Kiss To Forget (Blairwood University #2) - Anna B. Doe Page 0,95

cheek against my back.

That’s how we stay.

Me holding one of Mom’s hands, while Jade has the other. Yasmin a silent support holding me together.

We don’t move when the light of the day starts creeping between the blinds. Nor when the nurse comes silently inside to check on Mom. We don’t move as the sun lifts high in the sky and then slowly starts descending toward the horizon, or when Mom’s breathing becomes so low, it’s barely audible.

Until her chest stops moving.

Until the loud beeeep spreads through the room, signaling that her heart has stopped beating.

Until Jade’s sobs become so loud, they echo in my mind.

And the whole world stops.

Chapter Thirty-Three

YASMIN

I leave the room, slowly pulling the door shut behind me. Jade and Nixon need to say goodbye to their mom in peace, and they won’t be able to do that with me inside.

Only once I’m in the hallway do I let my own tears fall. I lean against the wall, my body sliding to the floor as I cry for the woman I’d just started to get to know, but who means the world to two people that I’ve started to care about. Started to love.

A humorless chuckle escapes me. Who am I trying to kid? I’ve already fallen in love with Nixon Cole.

Deeply. Irrevocably. Head over heels in love.

And there is nothing I can do to ease the pain he’s feeling. Their world will never be the same again without their mom in it.

Wiping the tears off my face, I slowly push up and go to the living room where I left my things. I find my phone in my backpack, lying forgotten. I don’t think I’ve picked it up since I came here. How long has it been? The days have all blended together into one. Time seems to have stopped within the walls of the house, but even that couldn’t stop the inevitable from happening.

Ignoring all the messages and notifications, I pull up my best friend’s number and click dial. Callie picks up on the third ring. “Yasmin? Where are you?”

“Is Hayden with you?” I ask, ignoring her question. My voice sounds funny to my own ears, detached and empty. But I have to say this, and I don’t think I’ll be able to do it twice.

“Yes, why? What’s going on? Do you know where Nixon is? We haven’t heard from him in forever.” I can hear the worry in her voice, but I don’t have it in me to reassure her that everything is going to be all right. Not when I know nothing will ever be for those two people in the room down the hall.

“Callie,” I say, not in the mood to go over this twice.

“Wait, I’ll put him on speaker.”

“Yasmin?” Hayden’s voice comes through the line. There is rustling in the background. I’m not sure if they’ve returned from California or what time it is. Not that I care.

I rub my hand over my face. My whole body aches, and my eyes feel like somebody poured sand in them, but I know sleep won’t come. “I need you to grab the guys and come here.”

“Here where?”

“What’s going on, Yasmin? You’re scaring me. Is everything all right?”

“It’s Nixon’s mom.” I swallow hard. “She just died.”

As soon as I hear the sound of the car pulling up in front of the house I wipe my hands on the towel and go for the door. I’ve barely pulled it open when Callie collides with me, her hands pulling me into a tight hug.

“Oh, Yasmin.”

Slowly, I will my hands to move and return her hug, patting her on the back.

“What happened?” Hayden asks, a grim look on his face. Zane and Maddox stand behind him, matching worried glances on their faces.

“Cancer,” I whisper, rage at the stupid disease boiling inside of me.

“Fuck.” Zane rubs his hand over his face.

“How long?”

I don’t have to ask Hayden to explain himself. I can feel his frustration and overall helplessness. But I know I have to do this. I have to be the one to give them some kind of answers, what little I can, so they don’t ask Nixon about it because I don’t think he has it in him to answer.

It doesn’t matter that Jade and Nixon knew she was dying, have been by her side this whole time, Helen’s death has devastated both of them.

They stayed closed in the room for hours while I made some coffee and started cleaning. I didn’t know what to do with myself,