whore || hemmings

epilogue

Luke hummed as he buttoned his shirt hurriedly, tossing his jacket over his shoulder. It was an occasion he half heartedly took part into, just because he owed it to her. He couldn't save her, or make her last moments better, and that would be forever haunting him.

She fell. He screamed her name over and over whilst fumbling with the keyboard on his phone to call 911, to get an ambulance. It took them nearly twenty minutes to get there, because he was a crying mess and the lady on the line couldn't make out a single word.

When the paramedics got her, he screamed and banged on the doors as they closed like a lunatic, trying to earn his way in. They didn't let him, so he drove all the way there, praying she would be alright. However, the moment he step foot into the building, he heard the news.

'Cracked skull' they said, 'almost all ribs broken, along with spine'. She wouldn't make it out alive even if she wanted to, and they even told him about pieces of branches thrust in her arms and skin but he stopped listening. Quietly, he took a seat and silently sobbed in his hands, until they had to kick him out.

The funeral was the next morning. Her parents were devastated and quiet, especially her mother. He took a seat next to them and held her hand, and she didn't protest. "I was a friend of hers" was all he said, and her mother knew. When they lowered Bo's casket, though, her mother went crazy; she screamed and yelled, asking why she had to go like this over and over. Luke found that extremely odd, after the way Bo had described her parents. They didn't seem ignorant or unloving in any way; they adored her.

The whole school was there, some of them looking mighty sad too. Luke didn't like that, and shot rude and threatening looks to people who even dared to fake some tears, just to show they knew her. He knew she wouldn't want fake girls crying over her during her funeral though, so he made it his mission to prevent this from happening.

When everyone left, Luke and her parents remained, along with Calum who dragged himself out of the crowd. His eyes were puffy and red, and he held tightly on a white rose. Without a word, he bent down, placed it next to her gravestone and sighed. "I loved her, I really did." Stumbling to the exit, he left.

Ashton didn't even have the nerve to show up, nor call. Luke knew it, because he knew Ash his whole life. He was sensitive when it came to people dying and leaving in any means, due to his father. It was still rude of him not to show up or show some kind of sadness or remorse, and Luke would never forgive him.

Bianca came too, a crying mess. She was standing next to him the whole time at the entrance, squeezing his arm every now and then. When they entered the church and she faced the closed casket, her hand pressed against her mouth to keep it shut and she suppressed a screech, tears pooling in her eyes. For the rest of the ceremony, she remained at the back of the room, leaned over a corner, until the end came and the coffin was buried outside. She ran away then and Luke had still not heard of her.

"We're going to head home" Bo's father informed Luke, and shook his hand firmly. "Thank you for everything today, son."

"You're welcome" he nodded. He'd been here almost three hours before the funeral started, since sleep hadn't found him for days now. He helped with last-minute preparations, comforting her mother and everything else to which he could be useful to.

Her mother hugged him tight, catching him by surprise. Luke clumsily hugged back, as much as he could with his mood so down, and stayed still. "Thank you for everything, being there for her when we weren't." She broke down and shed more tears, sobbing. "We were never there, she was right; maybe if we had noticed earlier, maybe..."

"Come on, Marissa" Bo's father put his hands on her arms and tugged on her hand, leading her towards the exit. Both of them turned around to greet him from afar and Luke waved back, until they were gone.

The flashback ended a little bit too intensely. Dropping his eyes down on the gravestone, he lightly sighed. "Bo Winters, 17 years old. Beloved daughter, friend and girlfriend." Luke cringed at the last word, knowing she was nobody's girlfriend. Her mother had asked him all about Bo and how she got herself tangled in that crap only two nights ago, so the word 'girlfriend' was referred to Luke. He didn't like seeing it, since guilt embraced him every time for not growing the balls to ask her, but her mother wanted to have this on Bo's stone, very much. So, Luke didn't protest any further.

It was nearly a week after the tragic incident and her following passing, so here he was, wearing a suit and walking all the way to the graveyard. He's been spending most of his hours there, just talking to her about random shit. Luke was sure she could hear him, and probably laugh at how lame he is. He didn't care one bit though; just the possibility of her listening to him was enough to get him going.

The place was empty, so he found his way to where she was resting quite easily. A few flowers surrounded the back of her stone, flowers he'd planted there. He'd seen a few floral dresses she kept on her wardrobe and figured she'd like them here, too.

"Hey, I'm back" he breathed out, once he sat on the opposite of the gravestone. A picture of her and him during one of her stays at his place, before the situation got out of control, was pinned next to it. She was smiling big time, and Luke had his eyes closed and lips puckered, pressed on her cheek. It was her mother's idea, since (according to Luke and Bianca's sayings) Luke was the only guy who made her truly happy.

"Remember how trashy Lola and Claire looked at your funeral? They were trying so hard to cry, I swear." He shook his head at their fakeness. "They're still wearing black, those bitches."

A small pigeon landed on his left and picked some bread crumbs from the ground. It made eye-contact with him and chirped, then flew away. He smiled like an idiot.

"It's lonely here without you, and it's only been three months and I still don't know if I'll manage to get through this year alive."

The wind blew a little bit too strong now, but he shook his head in despair, his eyes fixed on the ground covering her deep-buried coffin. "I'm not being dramatic or anything; it's just the truth. You kept me alive, Bo. I wish you were still here, because life fucking sucks when you're not around."

Sighing softly, he patted the ground beneath his feet again, this time more lovingly than before. "I love you so much, and I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to tell you. Maybe if I did, things wouldn't be like that and you were still alive and-" Luke stopped when he felt hot tears rolling down his cheeks, so he wiped them and stood up. "I'll come here every day until I die, I promise you that."

His mind wandered on all the great times they have together and erased memories of him rejecting her, or ignoring her. The taste of her lips on his, from their last encounter, was still alive in his mind and made his heart beat, and ache at the same time. He didn't want her gone, ever, and wished every day for her to come back.

Humming an old favourite song of his, he walked out of the gates, the jacket flung around his shoulder, as he wondered how the hell he would get through the rest of his week, month, year, life.

-///-

Three months later, he killed himself.

-*-*-*-

le end ???

(wait for an author's note and a surprise *shameless wink face* )