CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Chloe’s P.O.V




My feet are killing me from working eight hours in high heels, I opened the gate to leave but my name was called.

“Chloe, can you come over here for a minute,” The manager asked, I groaned. I just wanted to sit down but I walked over to him, he took out money from a big black box and passed it to me, I put it into my pocket with a yawn.

“You did great today and I wanted to ask if you would work for us for good since we were hiring anyway.

“Yeah sure,” I say smiling, honestly it was kinda fun, I’m just really sore from doing it all day.

“Great, do you have a phone number or anything?” He asked for a piece of paper and a pen.

“No, do I need one?” I asked never doing this before.

“In order for us to contact you, yes,” He says, putting down the paper.

“Why don’t you tell me when you want my next shift and then I’ll just come in, and then I’ll be able to get a phone and things?” I asked.

“Okay, how about tomorrow at two-thirty?” He asked me to write down something on a piece of paper.

“Yeah sure,” I said as my feet throbbed.

“Great, see you then,” He said smiling, and he walked away.

I walked out from behind the counter and only Hayley was there. “So how did it go?” She asked, smirking.

“They want me to work here for good,” I said, sighing.

“Seriously, I can’t believe you got a job that fast,” She says getting up.

“I work again tomorrow at two-thirty,” I said as we started walking towards the escalator.

“I work tomorrow at five so I should be able to drive you in,” She says nodding.

“That would be great, thank you,” I said thankfully.

“No problem, so did you get paid?” She asked doubtful.

“Yeah,” I took out a wad of cash and showed it to her.

“Holy crap, okay put that away you don’t want to get mugged for it,” She says pushing my hand back towards my pocket, I was too tired to question what that meant so I just put it back.

We stood on the escalator in silence as we made it to the top, we walked to the entrance doors to the parking lot, my feet got more and more sore as we walked, so I quickly took them off as we walked towards her car.

With a click it was unlocked and I made my way into the passenger seat and done up my seat belt, I felt tired and a cigarette popped into my head.

“Hayley,” I say not caring if she smoked or not, all I care about is that I get one.

“Yes Chloe,” She yawned, getting her keys from her purse.

“Do you smoke?” I asked, leaning my head on the cool window.

“Yeah, why do you want one?” She asked, grabbing a pack out of her purse.

“Yes, please,” I say honestly. She opened up the package and took out two and passed one to me, she lit hers and rolled down the window.

I lit my cigarette and took a big puff, I haven’t had one since before Colby got shot.

I leaned my head against the cold glass with my eyes closed, it was dark and all I wanted was to be held in Colby’s big, strong arms, and that’s when the realization hit me.

Colby might not wake up, the man who saved me and loved me from the time he found out I was in the basement all those years ago and never opened his beautiful golden honey, brown eyes. 

I’ll never be able to see his loving smile, and I’ll never hear his smile again, the more I was thinking of it the harder it was to breathe, I took another puff of my cigarette as a tear went down my cheek.

He was my reason to keep going, my reason to want to live, and he put his life on the line to give me a restart on everything, now it's my turn.

I opened my eyes and noticed it burned halfway, so I rolled down my window and flicked the ashes away. 

I kept my face turned toward the window feeling the gentle breeze as salty tears fell down my cheeks.

I know not to cry, but I can’t help it, I want to be home, no I don’t want to be home, I just want Colby.

I continued to smoke as we drove down the road that seemed to go on forever, I didn’t want to talk, and I think she realized it because we were silent.

The drive felt long, and nothing at this point could keep me from thinking about Colby, and I felt like there was a hole in my chest.

Finally at the end of my cigarette I threw it out of the window, and rolled it back up and wiped the tears off my face and it only made me more tired, yawning I laid my head back against the headrest.

After a while, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and I couldn’t keep them open falling asleep.

“Chloe,” I heard but couldn’t open my eyes.

“Chloe we’re home,” Hayley says behind my closed eyes, yawning.

 I slowly opened them as my hand found the end of the seat belt and it unlocked it with a click.

Groaning, I opened the car door and picked up Colby’s duffle bag and got out of the car, shutting the door behind me following Hayley to her front door.

She fumbled for her keys as she yawned and with a jingling sound telling us that she found them putting it into the door and unlocking with a click and the door whined as it opened.

We walked in and she turned on the light making it warm and inviting, I placed down the bag and sat on her couch taking these heels off, sighing in relief to take off the pressure.

“I’ll start making dinner, how about you take a shower and I’ll do some laundry, and because we have to work tomorrow, we can go to bed a bit earlier, I bet your exhausted from working all day,” Hayley says walking to the kitchen.

I nodded in reply, she had no idea, from losing Colby to making new friends, to getting a job I felt like I was dying, my feet were dirty from walking in high heels, and I was tired of talking to random people.

I got up to ask where the bathroom was and she came out right in time.

“Looking for the bathroom?” She asked, smiling , wiping her hands on the apron around her neck, I nodded again.

“Follow me,” she says walking upstairs.