I step back at his words, and Rhianna grips me from behind.
“It’s time to go. We have to go,” Rhianna says with urgency.
“You can still leave. You can go,” I say to him.
August looks down at his clothes. Blood has soaked into them. “No, I can’t.”
“Ry, we have to go,” Rhianna says from behind me.
I reach for him fast enough that he can’t stop me, my lips touch his, and he doesn’t pull back.
Kissing August is like asking for air but struggling to accept it. Because you know if you do, you may never have that feeling again, but if you don’t, you may just die.
He is by far the best kisser I have had, and his lips are the last I ever want to touch mine.
I feel Rhianna’s hands leave my shoulders as I push myself up and onto August. My body covering his as I try to climb him. I want to be as close as humanly possible.
He has to know.
He has to know we are meant to be together.
Nothing can get in our way.
Nothing.
My lips feel bruised with how hard I kiss him, and he kisses me back with the same ferocity.
As if he knows, just knows, that this is it.
This is our last kiss.
The sirens are closer, and tears run down my cheeks, but I’m unable to pull away.
I can’t.
I need to.
This is it.
I have to accept it.
“Ry, we need to leave. Now!” Rhianna urges.
I pull away and reach up to touch his lips, my fingers brushing them one last time.
“I had to.”
I nod. It’s all I can do. What other words can I say? What’s done is done. Nothing I can do will change the fact or change what he’s done.
“Now go,” he says, then screams, “Go.”
Rhianna pulls me back, and we run out the door.
I turn back to take one last look at him. August watches me, as he always does, and this time I know, it’s goodbye.
My heart shatters in my chest.
How will I survive?
Survive without him.
When he finally made me live again.