A Thousand Broken Pieces (A Thousand Boy Kisses #2)

by Tillie Cole

“I have come to understand that death, for the sick, is not so hard to endure. For us, eventually our pain ends, we go to a better place. But for those left behind, their pain only magnifies.”

She looked over her shoulder, to where Rune was sitting on the bed, laying kiss after kiss on my older sister’s hands, her fingers, her face, looking at his Poppymin like he always had—like she had been designed solely for him.

In that moment, I lost something in my soul that I knew I would never get back.

I was simply broken. I didn’t know how to heal, how to put myself back together again. The truth was, when Poppy died, all light vanished from my world, and I’d been stumbling around in the dark ever since.

He told me once that he would never feel about anyone else the way he felt about Poppy and that although their time together was short, it had been enough to last him a lifetime.

Rob told me that grief never left us. Instead we adapted, like it was a new appendage we had to learn to use. That at any moment, pain and heartache could strike and break us. But eventually we would develop the tools to cope with it and find a way to move on.

Because she was buried in the ground behind me. Eternally seventeen. The age I was now. Never to grow old. Never to shine her light. Never to share her music. A travesty the world would forever be deprived of.

“But the thing I’ve found hardest since we lost Poppy…” I held my breath, waiting for what she would say. Ida’s shoulders dropped and she whispered, “Was that awful day… I lost you too.”

Poppy, please, if you can hear me. Help me. Please, just one last time. Help me get through this. Help me learn how to live without you. Help me be okay.

A loved one’s death wasn’t a onetime thing that you had to endure. It was an endless cycle. A cruel Groundhog Day that burned away at your heart and soul until there was nothing left but scorched flesh where they once had been.

“Some people are only in our lives for a short time, but the mark they leave on us is a cherished tattoo.”

To me, we were all made of stardust. And when we passed, we’d take our place back amongst the stars where we were created.

The Litchfield sisters…as close as close can be.

Her smiles were as shy as she was, but just that small upward curl at the corner of her lip tugged like a freight train at my heart.

I couldn’t think of anything more euphoric than having her kisses.

The stars were a glitter-covered blanket above, white snow vibrant against the dark night, and then there was Savannah, shining brighter than the stars and snow combined.

Without grief’s heavy weight pressing down on my neck, I was able to look up and see the sky. See the stars, the sun, and the moon.

We were as close as close can be.

I was so in love with this boy that it was almost too much for my heart to contain.

“depression, for some, can be so difficult to live with that it is a terminal illness.”

“Depression is a sickness that eats away at all happiness and light until there is nothing left but hopelessness and despair. Like cancer ravishes the body, depression ravishes the mind, the soul, the spirit. It’s a silent killer, stealing life away gradually, moment by moment, extinguishing all light from the soul.”

And I just knew, could feel it deep in my heart… …I was going to be okay.