BRIANNA’S POV
It had been days since I last spent real time with Lola. The night the lights went out had shaken her more than she let on. I saw it in the way she clung to her blankets and the way she jumped at the creak of a door.
And if I was honest, it shook me too.
I wasn’t myself either. My thoughts were cluttered. My chest was tighter. So today, I made a decision.
I needed to be with Lola.
I found her in her room. She was seated on the wide window bench, staring outside at the garden that hadn’t been touched in weeks.
“Hey,” I said softly.
She turned, eyes wide, and then she slowly smiled. “Bri?”
I walked over and pulled her into a hug without asking. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” she mumbled into my shoulder.
We spent the next hour sitting together, eating warm pastr
