Chapter 57 Fifty-six

• Minutes after we come downstairs to eat, I play with the cereal in my bowl, spinning the colourful brunch before raising a spoonful of it to my lips. Brandon chuckles at my sulking, I frown, how can he be so cool with leaving me here? He will be gone for a week. The thought makes my stomach knot, I stab the cereal and nearly chew the spoon off.
• Brandon pries the spoon off my hand, I don’t realise my cheeks are wet with tears until he swipes at them. I sigh, it must be my period, I am being unusually emotional and over stupid things. He pulls me to his laps, I tuck my head into the crook of his neck and bawl my eyes out while he strokes my back until my cries quiet to sobs. I want him to stay.
• The massaging of my scalp causes me to moan. “If you didn’t have school, we would have gone together, you know that, right? But your studies come first,” he murmurs.