Nine Ways of Forgiveness

Chapter 3

Wow. It's been almost a year. I have not forgotten about this story. I've just been focused on getting my life together. And yes. I realize this is a short chapter, but I wanted to give you guys something.

Gabriel

Years. Years of this torture. I spotted Kota sitting on a bench with his wife and I sighed. My gaze shifted to the kids playing on the jungle gym. My thoughts drifted to my stunning Trouble with her down-right fucking gorgeous chameleon hair. When this fucking mess blew over and we could go back to our regularly scheduled lives, she wasn't leaving my fucking sight ever again. If she would take me back, that was . . . Stupid fucking witness protection program, taking what we love from our lives. I still can't believe we agreed to this "mission."

I looked around at the semi-familiar sights of Charleston. We weren't even supposed to be here. We were supposed to be in some stupid town in Iowa. Why the actual hell would anyone choose to live there? None of us could actually stay away from Sang. Curse our huge fucking hearts, always wanting to help people!

The familiar scent of summers in Charleston had me sighing. It was nice, sure. But it was shit compared to the memory of the fruity perfume I made Trouble all those years ago. The memory of the perfume brought on a flood of memories starring my Trouble and I sighed, trying not to bawl like an infant.

Since we had to leave the love of our lives, we just kind of . . . went downhill. We were like snowballs; getting bigger as we rolled. Our problems just kept getting worse as time went by. North's drinking problem had gotten to be daily and we couldn't trust him to be our designated driver anymore even though he protested it each time. Luke almost never came out of his head nowadays. He rarely even ate. He would really only come out of his head for his night time paintball games, but even then . . . he distanced himself. Kota and Mr. Blackbourne seemed the most put together and they're the ones who kept us all strong when we wanted to give up.

The wind blew my russet hair in my eyes and I ran my hand through the locks to get them out of my face. I no longer had the blond in my hair since it reminded me too much of Sang. So, I let it grow out before chopping it all off. And if that wasn't ridiculous enough, neither Luke nor I could look at a clip without thinking of her. Fucking clips! Clips had us practically in tears now! We had been reduced to fucking wusses. All because we didn't have a certain green-eyed, chameleon haired beauty in our lives.

A wind brushed past me, carrying away those haunting memories of her green eyes. I had been spacing out so much now that we were back in Charleston that I was beginning to feel like Luke.

Even now, I was distracted thinking about painting a mural at our new place - I should probably go to a hobby store to get supplies for that - while watching a stunning little girl swing with ease across the monkey bars. Something about her drew me towards the edge of the playground, but Luke's hand on my shoulder stopped me before I had gone too far. I glanced at him. "Dude. What are you doing?" he asked, frowning in confusion at me.

I looked back at the little girl, realizing who she reminded me of when I saw her bright green eyes. Sang. My Trouble. I sighed. "Nothing, Luke. Let's just go."

Ever since we arrived in Charleston, I've seen Sang everywhere I've gone. From the little girl's green eyes, to the soft pink blouse the lady on the street was wearing, to the smell of Cowboy Soup from a nearby restaurant. She was everywhere I looked. Yet, at the same time, she was nowhere. I turned around and started heading back the way we had come.

Back to torture.

Back to another day without the love of my life.