A Month To Live

A Month To Live (Epilogue)

It was the middle of the summer now. Remi’s eighteenth birthday had come and gone and we’d also visited Bradley’s mom’s grave on the day of the anniversary. It wasn’t as depressing as I thought it’d be to be honest. We all just talked and Bradley and Remi told me lots of stories that they remembered about her.

Best of all, their dad even came. Despite what he said about going away for work. I don't know what changed his mind - whether it was Bradley yelling at him that time or something else - but he did seem to be more... present than before. Maybe that was just because I was basically at the house everyday. But, then again, I pretty much lived at the house before anyway.

After much persuading, and quite a lot of luck, I managed to convince my parents to stay in Richmond over summer. I'm pretty sure Bradley's charm was what convinced my mom. She adored him. As soon as she saw that gorgeous smile of his, she made me promise not to let him go. Not that I needed any encouragement.

I managed to afford another month's rent before going on a job hunt. Bradley insisted that I just stay at his but in all honesty I liked having my own space. We could hang out at my apartment without anyone barging in on us. Plus, if my parents wanted to visit then they actually had somewhere we could sit that belonged to me. One of my mom's rules was that we saw each other at least once a fortnight. Either by me going back home or them coming over to visit.

It wasn't so bad living next to Tommy now either. I managed to force Bradley to go over and talk things out with him. Tommy had done a lot for us and he was going through so much himself it made my heart ache. It was actually fun getting to know him too. He was definitely one of the weirdest guys I'd ever met. In a good way, that is. I did still find a lot of similarities between us though and I knew he noticed them too by the appraising look he sometimes gave me.

He and Bradley were soon thick as thieves again. I couldn't tell what surprised our friends more, me and Bradley finally getting together or Bradley and Tommy becoming pals again.

Telling the others about everything that had happened was... not easy. I had to repeat it a few times too so I think I may have come across as almost bored by the time I finished telling them all. Funnily enough, the one who was most pissed off with me was George. It was a long process, involving a lot of alcohol, before he finally forgave me.

Tara was annoyed but not as much as George. She just wished she'd been there to help me through it. I hadn't even hung out with Lisa or Davy outside of the group so it wasn't too difficult to fill them in either. Kyle did end up giving me a long hug when I first saw him again. It made me kind of emotional too. He wasn't exactly the most... hmm how to say it? Forthcoming with his emotions. I mean, it had taken him a year to even 'fess up that he liked Remi so I was pretty touched.

'And you call me charming,' Bradley had whispered. 'You know how long it took Remi to get a hug out of that guy?'

But things weren’t all happy-go-lucky. Tommy’s mom had steadily been getting worse over the last few weeks and one day she was just gone.

She died in mid-June and he was devastated to say the least. Bradley and I spent a lot of time over at his place. It was tough on Bradley too. He'd known her almost all his life from when he and Tommy had grown up together as kids. It also reminded him of his own mom's death. Even though it was an awful situation, I was happy they had each other. I'm not sure what Tommy would have done otherwise. He had no one else.

I'd never been to a funeral before. I didn't remember much of it. I remembered pretty much sticking like glue to Bradley’s side the whole time. I couldn't bear to be left alone. I also remembered Tommy’s face very clearly. It was hard and quite devoid of any emotion. If I thought he was good at hiding his thoughts before, then I was sorely wrong. He hadn't even been trying back then. It was one of the only times I'd managed to hold his hand without him pulling away. The fact that he allowed me to, was the only sign he gave that he actually needed comfort.