Meeting Sarah/A Jordan Knight FanFic (Completed)✔️

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

One week later.

I was a walking zombie.

I was dead inside.

I didn't leave the house. I couldn't remember the last time I'd showered. I stayed in my room and drowned my pain in liquor. My mother had moved in permanently. Leslie had taken a leave of absence from work and, between them both, they helped Lyra grieve her mother's loss.

I, on the other hand, did nothing. I couldn't even fathom to look at my own child.

Fucked up, I know.

But she looked so much like Sarah that it fucking killed me.

Gutted me.

I lay on the bed looking out into the ocean. The sun was out, so it had to be mid–morning or early afternoon. I couldn't fucking tell. My head rested on the soft mattress, my eyes moved from the ocean to the closet that still held all of Sarah's belongings. The room was still full of her things, even her scent. I sat there waiting for her to come back at any second. Waiting for her to walk in and tell me it was all a fucking nightmare.

She never came back.

She was gone.

And I was alone.

The door was pushed open, and I sat up. Inebriated, my body swayed. I saw Leslie march over to the bed. "Get up," she barked, slapping my leg.

"Hmm," I complained. I dropped back to the bed and closed my eyes. The alcohol in my system made the room spin.

"I'm not kidding, Jordan. Get the fuck up." Her voice was louder and laced with anger. "You need to shower, you stink, and I'm sick and tired of you lying in here all day. You're a parent and you can't pretend like you don't have a responsibility."

"Les..." I inhaled and looked up at her. "Get out."

"No!" She crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyebrows were pressed together and the anger coursed through her eyes. "You can't stay cooped up in here. Lyra needs her dad. You need to eat, and I'm tired of babying you."

"Nobody's asking you to take care of me." I rolled over and buried my head in the pillow.

"Sarah did!" she shouted.

My head snapped towards her. "She did?"

"Yes!" She began to strip the bed. "I promised her that I wouldn't let you get like this, like her father. I promised her that I wouldn't let you do to Lyra what her father did to her. So I'm not kidding, Jordan. Get. The. Fuck. Up."

"Leave me alone, Leslie." I hugged the pillow.

"You're not the only who lost her." She yanked the sheets from under me and tossed them in a hamper, then walked over to the window and opened the sliding door to let the fresh ocean breeze inside. "Lyra lost her mother, and I lost my best friend." She turned and marched back towards me. "So I'm not asking you, I'm telling. Get up, Jordan. Or I swear to God, I'm going to literally kick your ass. You didn't die, she did, so start living."

I scoffed and pushed myself up. Resting my head on my hands, I sat on the edge of the bed. "It's not that easy, Leslie."

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy. But you have to try." She rested her hand on my shoulder. "You have to try for Lyra because history has repeated itself. A little girl lost her mother too young. Don't let her lose her dad, too."

#

Two weeks after her death.

I sat out on the deck one late Saturday afternoon, my eyes slowly closing as sleep began to seep in. I had showered more frequently the week's prior, but I had yet to leave the house. I walked around aimlessly most nights as sleep never came, but I was afraid to sleep, petrified of the nightmares that haunted my soul. I would drift off to sleep and they would invade my mind. They were always the same. Sarah's last breath leaving her body. No matter how loud I screamed or how hard I tried to stop it, she would always die in my arms. I had lived through that once. I couldn't relive it again in my dreams.