4
The London weather was at least kind to the funeral goers, staying fine until the small group of people had got themselves in doors for the wake. Abby looked around the small room at the back of a pub feeling decidedly uncomfortable. She knew her friends were holding a memorial service for Clayton back in the States and knew he would have loved that idea but in that moment she felt incredibly lonely.
"Abby?"
"Hi." She turned to see the younger man she now knew as Billy sit on the bar stool beside her. "You ok?"
"As I can be." He smiled. "You?"
"Yeah." Her voice was deflated as her pigtails fell forwards. "I will be. I miss him."
"You gave up so much for him."
She shrugged her shoulders. "He gave up much more for me. You know how he died?"
"Shot."
"Yeah, yeah he was shot." Abby sighed. "After he and I had been to the cinema. We were going to get something to eat but." She closed her eyes at the memory. "We were mugged. I was shot once but Clayton." She closed her eyes, her voice breaking slightly. "I."
"Clayton was like that. There was no way he was going to not protect you. He loved you, Abby. He thought you were a breath of fresh air."
"Billy."
"How do you think I know so much about you? He called me more than once and talk about you. How intelligent you are, how you could find the answer to anything in that lab, how you didn't care if people call you a Goth. You did your own thing. He admired that."
"Really?"
"Yeah." Billy smiled slightly. "You know he wanted to ask you on a date for weeks. He was just so nervous that you would turn him down. He knew you dated that other guy at work and he didn't want you to think he was trying it on."
"What on?"
Billy laughed. "He didn't want you to think he was trying to use you. He was falling for you. I know I didn't really spend much time with my brother and we had different mums and different lives but we knew each other well enough."
"Yeah?"
"Yes."
"You didn't grow up together?"
"No." Billy sighed. "I only knew I had a brother when I was sixteen and my parents finally split. Mum told me that my father had been married before. Had a son. I set out to find him. When I did he was a drunk. I thought he was like our father, so I stepped back. A few years later he found me, told me he was going to AA and was clean. That he had an amazing job and wanted to reconnect. To make me proud of my big brother."
Abby smiled.
"And I am. I am so proud of him."
"Good. You should be."
Billy nodded. "I want to help. With the foundation. I know you said he wanted to do it in his mum's memory. I'd like to help honour that."
Abby jumped off the stool, hugging him tightly. "I'd love that too. I know Clayton would." She released him, suddenly not feeling so alone.
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