely on his lips, "No such thing."

I felt fire inside of me as he continued to smile.

"You're a sick excuse for a human being."

He laughed a cynical laugh before gritting his teeth, "She didn't want me Matty, so why don't you ask your baby cancer patient why she couldn't have you."

My breath caught in my chest both at the nickname used and the information revealed,

cancer?

"What?"

"You heard me."

The disgusting lack of respect he had for other people's secrets and feelings astonished me. In that moment, I lost control of myself, "You're so inconsiderate of everyone else's feelings. You are a low life piece of shit that can't stand it for one second to see anyone but yourself happy. And with that said you just ruined not 1, or 2, but 3 lives. Including your own."

I felt my fist make contact with his jaw before my mind could decide any different. I struck him again, and again and again until I couldn't feel my hands. I leaned in real close and whispered, "Stay away from Grace or I'll make sure you go to hell next time."

I stood up, grabbing a few towels and Grace's clothes and ran in the direction that Grace had gone, hoping to catch up with her and find her. It wasn't as hard as I thought seeing as she had run through the wet sand, leaving her prints. I followed them quickly until they stopped beneath a boardwalk similar to the one we had been under earlier in the day.

Turning slightly I caught a glimpse of her sitting on a log, her frame barely visible against the moonlit sky.mShe shook from sobs that echoed through the silent night. I quietly approached her from behind and wrapped a towel around her unclothed, cold body before I sat down beside her in the damp sand. My fingers fiddled with my busted up knuckles.

That was going to hurt later when the adrenaline wore off, but I couldn't care less.

Cancer. She had cancer?

That's why she didn't want to talk about it, why she struggles so hard with her family. When you have cancer you affect those around you. She thinks it's her fault. I stayed quiet for a while, I had no idea what to say, but I realized in that moment that sometimes just being there was more than enough.

The sun started to peek up from behind the ocean's waves. She had stopped crying as hard and all I heard now was small whimpers.

"It's not like you think." My words were shaky, yet strong and I heard Grace go silent.

"What?" Her voice was dry and empty.

"Killing yourself."

She smirked, "How would you know?"

I felt anger and hatred towards myself and what I had done rising in my chest but cooled off quickly.

Not now.

"Never mind, I guess you're right, I wouldn't know anything about it."

She was quiet and I took another deep breath. The pain was unbearable as I rested my head in my hands, "Matt-"

"Please, never say you want to die, please Grace." I interrupted.

Good, the subject drifted away from my inconvenient death as she looked away at my words, "I guess at the time I just.. Couldn't find a reason to live.. If I'm living right now, I don't know.."