Always One More.... [Finished]

Day 30

Karyl looked back at the dorm. Her roommate was back inside, rearranging their room since she'd moved all her stuff out earlier that morning. They'd said goodbye, exchanged hugs and a few fun tips for adjusting without each other.

Now, she stood in front of her father's car, hesitating. She hated leaving the dorm. The life of a college student held everything she'd ever wanted. All the people, fun and seriousness, the drama and friendships.

The enemies she could deal without. A smile drew up her lips at the memory of what happened with Brooklyn. Four days in the woods, then return to campus. She'd tried to call the cops on them all, but without proof of anything that happened to her or who did it, her case got pushed aside until further notice.

Turning to the street, she looked up over the hood of her father's car. Her smile fell, her heart picking up speed as joy and glee mixed together inside her.

Across the street, standing at the bus stop, stood Louis. He stared at her, watching quietly. In his hands hung the bag she'd given him the day before. A simple blue string backpack with the words I know an angel across the front in silver and white, cursive font.

Yesterday, when she'd given him the bag, it was over lunch. For the first time in two days, they'd gotten together for more than a few scant moments, holding a real conversation.

Neither brought up what happened days ago, or love, until the end of lunch.

Louis grabbed her arm when she went to stand. "Karyl, please, just one thing I want to know before you leave tomorrow."

"What? Oh, and one more thing." She'd given him the blue bag. "Take care of... this. Please. If only in honor of our friendship."

He stared at the bag for a minute, then sighed. "Okay, I'll take care of it." He pulled the bag to his seat and set it down. "Now, for my question."

"Shoot." She sat back down.

"At least tell me why you can't stay. Why you have to leave in the first place."

Staring at Louis now, she wondered if telling him why had been the best idea. As she explained to him yesterday the why of it all, she'd watched the light in his eyes dim. He'd lost some of his inner fire with every word she'd said. Until she felt like not Louis, but a pile of cold ashes sat across the table from her.

"I'm sorry, Louis. But since Astella is in that coma, I have to take her place. I'll be marrying the Mastrons' heir, and eventually, we'll be ruling the Mastron family. I wish things were different, but they just aren't. And there's nothing I can do about it."

Now, they stared at each other, neither moving, just staring.

She watched him until the bus came, blocking her view of him. Thought it was dumb, frustration at the bus rose in her. The stupid thing chose now to block her view? Really?

She let out a breath as the bus pulled away. The feeling quickly melted into a gaping hole in her chest.

Louis was gone.

Refusing to let her father know how much pain she bore right then - he waited for her inside the car - she forced herself to wear a mask of indifference. Not caring.

She crawled into the car, taking the seat furthest from her father. All her sisters and her mother were there as well, questions firing at her rapidly as they wondered what college had been like.

Karyl said nothing, letting her father take control and quiet her family as she stared at the bus stop until it disappeared from view.

No one said anything about losing. Nobody said that when it comes to an end, it feels like the person becomes an empty shell; a waste of space. Moms and Aeron and nobody else said that love is a losing game.

Louis never realized that losing Karyl would turn him into a ghost - flesh over his bones and blood in his veins, but a broken record in his chest repeating the same thud thud thud all the time.

It was feasible that, if he'd been warned, if someone had taken the time to sit him down and spell it all out, he'd have thought it through. Perhaps he would have gone another way, changed his mind, done something different. Maybe then his life, up to this day, would have taken a different path.

Or, more likely, he would have just stuck with the path he chose, and gone down the same road he did. Who knows?

Now, with Karyl gone, he had his pictures, short phone videos, and a stuffed koala named Joe to keep him company as he lay in his cold bed. Eyes are glued to the ceiling, the videos played on in the background, the sounds making his eyes sting with tears. Karyl's voice, her laughter and smile and her wonderful self, all captured on his phone. Remnants of such a beautiful woman.

Just like his memories. Always, forever, these precious memories of the best 30 days of his life.

But that was it. No more. And he'd never see her again.

He closed his eyes, listening to her voice as the videos repeated. A phrase kept running through his mind, the only counterpoint to the thud thud thud of his heart.

Always one more. There's always one more.