Far Away

Chapter 3

She let her hand fall back to her side, as she found her way to her favorite spot, passing a myriad of flowers of different shades of colours, various sizes and and each with a unique scent. Her favorite spot was a bench opposite a row of purple rose bushes. Valerie never failed to sit here when she found time to visit the park and the beautiful fragrance of the roses made her wish she had a perfume just like it. Before she sat down on the bench she put her nose to one and took a slow, deep breath. Then she looked down to the rose on her wrist. 

Even though Valerie and Trevor had started hanging out again, neither of them had ever talked about actually starting a relationship. They simply just enjoyed each other's company. And a couple of months after the day, Trevor, gave her the bracelet. He had gotten a new girlfriend, Elise. That had been a difficult time for her, because she still had feelings for him. That's when she started avoiding him again, until Trevor and Elise had broken up. Elise had gotten pregnant, with another guy's child while she was still dating Trevor. 

That incident had hurt Trevor, deeply. He started avoiding his friends, up to the point even his own family did not know where he disappeared to most of the time. Then he had gone missing for a week. Worried, Valerie, Scott, Nina and Laura had gone looking for him. She was the one who found him. Trevor had been hiding out at a cove near the beach. It was a place he had shown her once before. Trevor and herself were the only people who knew about it. 

When she found him, Valerie just sat down next to him. Eventually they started talking and he told her everything that had happened. And slowly she had helped him deal with the pain. It had been sad to see him so utterly defeated and crushed. When she had seen the pain in his eyes all she had wanted to do was hold him and protect him from all the pain in the world. During those hours Trevor had let her in a place he never let anyone go before and he had talked about the day his father had died. She shivered as the memories of that day came flooding back. 

* 

The day his father Richard Durant, died that's when everything changed. There was not much to laugh about anymore. Left with only his Mother, Emily, older brother, Adrian, older sister, Lillian and younger brother, Daniel. But Trevor somehow felt left out. 

They had more than enough material things, but Trevor always felt the need for an emotional link which only up till then his father provided him. After he died he felt like his whole world was turned upside down. 

His mother was always too busy with something. Trevor and Adrian, were never really close and rarely talked, and Adrian, was out of the country in England for his college. Lillian, was in France at a boarding school, and even when she was around she and Francis fought more often than not. And Danny, was too young to understand, he was mother's favorite and usually got all the attention Trevor wish he still had. The Durants had it all but he did not want it all, he wanted his father back. 

Trevor woke up slowly, lazily working himself out of the cobwebs of sleep. It was sunny outside the weather not too warm not too cool. A happy day. But then as Trevor pulled away the covers everything came back slowly and when he realized where he was the harsh reality slowly crept in. His father had not lived to see this day. 

He was laying in his father's bed in his parents room he had come here the previous night and had cried himself to sleep. His mother was nowhere to be seen, but she must have been here at some point because she had left him a suit on the bed. Trust her not to leave out any details. He did not feel like getting out of bed but he knew if he did not his mother would fuss. 

Trevor took a bath and brushed his teeth and combed his hair. Then wore the clothes that were laid out for him. Then he walked out the room and went into the dinning room. His whole family was there and he sat where he usually sat and just started playing with his food until everybody was finished with theirs and stood up.