The sounds of sobs and wailing kept getting louder by the second, which made my head start banging. I covered my ears to shut everything out as it was getting too much. By now the only thing I could hear was the muffled cries and the sound of my heart rapidly beating. My breath started getting short and my vision became blurry as my bare weak kneecaps touched the cold tile floor of the airport.

By now I was unaware of what was happening around me, the only thing I was focusing on was on the banging of my head and the blinding light of the airport. Someone touched my back making me flinch back in fear. I started crawling back in terror, still not being able to face the person beside me because of my foggy sight. A familiar hand grabbed me by my wrist while the other cupped my face rubbing my cheeks. Come back to me, I was able to distinguish a faint mumble. My vision started coming back to normal and I started frantically looking at my surroundings trying to examine where I was. I started panting again when I realized I was still at the airport. My eyes fell on the familiar face in front of me.

Henry now cupping my face with both of his hands starring into my eyes intensely trying to snap me back into reality. I wiped the tear that fell from my face and I jumped on Henry's broad chest to embrace him in a tight hug. He hugged me back, playing with my hair, and planting small kisses on the top of my head.

"Take me out of here" I mumbled on his chest.

With a small head nod, he flung his arm around my waist helping me get up and leading me to the car park. We got in the car and I didn't speak, the numbness came back to me. I just stared at the empty road in front of me, while Henry put his hand on my thigh softly rubbing it.

How could this happen?

Why would it happen to her?

She had so much more to live for.

It should have been me instead.

It's all my fault.

This wouldn't have happened if she didn't come to see me.

"I need to call her mum" I exclaimed anxiously as I snapped off my thoughts and I saw Henry giving me a reassuring head nod.

I got my phone out of my pocket and started looking at my contacts. When I found what I was looking for I called and waited for what seemed like an eternity for an answer.

Steph's mum was like my mum, we would often joke how she should adopt and that we should all live together happily ever after. How could I tell her that her happily ever after got crashed?

I heard the familiar high pitched voice at the end of the line as Martha picked up

Mia! I'm so glad you called. I told Steph to give me a ring when she landed but she probably doesn't have data.

Martha... Steph is not here.

We were talking in Greek and obviously Henry didn't understand anything but he kept giving me weak reassuring smiles.

Ohh, was her flight delayed?

Martha... I took a big breath trying not to burst into tears. Steph will not be coming. The plane crashed.

What do you mean it crashed? Stop playing with me. She tried to chuckle thinking I was playing a prank on her, when I heard her violently typing on her phone. The crash was most probably on the news by now so she was googling if what I told her was true. She let out a gasp. My baby. She kept repeating over and over sobbing.

I put my hand on my mouth covering trying not to let out the whimpers I felt coming.

My love, I gotta go, I'll text you when I've got everything for the funer... She couldn't continue her sentence and hung up.

Henry kept his hand on my thigh "we're back" he whispered.

I unbuckled my seatbelt getting out of the car and slamming the door behind me. I saw Anya and Freya looking all confused but shrugged it off and stormed to the park.

I went to the hidden clear with the waterfall I had found a couple of months ago. It was supposed to be my relaxing place but now everything seemed so ugly. I was no longer amazed by the calmness of the crystal clear waters and I could no longer hear the birds singing their beautiful songs.

I let out a loud scream and the tears started to fall. I could not control myself anymore. I collapsed on the ground bringing my legs to my chest, wrapping my arms around them, and sobbing nonstop.

I took my shoes and socks off and put my feet in the cold lake water, something which momentarily brought me back to reality.

I heard a branch breaking and I quickly wiped my tears, turning around to see who it was.

Of course it was fucking Henry.

The tall, muscular man was working his way through the branches and bushes looking at me with puppy eyes.

I removed my feet from the water and got up to face him, not even bothering putting my socks on, the sense of the grass touching my bare feet made me feel grounded and focused to reality.

I crossed my arms letting Henry know I was annoyed "did you follow me here?"

"Yeah..." he rubbed the back of his neck nervously and he had this guilty tone in his voice.

He came close to me trying to embrace me in a hug but I pushed him off.

When I had a mental breakdown I could be a pain in the ass, I would be rude to whoever tried to calm me down as a method of self defense. I didn't want anyone else to help me, I had to go through it by myself.

"I just wanted to make you're okay, I thought you would need a friendly face by your side, after all your best friend di-" Henry continued but I put my finger up to warn him to stop.

"Don't even say it" I growled at him. It still new to me, I didn't have time to adjust to it. I couldn't admit to myself or to him that my best friend was dead.

I started pacing back and forth while biting the skin on the side of my nails.

"Well, since Steph won't be coming wouldn't you love to find out what I've been hiding from all of you?" I asked him sarcastically.

"Mia, you don't have t-"

"Don't you want to know why I dont trust anyone?" I cut him off snarling at him.

"You see, you were partly right at your assumption yesterday, the only thing is that it wasn't after one person that my trust was shattered. I had this good friend from primary you know, we were the best of friends, until we got to secondary and she and her new friend decided that they would start spreading rumours that I was a slut. At first I didnt know it was her doing so I was crying on her shoulders and she wouldn't care. With these rumours more guys started to be more interested in me of course. That's when I got my first boyfriend. But I also had a surgery on my hand around that time as I had an accident in Taekwondo, and my hand was stitched up and in a cast. I would be weak because of the pain that was causing me and I wasn't as feisty. So my boyfriend took advantage of it and raped me. I was 14 at that time and it was my first time." I noticed Henry letting out a small gasp but didn't say anything.

"I managed to break up with him and after that all the other boys I was with just used me for sex. Until I found I guy who I thought was the one. We met on Facebook and we hit it off right away, he may have lived far but he knew what I wanted without me having to say it. You could say our love was platonic as there was never anything sexual between us, not even when he came to visit me. It was perfect, until one day he just decided that he couldn't take this anymore, blocked me on everything and the night before I left for England his best friend just sent me a picture of him kissing another girl."

I let out a small sarcastic chuckle as I continued. "I was heart broken in a foreign country and I thought that the only way I would get over him was by getting with someone new. No one would warn me that this funny new person I met would end up being so toxic and I would be with him for almost two years. You see, we were going to the same college, he was the shy kid and a skater boy with the same music taste as me. So I thought why not? We were doing great at first but I soon realised that he had confidence issues. It started with just some plain jealousy, to him demanding me to stop talking to all my male friends because apparently to him they wanted to fuck me, to him guilt tripping me whenever I went to Greece and met with my friends . If I didn't reply in 10 minutes he would send me pictures of him crying and cutting himself. I tried many times to leave but he would guilt trip me with his family. He would say stuff like you're gonna break everyone's heart just so you can get your way. I fortunately gathered the courage and left him no matter how hard he was crying trying to change my mind. Few months after our breakup I found out that he also cheated on me multiple times."

I took a big breath. "After him, I met another guy. He was Greek and he was working with my stepdad. We started talking every day and then one day I just went to stay overnight at his house. That one night turned out to be 365 more nights. We were living together and we were perfect. We knew what the other wanted and we never had any fights. But his all time dream was to go back in Greece and work for Tesla, so when that dream came knocking on the door he left. And as soon as he went back to Greece he got back with the ex that cheated on him. So you see, it wasn't just a single incident. Everyone just came, took what they wanted and then left me empty." I was almost yelling by now.

I managed to calm myself down and felt my voice crack "Steph was the only constant in my life, the only one I knew wouldn't leave me. But she did as well." The tears started rolling down my cheeks but I was too tired to wipe them away.

Henry came to hug me again but I kept punching him to push him away but the more I punched the closer he got. I finally gave in and grabbed his top, collapsing in his embrace. I kept crying and sobbing and wailing, sometimes even small screams were escaping my mouth. But Henry held me tight, rubbing my back and head whispering it's gonna be okay.

"I'm sorry" I mumbled, still buried on his chest.