There was music floating into the living room. The sultry twang of country music. It could have been a nice tune to accompany the warm summer night, but as Nose sat back on his couch and listened through his open front door, another sound came wafting through.

Linus quiet yet not quiet wailing. Sobbing more like. In the evening sun. It became the sound that Nose heard over all of it. The cry-singing and the gasping for air like he was mourning.

No it was a pitiful inconsolible that was overkill for what he was feeling. He had done this to himself. Nose had watched him unravel over a person that he claimed that he didn’t want.

Now she was gone, far away from him healing her own wounds however she needed. Every once in a while she would call Nose. They woulld catch up and dance around the elephant in the room.

Linus would stare at Nose out of the side of eye while Nose laughed or pretend like he wasn’t extremely interested in the screen of Nose’s phone when she’d text him.

It was pathetic and deserved and those tears dissolved another string in the dientanglement of Bella and Linus.