Page 102 of The Heirs

There was a heaviness behind his eyes as he watched the plane start to move.

“Ocho,” Alfonso said.

“Yeah?” Octavius replied.

“I’m going to stay in New York for a few days before I head back to Spain. Did you want to get lunch together?”

Octavius did not reply for a few moments, just kept looking on at the plane. After a while he finally responded to the prince.

“I don’t want to get lunch, Alfie,” he said.

“Dinner, then?” the prince asked.

Octavius shook his head.

“No, not that either,” he said with a sniff, as a steady stream fell down his face at last.

“Coffee?”

“Alfonso, I don’t want to see you at all, is what I mean,” Octavius said, and then instantly felt bad when he saw the hurt on the prince’s face. “That didn’t come out right. What I meant to say is, you’re not the problem… It’s me. The reason I can’t go out with you is because I am addicted to heartbreak. It’sall I’ve known my entire life, wanting to make someone else happy and never being able to. Whether it be my father, my siblings, audiences at my shows, or romantic partners. In a twisted way, it’s like I enjoy the feeling of heartbreak, it means I have to work harder… but it’s also very predictable. When I make people disappointed in me, I know exactly what comes next. If I went out with you, I’d find a way to make you break my heart again, and quite frankly I’m tired of being heartbroken,” Octavius said.

The prince nodded thoughtfully. “You sound very lonely, Ocho,” he finally said.

And he was right in a way. Octavius had been lonely for a very long time.

He was about to respond to the prince when a disturbance nearby stopped him.

“Octavius!” The sound of a breathless voice calling his name made him turn around.

He was surprised when he saw it was Fola rushing back toward him. Even more surprised when he saw Romeo, Perdita, and Bilal next to her.

“Did something happen?” Octavius asked, his voice shaky.

Fola nodded, tears streaming down her face. “Yes, something did happen,” she sniffed. “Henry’s gone and he’s never coming back.”

He felt a stabbing in his chest then.Henry is really gone for good.

“I know, but why are you—” Octavius started.

“We thought we should see him off too,” Perdita said, her eyes red and glassy.

“We also didn’t want to leave you here by yourself,” Bilal added, clearing his throat to hide the cracks in his voice.

“You didn’t have to come back,” Octavius said.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Tavi, we did have to. For Henry, and for you. That’s the promise we made to each other, to be there always until the very end,” Fola said.

Until the very end, Octavius thought.

“Until thebitterend, most likely, knowing how things usually end for us,” Romeo jokingly muttered, and there were some tearful laughs as they huddled together.

Prince Alfonso finally got the message and discreetly saw himself out, leaving the Buttons to fend for themselves.

These are my people, Octavius thought. The only people he wanted to experience the end of the world with.

The five of them stood together watching as the plane sped up in the distance and finally lifted gracefully into the air. They held on to each other as it moved farther and farther away until it was only a tiny speck in the sky.

Tears tracked down Octavius’s face, tickling the underside of his chin.

Prince Alfonso was right—Octavius had been lonely once. But he wasn’t so much anymore; not now that he had his siblings back.

THE END

(FOR REAL THIS TIME)