Page 110 of Not Made to Last

“I saw your face, Liv. It was all I could see. And I saw the fear in your eyes and I…” He drops his gaze between us. “Your grandparents…”

I’d held it together from the stillness and all the way on the drive here, but now… Now I break down in his arms, the events of the night catching up to me. I cry, the sobs so strong they’re uncontrollable. He holds me, just like I hold him.

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” I cry. “I just want youtobe.”

63

Rhys

Liv and I don’t sleep. We lie in the semi-darkness of her room, our hands held between us, and our eyes never leaving each other. We don’t talk about what happened. We don’t talk about what will happen. We don’t talk at all. We just exist, in the same room, in the same life, in the same heartbeat.

The darkness turns to light, night turns to day, and nothing has changed.

We hear Max and Dominic moving and talking, getting ready for school, and right before they leave, Liv gets a text. It’s the only time the entire night she checks her phone. “I’ll be back,” she says, pressing her lips to mine.

My pulse immediately picks up when she’s gone, my throat closing in, andI can’t breathe without her.

The realization dawns, slow but solid, and it puts my feelings into perspective. Into words.

I can’t breathe without her.

It’s the only thought that’s made sense ever since?—

I reach over to her nightstand for my phone, see the missed calls and texts from my family. I ignore every one of the notifications but the lone message from my sister.

Izzy

I would’ve killed for you, too, Rhys… but please don’t die for me.

I sit up, suddenly aware of the position I put her in. My parents. Liv… I heave out a breath, the realization making my head spin.

“You okay?” Liv asks when she’s back in the room.

“Yeah,” I lie, then hate myself for it.

Liv nods, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Dom told Max you were here, and he made you this.” She hands me a sheet of paper—a drawing of an avocado. My heart smiles, even though my body can’t. She points to the words written beneath it—The Fruit of Testicles. “He made Dom write testicles because he couldn’t spell it.”

I stare at the drawing for a long moment before placing it on the bed beside me. “Do you think it would be okay if my sister comes over?”

“Of course,” she answers, then pauses a beat. “Your mom has called me so many times, and I don’t like?—”

“I know,” I cut in. “I’ll handle it. But first, I need to speak to my sister.”

By midday, Liv’s house is filled with more bodies than she’s had people walk through her front door. Ever. My sister got here a couple of hours ago, and we had the talk that’s been a long time coming. As soon as I had her approval, I called my parents. ThenBelinda and Curtis. And then Oscar. They all dropped everything to be here.

It’s obvious Liv has no clue what’s happening, so she doesn’t know what to do, how to act, how tofeel. She sits on the couch, her gaze distant while the world moves on around her.

My sister sits in an armchair in the corner of the room, her legs tucked in beneath her. My mom, Belinda, and Curtis are on chairs brought in from the kitchen. Dad stands behind Mom, and Oscar sits on the floor.

I sit on the couch next to Liv, my focus shifting to everyone in the room. One by one, I lock eyes with them, finding pockets of encouragement and determination between the anguish. I finish on my sister, thehundred percent of my fifty. Until I met Liv, my sister was the strongest person I knew. Now they’re on par with each other. “Are you sure, Iz?”

She nods, and I expect her to drop her gaze or at least look away, but she doesn’t. She stares right into my eyes, and I take a fragment of her strength and face Olivia.

“There’s so much—” I start to say, but I’m interrupted by her front door opening. Dominic freezes in the doorway between the living room and entryway, his eyes going wide at the number of people in the room. “I had some free periods,” he murmurs, then throws a thumb over his shoulder. “But I’ll come back.”

“You should stay,” I say, surprising myself. “This involves Liv, so it involves you, too.”

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