Love Can Heal A Broken Soul

Chapter 2

That night, me and Clara stayed inside, ordered Chinese, and watched movies, trying to stay positive. It wasn't working. Both of us stayed quiet, worrying if she was okay. I kept looking at Clara as I lied against her, constantly seeing tears well up in her eyes.

We kept playing comedy movies on Netflix, but neither of us laughed much. Whenever something funny happened, the only thing I could think about was if Rose was here. How we would all cuddle up on the couch and watch movies with snacks and laugh. It was only two days ago when that had last happened but it felt so much longer.

Eventually it got late, so we turned the T.V off and headed to bed. As I stood up from the couch, Clara went to the kitchen to put away our leftover take-out. I followed her and watch her move around the kitchen. She moved so slowly and there was no emotion in anything she did.

She sighed and leaned against the counter, looking up at me. "You do need to go to school tomorrow you know."

"Yeah I know," I said quietly.

"You should probably get some sleep then," she replied.

"I will."

She looked at me, worried. "Stella? What's up?"

I walked over to her and hugged her. "I'm not leaving, until you break down."

She softly laughed. "Stella, there's no need for th-,"

"No!" I said forcefully. "I know you're hurting and I know that you're gonna cry every night. But if I can be there for you this one time then I'll be happy. I want to be there for you like you have been for me. Please...just let me be here for you."

She went still for a moment before she hugged me tightly. Her breathing got heavier and I knew it was coming. Soft cries, then hard sobs. Her body shakes with each breath she took and I knew she had been holding this back all day.

It was a few minutes before she settled down. I held her the entire time until she calmed down. Her grip on me softened and I pulled away enough to look at her. Her face was a mess and she must've thought the same thing since she started to laugh and wipe her face.

"Thank you Stella," she said. "I honestly needed that."

I smiled. "I know you did."

She finished wiping her eyes and smiled at me. "Now I think it's time to finish this day, yeah?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm ready for it to be over with."

We said our good nights and I headed to my room. As I closed the door, I was the one to break down. My chest heaved with the sobs that came out. It hurt so badly. First Alayna left, now Rose was gone too. But this time was worse. Someone took Rose and right now there wasn't a clue who it was. Detective Andrews sent Clara a text earlier that day that they would give us more information tomorrow.

I crawled into bed and closed my eyes, ignoring the tears that came. I tried so hard to ignore the constant nagging in my head that it was my fault. Clara was right. Rose wouldn't want me to think this way. I grabbed my phone and turned on some music, letting it distract me enough to fall asleep.

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I woke up, opening my eyes slowly. For once I didn't have any nightmares. I didn't dream about anything. Clara was sitting at the edge of my bed and it looked like she was spaced out.

I sat up and looked at her, rubbing my eyes. "Clara?"

She snapped her head up to me and smile. "Sorry, I didn't know you woke up."

"It's okay, but are you okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah I'm fine. Just didn't sleep much. Come on, I'll make you breakfast."