petrichor

I Love You Too | 2

And finally, the day he died.

It was cloudy that day and Pandora was packing up her things so she could go home after helping at the library. She noticed Luke was being quieter than usual, he didn't say much of things and he looked as if he was thinking about something. Normally, Pandora would ask if he was alright and if he needed anything, but that day, she kept her thoughts to herself. He's just having a bad day. she tried to reason.

"Hey, it's time to go already!" she exclaimed cheerfully, in hopes of lightening up his mood, but her boyfriend only nodded slightly. Pandora could sense that something was off, "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked earnestly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Nothing." Luke shook his head, "I don't wanna talk about it." his last words came out a little harsh and he quickly apologized. "Sorry."

"Oh," Pandora tried to hide her disappointment, "It's okay." they walked out of the library together in silence, the whole thing felt unfamiliar so unfamiliar to Pandora as they usually talked a lot until they parted ways. Just when she was about to head home, Luke stopped her, "Penny." he called out, stopping her footsteps. "Yeah?" she turned around to face him.

"I'll miss you."

Pandora was confused. What? Why did he have to miss me? He knows he can call me, right? Pandora wanted to say, but she kept her mouth shut and pretended to understand what Luke was saying. "Uh, yeah," she kicked the ground beneath her, "I'll miss you too." Pandora looked up and it felt like the universe seemed to stop for both of them as they stared at each other.

"I love you." Luke said finally, breaking the silence.

"I love you too."

Little did Pandora know those were the last words Luke would ever from her.

She spent the rest of the evening feeling uneasy because kept thinking about her boyfriend's behaviour, why did he seem so...off? Pandora wanted to call him, to ask if everything's okay, but just as she was about to press DIAL, her mind intervened. He's just having a bad day and probably needed some time alone with his thoughts.

Well then, I should cheer him up.

But what if he wanted to be left alone for a while? You know, to reflect on himself.

Yeah, but still though...

Yeesh, stop worrying about it! her thoughts chided her. You guys will be fine.

But try as she might, she couldn't stop worrying about him. Pandora could feel something was about to happen, something big, but she couldn't put a finger on it exactly. "Oh, well." she tried to shrug it off when she was about to sleep, "I'm overreacting, everything's gonna be fine." but when her cell phone rang a little past midnight, all of her suspicions were proven correct.

03.00 AM

"Why's Luke calling me?" she asked groggily, "He never called me at this time."

But when she picked up the phone, it wasn't Luke's voice on the other line that she'd expected to hear. "He shot himself." sobbed the woman on the other line, his mom probably, "He's dead, honey."

For Pandora, the whole world felt like it had fall silent for a moment right after she managed to register the words into her head. She was speechless, but at that very moment, she also wanted to tell Luke's mom, that not only that his son died, a part of Pandora died along with him too.

The funeral

Hushed voices.

Everyone wearing black.