It's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, there's not a single cloud in the sky. What a perfect day to stay in my bedroom and stare at the pink walls. But this isn't anything new, in fact this is all I've done for the past three days. Rachel has tried really hard to get me to go outside and I mean she's tried so hard that she told me that she'd give me fifty bucks just to go to the grocery store with her. I simply refused.

All I feel like doing is staring at the wall and think about how great my life was, in the coma I mean. I miss everything about that place: My family, my amazing friends, my husband...I miss them so much it hurts to live. I would give almost anything to go back there, to just get one last glimpse at it.

Get over it! It. Was. Not. Real. My thoughts scream at me.

Letting go is a lot easier said than done, believe me I know. How are you supposed to let go of your family and friends? How are you supposed to let go of your life? Because no matter how many times people tell me it wasn't real, I know it was. It had to be real...right? Nothing that realistic could be a dream! If that was a dream then what's this? Is this considered real?! Is-

"Aurgh!" I scream as I throw a glass of water at my wall, causing the glass to shatter into a million pieces.

I bury my face into my pillow and scream until I can scream no more. There are so many questions inside my mind that my head feels like it's going to burst. This is the most lost I've felt since I woke up in the hospital. At least in there I didn't know anything at all, now all I have is questions without answers. No Steve, no Kevin, no answers.

It's been three days since Steve and I had our fight. I still can't get the echos of our argument out of my head. How I yelled at him, how he left the house with swollen eyes, how I just stood there instead of doing anything. How awful that day was...

I clench my eyes shut and try to calm the headache that's slowly starting to form. I get off my bed and walk over to the glass. I'm about to pick it up when I hear the doorbell ring. Might as well go get it. I bound down the stairs and look through the peephole.

No

My breathing picks up and I hurriedly unlock the door. Standing in the door frame is a short, slender boy with tousled brown hair and glasses that cover big brown eyes that have so much to say.

"Kevin?" I ask quietly.

"Peyton I-" He starts but never gets to finish because before he knows it I'm running out the door and hugging him, which is a bit hard considering I'm so much taller than him. When I let go his cheeks are flushed and he looks a little flustered.

"Peyton I'm really sorry-" Kevin starts to say but again, I interrupt him.

"No Kevin, I'm sorry. That day in your room, I never should have tried to push you to answer those questions. You don't have to answer anything you don't want to." I say.

"Peyton don't say your sorry, this is my apology! Don't steal my thunder!" He exclaims with a hint of a smile on his face. The smile that I've missed so much.

"Well your sorry's wrong and mine is right! You know what? Just get your butt in here." I say smiling my first smile in three days.

Kevin smiles too and together we walk inside and head into the kitchen. I haven't eaten all day so I grab almost everything in sight: Potato chips, pretzels, trail mix. I catch Kevin eyeing some Cosmic Brownies so I grab those too. Bringing our feast to the living room, we try to decide what to do.

"We could go to the movies." I suggest.

Kevin shakes his head. "Don't really feel like going to the outside world right now."

"Okay then, how about..."

"How about you two get all of this junk out of my living room!"

Me and Kevin turn our heads to Rachel who is looking at our food angrily. Then she looks up from the food and gasps. It takes me a minute to realize that she's looking at Kevin. Rachel looks almost fearful and I turn to Kevin who is looking at the ground.

"Um Rachel this is Kevin, my friend that I've told you about." I say uncertainly.

Rachel takes a deep breath. "Peyton why don't you take that food back to the kitchen. I-I need to speak to Kevin for a moment."

"What wh-"

"Now!" She yells at me. Shocked, I quickly grab all the food and look at Kevin before I exit the room. He's still staring at the ground. I can't see his eyes so I have no idea what's going on. I walk to the kitchen and slowly put all the snacks away. As I do, I can't help but remember Steve acting weird about Kevin too. But what was wrong with Kevin? He's a great and funny guy, why is everyone acting afraid of him?

My thoughts are pushed to the side when Kevin walks into the kitchen looking...well I don't really know. He's not smiling but he's not exactly frowning either. He just looks kind of blank.

"Um Kev, you okay?" I ask.

He blinks out of the blank trance and smiles. "Oh yeah I'm fine. I have an idea for what we can do."

Hm he doesn't show any sign of what he and Rachel were talking about, which may be a good thing. But as usual, I have no idea. I decide to move on and follow him to a cabinet in the hallway. Kevin opens it and inside are a million puzzles.

"Ta da! Puzzles!" He exclaims excitedly.

"Wow that's a lot of puzzles! Wait how did you know they were here? Even I didn't know they were here and I live here."

He looks a bit uncomfortable. "Uh your mom told me where they were." He shifts his feet. "Well which one do you wanna do?"

It takes a while but we eventually decide to do The Rolling Stones puzzle. We sit down at the kitchen table and begin to piece it together. Kevin's quiet the whole time which is unusual. But I've learned by now not to push stuff with him. After about an hour of working on the puzzle, we finally get down to the last piece. Kevin holds it up, about to put it in, but then he hesitates.

He looks at me and says: "You get one question."

"What?" I ask confused.

He takes a deep breath."You get to ask me one question and I'll answer it. Just one."

He's really going to answer one of my questions? Yes! This is what I've wanted forever: an answer! But which question? I have a lot. I finally settle for the question that started my argument with Steve a few days ago.

"Why does Allie Baker hate me so much?" I ask with a bit of a tremble in my voice.

Kevin hesitates and for a minute I'm not sure if he knows the answer. But eventually he sighs.

"Okay the answer to that question is a lot heavier than you think. Do you really want me to answer it?" He asks slowly.

Of course I do, I nod.

Kevin takes a breath. "Okay well it's kind of a long story but I'll make it short. Your dad was a pilot, he flew planes all the time, because it was his job. Anyway one day when he was flying the-the planes engines failed. He tried to land safely but it was no good: the plane crashed to the ground, hard." He paused."There-there were no survivors Peyton." He said his voice heavy.

My breathing's quick. My dad...that's how...gone. I remember the memory I had on the way home from the hospital. How kind and loving my dad was. A man who didn't deserve to die.

"Peyton-"

"I'm fine!" I snap. "What does this have to do with Allie?"

Kevin looks sad. "Peyton her whole family was on that plane. Her parents, her brother, even her grandmother. She was the only one who had stayed home, the only who was...left. She blames you. Since your dad isn't, um, around to blame, she blames you."

I stare blankly at Kevin. I don't know how to feel. Kevin stares at me sadly and my eyes fall to the puzzle piece in his hand. I slowly reach out, take the last piece, and put it into place.

One puzzle complete.

Thanks for reading! This book has gotten over 100 more reads since I posted the last chapter and I can't be any more grateful. Please go check out my new book: Star! I love you guys!-Vanna💜