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“Whoa,” I say, taken aback by his generous offer. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know I don’t. But I want to. I’m helping Madison with hers until she can find someone else to sublet it.”
I freeze at the new information. She’s looking for someone to sublet her apartment? But where is she going?
My heart thumps in my chest. “She’s moving out?”
John nods. “She’s moving home.”
My mouth drops open but I quickly recover and slam it shut.Madison’s moving home? Since when?
“Sorry, I don’t mean to pry, but I had no idea she was moving home.”
“Oh. I assumed she told you. She came home the other night, hysterical, begging to move home. After calming her down, she told us what’s been going on. We all think it’s best if she takes a break.”
I nod. “It makes sense.”
Mads is leaving Sierra Cove?
She’s moving home?
Why did she not tell me?
These questions roll around in my head and yet I still can’t wrap my head around what’s going on.
I can’t believe she didn’t tell me she was leaving.
I would’ve showed up to her empty apartment had I not found out.
And now I’m alone here.
No Madison or Mason.
The thoughts leave me with a huge hole in my heart.
I can’t stay here without them. Fuck school, I can finish somewhere else. Fuck work, I can find another job.
But I can’t be here knowing Madison is home, mourning the same person I am, and I’m up here, so far away.
“Thanks for being an amazing friend to my children, Asher. But especially to Mason. I think of you as a son and if you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.” John pulls me in for a hug after we finished packing. Warmth spreads through me as I return the hug.
“Thank you for always treating me like one of your own.” I blink back tears as I say goodbye.
Looking around the apartment, now void of everything Mason besides the few items and hoodies John let me have, the hole inside me grows even bigger.
And I decide right then and there that I’m going home too.
But not to my home.
No, I’m going to the Blackwells, where I belong.
* * *
I arrive in my hometown late the next morning. I packed up what I wanted to take with me and tried to sleep but I spent most of the night staring at the wall.
I debated if I should go to my house to stay, but after my mother didn’t even bother to go to Mason’s funeral, I decided against it.
John said I could stay for as long as I like at their house, the extra guest bedroom ready for me, but I don’t want to encroach on Madison’s space. Nor do I want to get in the way of John and Cindy as they try to move forward.
