Mr. Book Store

CHAPTER 8

MCKINLEY P.O.V

New Years passed pretty quickly, but of course, I spent it in the office since I needed to finish that writing thing that I never did. I hadn't talked to Luke since he went out partying with his friends and then he was hung over. So now it being a week later, and we haven't talked that much, I got worried.

"What's wrong?" Courtney asked coming into my office. I was already on y third cup of coffee. I had only known Luke for a month but I was girlfriend and he hasn't talked to me in a week.

"I haven't talked to Luke in like a week." I answered as I typed away on my laptop. She sat down, I'm sure she has no idea what to do. I had never been in a relationship before. I had no idea what to do.I texted him but he only gave me short little responds with one words answer's and I eventually figured out that I was being annoying and left him alone.

"Have you called him?"

"Yeah, he ignores it." I answered. "Whatever, I don't even care." She laughed a little. I could tell it was a nervous laugh like she had to tell me something. "What?"

"Your mom called."

"Oh." I said looking at her. "What did she say?"

"Your grandfather isn't doing well." She said and I looked down. My grandfather has been fighting cancer since my older brother was born, nearly 25 years ago. "Listen, they don't think he has much time so if you want to head home for a week or so I'll let you go." I nodded my head. "I understand. I can have someone else do the paper work we need, okay?" I nodded my head.

"I'll head home tomorrow, is that okay?"

"Whatever you need." She said. The work day was almost over, I would go home and pack and then leave early tomorrow morning. I knew that my grandfather was sick, he had been for years, I just never thought that I would be heading home to him to watch it all play out.

"See ya." I said as I left the office. The walk to my apartment seemed longer but maybe it was just because it was freezing cold and I felt like my face was going to fall off. As soon as I entered the building, I sighed, heading up to my apartment. As soon as I got the door open, I headed for my bedroom to start packing. But, I stopped to call Luke. And of course I got his voicemail.

"Hey, Luke, It's Kinley, I just wanted to let you know that I'm heading home for a few days. My grandfather is really sick. So, if you don't hear from me that's why but it doesn't seem like it will be a problem for you. Bye." I said before hanging up and sighing. We used to talk all day long and we would often treat each other for lunch.

I went to bed that night with not hearing from Luke, again.

The next morning I got up around five in order to shower and get myself out the door so I could get on the road to make it home around nine or ten in the morning depending on how many stops I made. Of course I stopped for coffee, I already knew that I was. Of course I got stuck in traffic, that was a given, it didn't matter how early you left your house, you would get stuck in some type of traffic.

When I was about halfway there, I stopped again for another coffee and to use the bathroom. It seemed weird to me because the only time I had left the city recently, I left with Luke and he drove, now he just didn't want anything to do with me.

It hurt, I wasn't going to lie. I finally opened up to someone and he just short of walked away? You could say. I mean I haven't heard from him, or anyone for that matter. I had no idea what he was doing. Then it made me start to think that maybe something happened during New Years when I wasn't with him and he's been avoiding me so he doesn't have to tell me. Either way, it pains me.

When I finally made it to my parents house, I knocked on the door, the two dogs went crazy. The front door swung open and my mother was standing there as the dogs jumped on my legs and the cat ran onto the porch.

"McKinley." She said.

"Hi." I said, she wrapped me in a hug. "I heard that Papa wasn't doing well." I said and she frowned.

"He's not. Dad's with him at the hospital. Said he's having a hard time breathing." I nodded my head. "It's good to see you." She said.

"It's good to see you too." I answered sitting down at the table in the kitchen.

"What have you been up to?"

"Nothing really, working, mostly." I answered shrugging.

"Yeah, there's no special guy?" I blushed looking down and smirking. "I knew there was a guy." I laughed.

"His name is Luke." I answered. "We haven't talked in a week though." I said and she gave me a frown.

"I'm sorry. How did you meet?"

"In a book store, he bought me a book." I said smiling, remembering the day. "We then started dating like two weeks ago and now he isn't talking to me."

"I'm sure he's just busy." I nodded. "Should we head over to the hospital?"

"Sure." I answered standing up and grabbing my purse. She drove over to the hospital, where my grandfather was in hospice where we all knew his life would soon end.

We just never pictured it happening so soon. He took a few deep breathes, opening his eyes, smiling at us all.

"I already miss you." You claimed before he closed his eyes again and his chest sank for the last time and the heart monitor stopped beeping. I stood there, feeling numb.

*LUKE P.O.V*

"Luke, man, just answer the call." I sighed.

"I can't."

"Luke, she's called three times in the last ten minutes, clearly something is wrong. Just answer the phone." I sighed again. I knew that when she found out that I kissed someone else as the ball dropped she would be crushed. I was drunk and was stupid and just grabbed some random girl to kiss. "Answer the phone!" Ashton shouted as she called back right away.

"Hello?" I said into the phone. I heard sniffles on the other end.

"My grandfather died." I froze.

"Oh god, McKinley, I'm sorry. I'll come over right now."

"I'm not home. I'm in Boston." She said, her voice just above a whisper as she was still crying. It wasn't even like I could go comfort her.

"Do you want me to come up there?" She didn't answer. "Kin?"

"Please?" She asked.

"Of course, I'll be there as soon as I can." I said. "Hang in there." I said. She just sniffled back before she hung up. "I gotta go, I'll see you in a few days. Hold down the fort." I said to Ashton who questioned where I was going. I quickly ran out of the building and got in my car. I drove home to pack before asking McKinley for an address. I plugged it into the GPS before speeding down the street.

I knew that I shouldn't have ignored McKinley all week but I was freaking out about the kiss. Everyone told me it happened but I don't remember it happening. I don't remember anything. I could have sworn that I didn't kiss anyone but I guess I did.

My phone began ringing and it was Ashton on the phone.

"Bro!" He shouted into the phone.

"What?" I asked back.

"I just saw some pictures from New Years, right, there's a picture of you and me, and apparently we're kissing and it seems to be midnight."

"What?" I asked laughing a little. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, so you clearly didn't cheat on McKinley and you've been ignoring her for nothing."

"Bro, we kissed, that's so gross." He laughed a little.

"Who cares, we were drunk and you don't even remember it happening." He said and I laughed. It was kinda funny though. "Take care of her."

"I will." I said before hanging up. I knew that this drive was going to be a while and I knew that she needed me and I was willing to drive for years if she needed me.

When I got to the address she gave me, I knocked on the door the large yellow house. She answered the door, right away pulling me into a hug. I kept her head to my chest as I hugged her.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered in her ear kissing the side of her head. I could feel my shirt getting wet from her tears as she pulled me into the house and out of the cold. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, he was really sick." She answered as we sat on the stairs, he hand in mine and her head on my shoulder. "Where have you been?"

"I've been embarrassed." I said blushing a deep red and she laughed.

"What do you mean?" She questioned.

"I had no one to kiss on New Years so I kissed Ashton." I said and she burst out laughing. "I have no idea why I did it but I did."

"My god, that's funny." She said laughing a little. "Is that why you were avoiding me?" She questioned.

"Yes." I answered and she laughed.

"I don't care that you kissed him." She said. "But, are you gay?"

"No." I laughed and she kissed my lips. "I'm dating you, I'm not gay."

"Anyway, we just ordered some food, why don't you come meet everyone?" She asked and I nodded. "I told them you were coming so they're prepared." She said and I nodded. They were scattered around the kitchen and living room, each wrapped in their own conversation not paying attention to me and McKinley. "Everyone, this is Luke. Luke this is everyone." She said. I gave a little wave and a smile. "That's my parents, my grandmother, my aunt, my cousins, and one of my brothers." I said hi to everyone before taking a seat on one of the chairs in the living room that no one was sitting in.

"I'm so sorry for you loss." I said before Kinley sat down on my lap. Her family seemed to be handling it well, they were all laughing and joking around, just like my family. When the food got here, everyone went running to the kitchen and McKinley didn't move so we stayed where we were, her hand in mine, her laying on my chest. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm so glad you're here."

"You needed me." I answered looking at her. Her bright blue eyes were puffy and red but still beautiful. "I would have flown to California if you needed me." She laughed a little.

"I know you would have." She said. We stayed there until everyone got their food before we headed into the kitchen to grab some food.

"Don't hurt my goddaughter." One of her uncles said and I looked at him.

"I don't plan on it." I answered, looking over at her and she was smiling at me. I smiled back at her, looking down. I knew that all of this was really scary for her and she never wanted to get married and maybe someday I'll be able to change her mind. But for right now I was going to be there for her and hopefully we would figure this all out someday.

That night, we crawled into a bed, that was in the finished basement of her aunts house. She didn't have a room at her parents house anymore. The bed was huge, and we were squished together at the very edge. Wasn't sure how we fell asleep, but we did.

*MCKINLEY P.O.V*

The next morning we woke up, got dressed, and headed over to the funeral home. We didn't have much family left, so we were just going to bury him and move on. We didn't want anything big. Of course we let our extended family know and we let friends know, other than that, we were doing this our way.

"You okay?" Luke asked as we walked to his car.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I probably wouldn't when we were at the cemetery and they lowered his body into the ground, but I was okay. "Just, stick with me."

"Always." He said. He held my hand for the fifteen minute ride to the funeral home. We were only there for a few minutes before we headed out the door and to our cars. My youngest cousin decided that she wanted to ride with me and Luke. She was only ten, this was her first ever funeral and she questioned a lot of things.

"You're fine with her driving with you?"

"Yes, of course, it's fine." I smiled at my aunt. We would then all be heading out to lunch and it was going to be very challenging to find a place for all 17 of us to eat, and all get our food at the same time. "We have an hour ride down there."

"How do we get there?"

"Just follow everyone else." I answered and he nodded, speeding down the street after my aunt. We played music and made small talk the entire car ride down to the cemetery, waiting for everyone else to get out of their car first, it was cold, we weren't going to stand out there.

"Ready girls?" Luke asked looking at both of us and we both nodded. We all stood side by side, Luke holding my hand the entire time. Some people prayed but since I wasn't a very religious person, I didn't. I wasn't really sure what happened to you after you died. If there was heaven and hell, if you went somewhere, if you were reborn, I wasn't sure about any of that. All I knew was that he was gone, and he wasn't coming back.

We all went over to a pizza place for lunch, they made the children sit at one table and the adults sat at the other table. And by children I mean me and my cousins. I only had three cousins who were younger than me so it really wasn't that bad but two of them were rather annoying, and they were siblings. The other two were 16 and 10. And the last person sitting at our table was my older brother.

"Audrey, what do you want?" I questioned as I looked over the menu, Luke's hand never left mine.

"Pasta with butter." She answered, her Boston accent thick when she said butter. We each ordered what we wanted, before the conversation picked up again. Until the food came. Me, Luke and my brother all split a buffalo chicken pizza with blue cheese right on the top. The conversation flowed but because some of my cousin's weren't as smart, they mostly talked bull crap but for the four of us at the table who understood, the conversation flowed.

We all finished up before we headed back to the houses. Me and Luke had decided to stay until Friday, as it was Wednesday and we figured we would head home on Saturday, sleep all day Sunday and head back to work on Monday. Luke was the best thing that ever happened to me and I couldn't thank him enough for being here in my time of need.