Paper Heart ✔️

Chapter 23 | the funeral was beautiful

The funeral was beautiful.

People had a lot to say about Wyatt, including me.

"I think the hardest part of losing someone isn't having to say goodbye, it's learning to live without them. I thought you had to push through grief buts it's more complicated than that. You have to adjust to it, accept it. Nothing made sense when I learned Wyatt was gone. It felt like the world had collapsed yet the sun kept rising anyway. In the end it was I who'd collapsed. I was trying to remember Wyatt and let him go at the same time."

I look around the room. Everyone is staring at me.

"It's okay to cry, it's okay to be angry or thankful, it's okay to miss them and it's okay to love again. There's no explanation in the end and that haunts us. I can't put into words how amazing Wyatt was, he was and extraordinary son, brother and friend."

I step down from behind the podium, Hero surprises me by getting up and walking up to the podium himself.

I sit down and he gives me a nod reminding me I'll be alright.

"Shit-"

I smile, he would curse in a church.

"The last couple of weeks have been the most terrible and happiest moments of my life. I struggled to come to terms with Wyatt's death-"

"I also have a habit of saying things at the wrong time so bare with me." He laughs lightly and the crowd smiles and nods. "I'm also not a poet but here it goes, Today is the day you will be laid to rest. But you know what they say. God only takes the best. The thought of never seeing you again brings tears to my eyes. And even more so, because all of this was such a surprise. So as we sit here and mourn the loss of a friend. We have to keep telling ourselves that we will meet again."

I wipe away the wetness from my eyes.

He's such poet.

"Someone once told me they read this book and remember the line reading 'how can I die if I haven't even said goodbye to my little brother?' and I told that person-" Hero looks at me. "That shit happens and we eventually move on, except I was lying. Shit does happen but sometimes we don't move on, we shouldn't feel pressured to either. There are all types of love in this world, but never the same love twice. Wyatt was my brother, a friend I didn't deserve—"

"That same person asked me what I was afraid of and I laughed and shrugged, I was lying then too, it's loneliness, because loneliness exists, even when we're not alone."

Nancy's loud sobs bounce off the walls and Hero walks toward her. He's so different in this scene, caring and genuine. Something I hardly witness when it came to him and other people.

Members of Wyatt's family rush to Nancy's side and Hero tells her something before he turns to look at me again. I stand up and his arms reach out for me, pulling me into him. I cry against his hard chest.

"It's okay, you're okay." He whispers, rubbing my back in circles.

"Why is Ella crying?" I hear Felix ask my mom.

I pull away from Hero and look down at him. Felix's eyes are wide with worry. I kneel down to his level and fix the collar on his shirt. Benny stands beside him and wraps his small arms around me for comfort.

"Okay that's enough crying for one day." My mom sniffs. "We'll see you two at the cemetery?"

I nod my head standing back on my two feet to look back at Hero. As everyone begins to leave, the main few family members leave in a lavish limousine which will take them to the nearest cemetery where Wyatt's going to be buried.