The Planet Among the Stars (Completed)

Chapter 7

A beautiful landscape of trees and a mountain, extremely detailed-

I had never been able to draw well, mainly because I never took the time to try. But even I knew a masterpiece when I saw it.

As I walked closer, I heard Shaun breathing heavily. I ended up close enough that I could hear the faintest whisper I had ever heard.

"I'm sorry Abby." Shaun said as he picked up the pencil and softly signed his name at the bottom of the picture.

I felt a weird wave of emotion fall over me. My heart crashed. I could feel it split within me. I wasn't used to feeling anything but numbness.

"Shaun?" I whispered. I walked over and sat down next to him.

Shaun looked down, trying to cover the evidence that he was crying with his hands. I grabbed his fingers and pulled them down.

I took off his coat that I had on and wrapped it around his back. However he was still shivering. I don't know why but I decided to wrap my arms around him.

Shaun stopped crying and looked at me. He pulled away.

I felt extremely awkward. We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Sorry, I'm not used to being hugged," he said.

I nodded, scooting backwards, "You remind me of Abby."

His blue eyes glittered again, almost tearing up more, but instead he gave a small smile.

I glanced at his paper.

He pulled it back.

I gestured towards the sketch, "It's... the most beautiful thing I've seen."

"Thanks," he said.

More silence and this time it was slowly killing me.

He looked up at the sky then back at me, "So you were Abby's best friend?"

"We promised on Venus."

"Venus?"

I pointed up to a bright light, "Venus. Abby and I promised on Venus that we would be best friends forever."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a miniature notebook. On the first page, Abby's name was written neatly.

"Her journal?" I whispered.

"I figured you'd know more about it," he handed it to me.

I flipped through the pages, "Wow I didn't know she wrote so much."

"She told me she wrote in it everyday."

"Do you think she would mind us reading it?" I asked.

Shaun shrugged, "I don't know. I only read a few pages."

Dear Journal,
I haven't seen my family for an entire week. Mom is always gone and Dad is at work. Since it is break, I haven't seen Shaun either.
I'm lonely. I like being alone, but I still miss my family. I miss our old family. The family who sat down and had dinner together. The family that went on vacations together. The family that even laughed together.
But at least I had Lodi. Her family took me out with them to dinner. And it was amazing. I was laughing with people...
Hopefully that will be my family going out to dinner one day. That's my wish, my prayer... that one day my family will go out to the park, eat dinner together, and then afterward go up onto a hill and watch the stars and planets come out like we did on my 6th birthday.

~Abby

"Wow," I said.

Shaun's face fell.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"She... never got her wish."

My guilt felt like a volcano, waiting to burst.

Shaun's voice broke, "She'll never see her- she'll never see our family together again."

The volcano inside me burst.

"I'm sorry," I said, beginning to sob. Tears ran down my cheeks and I couldn't stop.

Shaun shook his head, "There's nothing we can do."

"No! You don't understand!"

"What don't I understand?"

"I could have saved her. I could have asked her to stay longer or invited her to my house or have my mom drive her home. I could have stopped it all. But I did nothing."

Shaun's face went cold as stone.

I looked away from him and glanced at my freezing hands, covered in my tears.

"It was my fault too," he whispered, "I could have convinced her to come home with me. Alven was taking me home and I know he would have taken Abby home as well if I had convinced her to come."

For a few minutes we were silent.

I rested my hand on the journal, "I'm sorry Shaun. I wish I had done more to save her."

Shaun stood up, "The night before she died, Abby told me that she wished we had a true family."

I murmured, trying to contain my tears, "I wish she did too."

"But," he said softly, "she also said you gave her a family. She told me she wished you were her sister, and that she wished she was a part of your family. She loved you like a sister."

Shaun grabbed my hand, "Thank you, Lodi. I never took time to be a good sibling to Abby, but you did. Thank you. You gave her hope, hope I never knew a person in our family could have."

That's when I saw Shaun's wrist.

Bruised and cut...