39. August 14th

39

August 14th

T he call disconnects and Grayson throws it onto the ground. Axel is already on the way, but it will be too late.

They're always too late.

They can never keep her alive past today.

He had lived years with Sunday in this loop, but she was blissfully unaware. While he and his brothers were forced to restart the pain of another lifetime.

It always rewound to the morning of the memorial.

After they made their god damn wish under the falling star.

Slowly, the three of them fell further in love with the na?ve, sweet, blissfully unaware girl, breaking each of their hearts time and time again.

The rumbling of Darius's truck sounds and he looks up. Axel is driving. He wrenches open the door. "Where is Darius?"

"Trying something new, he took my bike. She always dies at the fucking ‘accident' site when she goes to Julia's."

"But we don't know that!" Grayson's anger simmers to the surface. He thought this time might be different. That she might actually make it. He allowed himself to hope for a future. He jumps into the truck and slams the door.

Axel speeds away.

"I'm going to the same spot, and if not, then we will just have to do this all over again."

"I can't." Grayson's voice breaks and he presses his sweaty forehead against the cool window. "I can't keep losing her. I can't watch her die in my arms again. I can't see her dead body again. The last time practically broke me. When we pulled the lid off the barrel and there she was, crammed into it. At her favorite goddamn place." Grayson can't keep his emotions under control, and he starts punching the inside of the truck.

"I know." Axel keeps his focus on the road. "I love her, you know? I fell in love with her about the fifth go round. I already cared about her through the letters Tripp wrote me when I was locked away. He made me promise to take care of her if anything happened to him. To be the man she deserved. She is too fucking good, too stubborn, too much of everything. But she cares about us. About all of us. If not this time, we will get past today. We will. We have to."

Grayson doesn't acknowledge the words. He doesn't want to admit that he was in love with Sunday before this even began. That he knew how wrong it was to have a fantasy about his teenage neighbor. How he purposefully distanced himself from her. How he was beginning to suspect it was his fault she never trusted them. Maybe he was the reason she couldn't make it past today.

But this was the first time she had brought him to the space center. It gave him a sliver of promise. That maybe this time would really be different.

They were almost there. Almost to the scene where it all began. Where Tripp and Augustus were run off the road.

Axel makes the turn and the last of Grayson's hope flees his body.

A single street light flickers above. Darius made it before them, but it makes no difference. He is kneeling over a girl with a halo of curls. There is crimson seeping into the ground below her.

Grayson hears the desperate cry that Axel lets out but he pays it no mind. The truck hasn't made it to a complete stop before he is jumping out the door.