My feet move with a mind of their own, taking off to follow Millie's trail.

"Sean!" Andrea shouts but it's too late, I'm already gone, leaving that room in my dust.

I shove my way through the hall and down the stairs. Weaving around the crowd on the first floor, I keep having to stop and look for any sign of dark chocolate hair carving a path through the space. But she must've ditched her heels to disappear beneath the canopy of heads 'cause I can't seem to find her.

"Millie!" I shout above the music.

A head in the masses turns my way, those soul-searing blue eyes meeting mine before she ducks out the front door.

"Millie!" I call again, taking off after her.

Once outside, I spot her running barefoot across the lawn, her dark hair wiping in the night breeze. For someone who normally stands around taking pictures in her free time, she's fast as hell. But I'm faster. I jump off the porch and sprint to catch up.

"Stop!" I shout, closing the distance between us. "Damn it, Emmeline, stop!"

Her given name does the trick, halting her in her muddy tracks.

"What's going on?" I ask through deep breaths. "Why the fuck are you running from me?"

Slowly, she turns around. Those big blue eyes hesitantly lock with mine, rimmed in red with a single tear escaping down her cheek.

"Millie," I whisper, stepping forward, my heart aching at seeing her like this.

"Don't!" She snaps, stepping back. "I... I can't do this anymore."

"Do what? The game? Mill, we don't have to play some stupid game. Hell, we don't even have to stay at this fucking party. If you wanna go home, I'll walk you."

Wrapping her arms around herself, she shakes her head. "No... I... I can't do this anymore. Us, Sean."

Something inside me starts to splinter and fray. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means..." She wipes at her face. "It means I-I can't be your friend a-anymore."

For the third time tonight, a sharp pain stabs me in the center of my chest. Only this time, it comes with a heaviness that makes it hard to breathe. Like someone slammed a spear into my heart and just keeps pushing it deeper, forcing the painful thing all the way down until it won't go anymore. The weight of it makes my knees feel like they might give out from under me.

"Why the fuck not?"

Millie sniffles, her eyes refusing to meet mine no matter how much I mentally beg her to.

Don't do this, Millie. Please!

"I-I just can't," she answers vaguely, making a fire grow from deep inside me.

She tries to turn away and make a clean escape but I refuse to give up that easily. My hand snakes out and wraps around her wrist, gently pulling her back.

"You just can't? You're gonna throw away a decade-long friendship and not even give me an explanation? Do I not deserve at least that?" I hate how my voice cracks with those final words. This girl has seen me on some of my worst days but somehow none of those feel even close to this one.

A sob bubbles up past her lips, lips swollen from my kiss. "Please, Sean! Don't make this harder than it has to be."

"I'm sure as fuck not gonna make it easy for you!" My voice rises and shakes before lowering, sounding just as weak as I feel. "What did I do wrong? Tell me what it is and I can fix it. Millie, I'll do whatever you want. Just say the words... Please... don't do this to me. I... I need you."

The truth of those words radiates through every part of my being.

She squeezes her eyes closed and takes a deep breath, but I can feel the shaking in her hand and see the tears that escape down her cheeks. Her pain only adds to mine, filling my body with aches too harsh and piercings too strong to handle. But there's also a growing frustration, one that's burning brighter with each passing second.

Why do this if it's so hard for her? What the fuck isn't she telling me?

I'm about to ask just that when my phone starts ringing in my pocket. It's the ringtone I've got set for my mom, and Millie knows it.

Using this opportunity, she slips her hand free of mine and steps back. "You should answer that."

"Mill..."

"Just," She takes a deep breath. "Just let it go, Sean."

Her meaning isn't hard to miss. Let her go. Well, if she thinks that's gonna happen then she doesn't know me as well as I thought she did.

I slide my phone out of my pocket, my attention still fully locked on her. "This isn't over."

With a look of pure agony, Millie Price does something I never thought she would do. She turns her back on me and walks away. And with each step she takes, I feel another piece of me chip away... painfully... slowly.

"Yeah," I say, answering my phone while unable to tear my eyes from the back of her head.

For a moment, only silence answers me through the phone. I almost hang up, thinking I was too late, and missed the call until I hear a soft sob on the other end.

My eyes narrow, staring into the darkness of the night. "Mom?"

"S-Sean," my mom's voice answers, sounding strained and shaky.

"Mom, what's wrong?" I turn around, cradling the phone in my hand as I spot Jun and Eric coming outside.

"S-Sean, come home. T-There's been an...an a-accident."

The already present weakness in my knees starts to buckle, that sinking feeling filling my chest once again.

"What do you mean?"

A hiccup of a cry sounds. "It's y-your..." a louder sob is set free as if a dam has broken inside my mom. "It's your dad!"

The words "he's gone" are the last I hear before the phone slides from my hand and falls to the ground.

My sight blurs and my legs finally give out, weighed down by too much for one night. The party fades to a distant static as my knees hit the damp cold grass. Even Eric and Jun shouting my name sounds so far away. I can barely hear them over the hard thumping of my pulse, slow but fast and heavy at the same time, making it hard for me to breathe with each passing second. I desperately try to suck in air, my hand placed on my chest while I heave past the crippling sensation.

No... no, he's fine. He has to be. He was just at home when I left.

It doesn't take my cousins long to reach me though, jetting across the yard, Jun slides to the ground beside me while Eric picks up my phone.

"Sean," Jun calls, placing a steady hand on my back. "Sean, what's going on? Talk to me."

I can't find the words. I don't even have the strength to try.

"Aunt Tae?" Eric speaks into my phone.

From the corner of my eyes, I can just barely watch as Eric's face begins to twist with dread. It's the last thing I see before this sea of darkness wraps like a noose around my neck, spotting my vision with dancing black dots until the world around me drifts away.

~One Week Later~

I sit on the edge of my bed, staring at the mess that is my room. Clothes, pictures, and trophies litter the carpet. My mess of rage and loss from the past few days. My attention falls to my hands next, my knuckles busted and cut from smashing picture frames and god knows what else. One of the wounds is still bleeding but I can't feel the pain. Not with the raw misery still radiating from the center of my chest.

With bloody fingers, I loosen the tie around my neck before sliding it off and tossing it on the floor with the rest of my shit. My suit jacket is next, followed by the shiny black dress shoes caked with graveyard mud.

I stand and roll up the sleeves of my black dress shirt.

Everything I have on or just took off is black. Like the dress and veil my mom wore as she watched my father be lowered into the ground today. Black, like the last few days of nothingness but agony, while I locked myself in here.

I couldn't face anyone. Still not sure I can now but I didn't have a choice today. My mom needed me and no matter how bad I feel for myself, I feel worse for her.

I lightly kick one of the basketball trophies from my childhood, now laying in two pieces. But when I lift my head, the next thing I see is a picture hanging sideways on the wall. It's the only one left. The only one I haven't destroyed yet. And in it, I meet my father's eyes looking back at me. The same sharp, dark eyes that I see when I look into the mirror each day.

Like a bolt of lightning from the raging storm outside, I lash out and toss my dresser as if it weighs nothing at all. My howls of pain fill the house and challenge the thunder for dominance. It leaves my throat raw and burning.

But the outburst isn't enough. It's barely made a dent in numbing the pain, and the fact of that only makes my turbulent emotions build more.

Things might never be okay again. Not me or mom. Hell, we might not even be able to afford to keep our home after this. Mom thinks I don't know but I heard her talking to Aunt Hana and Aunt Ji. Dad made all the money while Mom took care of me and the house. Now she'll have to go to work, and it's been so long there's a chance she might not make enough.

Plus...

My eyes fall on the photo one more time, narrowing on the smiling face of my father.

You just couldn't leave us with anything to support ourselves, could you? Not a single fucking dime before you drunkenly drove off the side of the road? You selfish... "Son of a bitch!"

I yank the photo off the wall, the frame splintering in my hand and digging into my skin before I throw it across the room with another raw cry. The damn thing smashes through my bedroom window and escapes into the storm. And all I can do is stand there, staring at the jagged broken glass as I struggle to draw in a steady breath.

That is... until my eyes notice a light shining through the heavy rain. I slowly walk across the room, not giving a shit if I step on any broken shards. The source of the light isn't hard to make out once I reach my window.

Millie.

The light is from her bedroom, straight across from mine with nothing between us but our side yards and a small fence to separate them on the ground below. She still hasn't talked to me since the party. It's been a week of silence. Not a single text or call answered. She's even kept her window and curtains closed, completely blocking me out.

But... she was there today. She came to the funeral with her parents and though she didn't say a word to me, she didn't need to. I saw my own misery mirrored in those ocean blue eyes.

Now, her light blue curtains are drawn back, giving me a direct view into her room. But even with the light on, I don't see her.

Maybe she's downstairs...maybe she's finally ready to talk.

Hope slithers through my veins despite a voice in the back of my head telling me not to let it. But it's all I have right now. The one light at the end of the tunnel, just as Millie has always been for me. There's no way she'd shut me out today. Not when I need her so bad, not when everything around me is falling apart.

She wouldn't do that to me.

I snatch my muddy dress shoes off the floor, slipping them on as I rush out of the room. And before I can even think of another possibility, I'm down the stairs and out the front door. The rain and thunderstorm above my head do little to slow me down. I run through my yard and jump over the fence to hers as if my life depends on it. Water and mud splash onto my pants, the damp cold trying to grab hold of me and pull me down. But nothing can stop me now, not even my slippery shoes skidding through a puddle in an attempt to knock me off my feet. I'm a man on a mission and I'm not giving up, not this time.

That is until I reach the bottom steps of Millie's porch and a rush of nerves crashes over me like a bolt of lightning. Sucking in lungfuls of freezing air, I stand on that bottom step and stare up at the maroon door as drops of water drizzle from my hair and down my face.

Self-doubt has never been an issue of mine, but now, I can feel it twisting around my insides like vines and tying my legs to the ground like a tree in the jungle. It's a cold kind of agony, worse than drenched clothes or whipping winds. I hate it but... I hate going through this without Millie more.

Shaking off any other thoughts and focusing on just her, I force my feet up the stairs. My knock on the door is just as sure and solid, despite the tremble in my hands. And even after a couple of minutes of waiting, staring at the wood grain in the door, I knock again.

Come on, Millie.

Another knock. Another minute or two of silence.

I look over my shoulder and notice Mrs. Price's white Lexus in the driveway but Mr. Price's silver Crossover is missing. It's not unusual though. He works a lot. Wouldn't be surprised if he had to go back to the office after Dad's...

I swallow the lump in my throat and turn back to the door. If the Lexus is here then someone has to be home. I knock again, harder this time, and try to ignore the way my heart begins to speed up.

"Millie!" I shout. "It's me, come on!"

A newly familiar weight presses down on my chest as panic climbs up my throat, making each breath jagged and painful.

"Millie, please open the door. I need you. Please!" My knocking turns into bangs as my fist hits the door over and over again. "I know you're in there! Don't lock me out like this, not today!"

Dark dread starts to consume me from the inside out. It's slowly pulling me under, drowning me in the shadows that have surrounded me all week. With each bang on the door, I fight to keep my head above water. The light that promises me salvation is so close yet so far, locked behind this Goddamn door. But the more I struggle, the longer I try to hold on, the weaker I feel.

My fist lands on the door but I don't bother to pick it up and knock again. I leave it there as I press my wet head to the cold wood.

"Millie," I whisper as if she's standing just on the other side. For all I know, she could be. She could be right there, hearing everything and refusing to say or do a thing while I suffer out here alone. "Millie, please open the door. You can go back to acting like I don't exist tomorrow but..."

I squeeze my eyes closed, hating how tears leak out the sides and run down my face to join the water still dripping from my hair. Hating how weak I am. Yet still, the words don't stop falling from my lips as I talk to the door.

"Please open up. He... he left us with nothing, Mill. Nothing but the house and a shit ton of debt. And I'm... I'm scared. I don't know what to do. How do I fix this?" My fist uncurls and flattens against the door as I finally open my eyes, pleading with the ghost inside. "I'll do anything you want, Millie. Anything, just let me in. I can't get through this without you. It's too fucking hard and... I'm not strong enough. Not on my own. You got no idea how much I need you right now. You're... everything. Please."

My words finally die, my voice hoarse from screaming at the world and begging for help. The only sound left is the slowing rain and thunder.

Pushing off the door, I wipe the moisture from my face just as my phone pings in my pocket. I'm surprised the damn thing is even still working after the shower it just got, but I pull out and pray for a miracle.

Instead, I'm delivered the final nail in my coffin in the form of a text.

Millie: Sean, stop. I'm sorry about your dad but you can't keep chasing after me like some kind of puppy. It's pathetic. You need to move on and I need to find a beast. I can't do that with you nipping at my heels. I wish you the best of luck but let's do each other a favor and not talk about this again. Sorry.

All the air in my lungs rushes out with a gasp as an agonizing pain slashes through my chest, cutting deep and opening barely healed wounds. The pain ricochets through every limb in my body and my knees wobble. Everything inside me feels fried, peeled away, and exposed. There's not a single piece of me that isn't tender and raw.

Please, make it stop.

That thought, so weak—so pathetic—is what finally pushes me forward. With a gaping hole in the center of my chest, I force my sluggish feet down the porch steps.

I am pathetic. How did I not see it?

With each tiny step I take, a new feeling begins to dig its way into my skin. I can't place my finger on it but it burns like a wildfire in my veins. Flames more angry and aggressive than anything I've felt before. And yet at the same time, there's a chill snaking through my body. It reminds me of the coldness I've felt all day, all week, but more intense.

Is it possible for someone to burn with anger and freeze themselves numb?

I don't have the answer to that, and I'm not sure I even want it. Not when the two sensations work their way through every fiber of my being and begin covering the cavernous wound in my chest. It's an unusual feeling but it somehow seems to take away my earlier torment, at least a little. Maybe if I give it time there will be no pain left. Maybe that's my best option right now.

The walk back to my yard feels like it takes forever as my mind swims with these new thoughts and feelings. But the second I'm back in my yard, the sound of a car door shutting breaks through the pitter-patter of the rain. I stop and turn to look, knowing somehow that there's no evidence left on my face from my earlier breakdown.

Green eyes framed by fire red hair beam in my direction as a familiar figure stops on the sidewalk. "Hi, Sean."

Taking my first steady breath all week, I hold my head high. "Andrea... hey."

Hey, loves! Welcome to the newly rewritten second chapter of GGB. First off, if you read the old version, please don't kill me! I know Millie isn't looking really great right now, but... you know, sometimes things aren't always as they seem. And that's all I'm saying about that! Anyway, I will be keeping to the original format of the old version, meaning this is the last chapter from the "past" and the next chapter we'll be jumping into the present. Though this time it's a much bigger jump. Last time I think it was only like 7 months and this time it'll be nearly a 2-year jump, but don't worry, I promise it's for the best. And I'm so excited for it! We're gonna start getting to the meat of things! 

Now, with all of that said, let's jump on some questions!

What did you think about Millie and Sean's argument outside of the party? How do you feel about Millie ending their friendship? Do you have any guesses as to why she did it? Any feelings about Sean losing his dad or how it was revealed? What do you think of Sean's emotional storm after the funeral? Were you surprised he ran to Millie? What did you think of his breakdown on her porch or the things he said? And how about that text from Millie? Are you mad at her? (If so, I hope not too much 😟) What do you think of the emotional Sean experienced after the message? Do you think this is going to lead him in a good or bad direction? And finally, what did you think of Andrea showing up at the end?

Leave your thoughts in the comments and if you like what you read, please hit that star button!

I normally post teasers for upcoming chapters on my Twitter and Instagram(I've actually been really bad about this lately and will try to do better going forward), so follow me there or here on Wattpad for any announcements. I'll do my best to have a teaser up before the release of chapter 3. I didn't do one for chapter 2 just cause I was in such a rush to get it done and get it to you all!

💜 xoxo