PART 5
The next morning, Angelina woke up in Joey's arms. She rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. It read 8:30 am. Cora's funeral was at 10:00pm. She slowly got up and walked into the bathroom to get a shower. After her long shower, she walked back into her bedroom with a towel wrapped around her. Joey wasn't there when she got in there. She walked to the closet to choose something to wear. After about ten minutes of standing there, she finally chose a black velvet dress. Combing her curly strawberry-blonde hair and then puttting two small diamond hair clips in her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror, slowly she took a deep breath. She didn't want to go through this....but she knew it was for the best. There was a light tap on the door. She turned around to see Joey standing at the door.
"Hey," he said softly.
"Hi."
"We should be going. Are you ready?"
"Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be, I guess."
He held out her hand to her and together they walked down the stairs and out to the car. The ride to the funeral home was silent and Joey knew that today was going to be extremely hard for Angelina.
"Ange?" he asked once he had stopped at a stop light. He looked over to look at her.
"Hmmm?" she asked, not meeting his eyes.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yes...it's not that I want to. But I know that I have to do this."
"Ok, only if your sure."
"I'm sure."
About five minutes later, they pulled into the funeral home parking lot. They got out of the car and walked into the funeral home. Once they walked in, they saw Justin and Chris standing talking. Justin turned to see her walk in. He slowly walked over to her. Joey went to go talk to Chris.
"Hi," he said lightly.
"Hi," she replied back.
"It's nice to see you."
"You too."
Justin took her into his arms and hugged her. He could hear her starting to cry on his shoulder. His heart went out to her. He felt so bad. Even though he hadn't known Cora that well, he had met her a few times. And he had known that her and Cora had been really close. He pulled back to look into her eyes, and wiped away a few of her tears.
"I'm sorry....this is just....,"
"Shhh...I understand.....don't worry about it. Ok?"
"Ok.....well.....I better get in there.....I'll talk to you later...."
"Ok. Ange," he let go of her and watched her walk into the room where the casket was. She walked into the room and sat down in the first chair that she saw. She was starting to feel dizzy. She knew that she would never be able to walk up to the casket....she couldn't even stand the thought of it. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. SHe looked up to see JC.
"Hi JC," she said softly.
"Hey Ange....you ok?"
"As good as can be expected I guess. I just can't believe that she's gone...."
"Yeah....I know. I understand. I'm sor.."
She cut him off, "Please JC. Don't feel pity for me. Thats the last thing I need right now. But thank you for thinking of me. It means a lot to me."
"Ok. Well the service is out to start. I'm going to go get the rest of the guys." he said as he walked away.
The service soon started, she sat between Joey and Justin, the rest of the guys sitting next to Justin. The preacher started talking about memories of Cora and what she meant to everyone. Tears welled up in her eyes. She got up quickly and ran out of the building. Joey watched her run out and quickly followed after her. He soon caught up with her in the parking lot.
"Ange! Ange....please stop," he called after her.
She slowed down a little as Joey walked up to her. He looked into her sad blue eyes.
"Joey...I just couldn't do it....I just couldn't....I couldn't stand the fact of being in there and the preacher talking about her.
"Ange....look...it's ok. Really it is...I understand."
"NO you don't Joey!!" she snapped back at him between tears. "You don't know how I feel ok?! You weren't there to see your BEST friend killed!! But I was!! I was there! And I have to live with that for the rest of my life!!! Ok? So I just wish that everyone would stop saying that they know how I feel!!!" He slowly moved toward her. She started to move away but she didn't have the strength. He wrapped his arms around her in an embrace while she started to cry. "Look, Joey I'm sorry...I didn't mean to....."
"No....it's ok. I just really don't know how to deal with this ok? And I don't know how to respond to you without hurting you even more. So I'm sorry if I have hurt you anymore," he said comfortingly.
"I can't go back in there...."
"Ok thats fine, Ange. Do you want to head back home?" She said nothing, but nodded her head yes. "Ok, let's go." he said leading her to the car.
PART 6
After Joey drove Angelina back to their house, she went upstairs to her room. After about an hour, she still didn't come downstairs. Joey wondered what she was doing, so he went upstairs to find out. H walked up the stairs and towards her bedroom. Once he got to her room, he found her packing clothes in a suitcase.
"What are you doing?" Joey asked.
She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice. "Oh Joey you scared me. I'm packing."
"Well I figured that much out. But why?"
"I'm leaving."
"What??"
"You heard me. I'm leaving," she turned around to look into his eyes. Tears streaked her face.
"But why?"
"Because it's too hard for me here. There's too many memories."
"What about me?"
"Well you can stay here....."
"Thats not what I meant," he said softly, not loud enough for here to hear.
"What?"
"Nothing....so you're just going to leave me?"
"Joey, you know that if I didn't have to, I wouldn't ok? I'm sorry. But this is just to hard for me. I can't stay here. And I hate to leave you. Plus I hate to leave basically my whole life here. But I have to."
"Where are you going?"
"Well, for now I'm going to Maine. My aunt lives there and I can stay with her. That is until I decide where I really want to go. My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 7:30am. Will you take me to the airport?"
"Yeah....I will."
"Ok, well I'm going to finish packing and then I'm going to get some sleep."
"Ok, Ange. Goodnight. Sweet dreams," he said then kissed her sweetly on her forehead.
"Goodnight, Joey. I'll talk to you tomorrow."
He started to walk out of the room. Halfway out the door, he stopped and turned around. She had started packing again. "I love you," he said softly.
"Hmmm?" she asked not hearing what he had said.
"Nothing, bye."
"Bye."