Studying The Star Crossed Lovers

❧Chapter 6☙

Hung be the heavens with black! Yield, day, to night!

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Claire was in pain. Her hair was being yanked in every which direction and she had been burnt by her own god damn hair. There were three people in Annie's bedroom that Annie had never met. Claire knew them well and it was safe to say she despised them. One was the person pulling at her hair, another was applying a stupid amount of makeup and the other was picking from racks of clothes and shoes that they had brought. 

While Claire hated every minute of it she did look stunning. Her shoes and dress were black. A small veil covered her face but you could still see every inch of the perfectly painted skin. The strap of a designer handbag hung off her shoulders, the bag filled with tissues. 

Claire felt gross. She felt dirty. She was just a pawn in her Mother's show. She was all made up like a new doll that a child would show off to all its friends. Many had trophy husbands and wives but Claire was a trophy daughter to her family.

"Keep it up. Give more smiles but make them sad." Whispered her Mother as she gripped tightly onto her daughter's shoulders. Real tears slid down Claire's face as she thought of her cousin but Claire's mother smiled believing her daughter was just putting on a show. 

"I'm so sorry for your loss." Said a young girl that went to school with Justin. 

"Egh she always wanted him you know?" Snapped Claire's mother once the girl got far enough away for her not to hear the words Claire's mother was saying.

"Mum stop it. It is Justin's funeral and I get that you were fucking him so this must be really hard for you but dear God please stop!" Said Claire as she left her shocked mother who never realized her daughter knew about her forbidden affair. Claire slid into the room where sat in the middle was a coffin. There was body rested on satin. It wasn't Justin though. 

When Justin was alive was always moving around. He always had his leg jumping and he was always just constantly fidgeting. Claire doesn't think she had ever seen him still so watching him lay there was horrible. Claire remembered Justin with color in his cheeks. Yet his skin lacked any color. Claire held her head in her arms and sobbed. 

"Oh, Justin why did you have to go and get yourself shot." Said Claire when her sobbing subsided. "You were the best cousin ever. I miss you so much and I love you so much. Everything would be okay if you were here."

"Darling it is about to begin." Said Claire's mother as she saw her daughter crying over he once lover's coffin. "Oh, sweetheart. I know you miss him. He truly adored you. I don't think there is anyone on Earth that he worried about and cared about more. He only wanted you to be happy and I know he wouldn't want you to cry." 

Mrs. Whiting hugged her daughter close while her daughter sobbed. She laid a kiss on Claire's head. Despite Mrs. Whiting's clear lack of affection to her daughter, she was not heartless. She truly wanted her daughter to be happy and healthy. She knew this death would break her daughter. 

Both women ignored Claire's previous outburst. While Mrs. Whiting was a tad more gentle with her daughter they felt it best not to talk about it.  

You see Mrs. Whiting had Claire when she was young. She found herself pregnant at 18 and married to a gang leader. While he was cruel and sexist to no end she had to stay. Mrs. Whiting had grown up without a father and without any money and she wouldn't do that to her daughter. So Mrs. Whiting was forever trapped and she did resent her daughter for it. It hurt their relationship to no end but when Mrs. Whiting saw her daughter hurt she was, of course, going to comfort her. 

"Mum I don't know if I can do this. I don't know how you can do it."

"Do what sweetheart?"

"Anything. Can I even function without Justin let alone go and give a speech about him at his funeral." Said Claire before she burst out sobbing all over again. 

"Sweetheart look at me." Mrs. Whiting held her daughter's face in her hands. "You will go out there and give that speech. Not for me or for you but for Justin. He wouldn't have wanted anyone else giving his obituary."

"But it's such a lie. Half of his life is excluded from this because it's fucking illegal."

"Do it for Justin." Said Mrs. Whiting and Claire nodded hoping to pull it together before she had to go out there.

Mrs. Whiting wiped down her daughter's cheeks and blew her nose before applying some last-minute makeup.  Even with her red eyes, Claire looked stunning. 

"Come on." Mrs. Whiting smiled and led her daughter away from the body and out to the guests waiting for him. 

"Justin Micheal Masters was my cousin and he was one of my favorite people in the world. I am reading his obituary that is tragically short as Justin's life was tragically short." As CLaire read the obituary she made everyone laugh and everyone cry. Claire pictured her cousin standing just behind her as she read each word. She was doing him justice. 

"He would have wanted us to live our lives as he did. Carefree, trying to find as much joy as he could out of each day. So remember him not as a boy who was shot but as a boy who..."

Just as Claire was about to finish her speech they walked in. The Dancy family. Within seconds four guns were pointed in the direction of the new arrivals. As Claire looked down on the scene in front her father pointing a gun in the direction of her friend.