“Coming,” I shout, setting my coffee on the table and heading for the door. Joss quickly follows, looking uncertain.
On the other side of the door is a disheveled Breck and a confused-looking Willow—still decked out in pajamas.
“Hey. Wasn’t expecting you guys this morning.” I ruffle Willow’s hair and finally bring my eyes to Breck’s. They’re red-rimmed and swollen. “What…” I start but Breck gives me an imperceptible shake of his head, so I change tack. “Come on in, we’ve got pastries. Who’s hungry?”
Willow’s eyes brighten and she heads straight for the table, Joss following her with a glance over her shoulder that is just as concerned as the one I feel reflected back on my own face.
“What happened?” I whisper to Breck. Looking him over, he’s still in the same clothes as last night. The stubble is more pronounced and his hair is sticking out in every direction.
“Can Willow…” The words get stuck, and he clears his throat to try again. “Can Willow hang in your room while we talk?”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” The tension radiating off him is making me nervous.
“Willow, honey, why don’t you take your muffin to Wes and Joss’s room to watch your tablet for a bit. We’re just going to talk about boring grown-up stuff out here.”
“Yes!” she shouts, grabbing the backpack she dropped by the door and heading straight for our room. As soon as the door is closed and I can hear squeaky voices filtering from behind it, I turn to face my best friend.
He doesn’t say anything as he stalks straight to the open back door and onto the balcony. A beat passes and I hear him bellow into the wind outside. There are no words, just agony in the sound, his hands braced on the railing, muscles bunched across his shoulders.
“What the hell happened?” Joss whispers, moving closer, her eyes locked on Breck.
“I have no idea.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and we walk as one toward the picture of raw pain and rage leaning against the railing.
“Breck?” I ask from the door, not wanting to crowd him. When he turns, there’s nothing but anguish on his face as he sinks to the ground. I lurch forward as if to catch him, but his body shakes with a sob and I’m frozen, unsure of what to do. I’ve never seen him like this.
He looks up, his hands still in his hair, elbows resting on his knees. “She’s gone.”
A shock runs through my body. “Talia?” I ask, disbelief wrapped around the name.
He just nods and pulls harder at the strands of his hair. I feel Joss move closer to my side and place her hand at my back, but I can’t take my eyes off what’s happening in front of me.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
He shifts so he can pull something from his back pocket. It’s crumpled and fraying at the edges. “I found this on my desk last night after you dropped me off. She’s gone. She left with Drew. They’re gone.”
I falter back a step. How? Why? What about Willow?
My thoughts are echoed in Joss’s voice from beside me. “What about Willow?” Her glance moves toward the wall that separates us from her.
Breck doesn’t move to stand, he just holds out a second piece of paper. Joss gingerly takes it from his hand and together we take in the notarized document. My breath chokes off in my lungs and Joss covers her mouth to silence a sob. It’s a legal release of Talia’s parental rights to Willow. Fuck.
“Oh god… Breck, I…” There are no words for the horror filling my body.
“How could she do this? Not just to me, but to Willow?” His voice cracks on her name. “What do I tell my baby girl? What do I do?” His words are almost unintelligible through his grief. He closes his eyes, pressing the heels of his hands into the sockets and taking a deep breath.
I see the emotions flickering through Joss’s eyes—shock, disbelief, anger, sadness. A swirling mess of feelings all vying for the top spot. I understand how she feels. I don’t know what to say. Are thererightwords for this situation? If there are, I have no idea what they might be. I take a deep breath, trying to keep my cool for Breck’s sake, because I doubt that my losing it would help in the slightest.
His head hangs heavy like the weight of the world rests on his shoulders. I can’t bear to see him like this. I cross the balcony and fall to my knees, engulfing him in the most Breck-like hug I can manage. I pour everything I have into it, knowing it’s my turn to hold him up now.
“You aren’t alone in this. I don’t know what we can do, but whatever you need, we’ll do it, okay?” I crush him to me, and I feel him break. The anger makes way for the desperate pain of heartbreak as his shoulders start to shake. Joss moves to his other side and I pull her into the hug too.
“I’m so sorry, Breck,” Joss says. I look at her and fall a little more in love. For how genuinely she has come to love not just me but my best friend as well. Together, we’ll get him and Willow through this.
We finally break apart and Breck’s eyes track to the closed bedroom door and he sighs.
“I don’t want to be here—not right now.” Thein Sydneyis implied.
His face is forlorn. He loves this city, the life and home he built here, so to have it all destroyed in a blink must be devastating.
