Page 140 of Before We Break

I shake my head as the first tear falls. “It can’t be me this time.”

Her hand drops away, and I jog down the stairs, not stopping to look back.

NOAH

The apartment door snicks closed, and I look up from my position on the floor to find an upside-down Emma striding toward me.

“Auntie Emma!” Auggie squeals with his arms stretched wide, his belly resting on my shins. “Look at me. I’m an airplane!”

“Whoa, dude! That’s amazing. Think you can land so I can talk to Uncle Noah for a second?”

“Aw, man.”

I lower him to the ground, and he dashes off to his room while I stand and dust off my pants. “What do you want?”

“Hello to you, too, dear brother. You look like shit.”

I stand and straighten my clothes out. “Is there a reason you’re here?”

She slumps onto my couch uninvited, kicking off her shoes. “Ran into Clio in the hallway. You didn’t tell me she was moving out.”

“Did she say anything? How did she look?”

“Broken but beautiful. Like my asshole of a brother never deserved her.”

I pull out my phone and scroll back through my text messages from this past week.

July 12th at 10:00am

Me: How is she?

Lexi: She’s watching Pretty Woman again.

July 14th at 5:00pm

Me: Do you need anything?

Lexi: Can I come visit Auggie?

Me: Anytime, kid.

July 16th at 5:32pm

Me: Thanks for babysitting. Pizza is on the way.

Lexi sends a selfie with Auggie eating pizza.

July 18th at 12:21pm

Lexi: We’re moving to the ranch for the rest of the summer.

Lexi: If you’re half as miserable as she is, you’ll find a way to fix this.

Attached is a photo of Clio in a wedding dress at the boutique.

I linger on the photo again, the same way I did the first time I saw it. She looks unreal—more beautiful than I remember. I tap on the photo and set it as my home screen, drowning in the knowledge that I’ll never get the chance to see her like this, striding toward me with a bouquet of flowers and that dimpled smile I love so much. That vision will belong to someone else now, if it was ever mine in the first place.

“Jonah gets out next week,” Emma says.