3 words. 8 letters. Say it, and I'm yours

4

Blair's POV

"Can you tell me a story, gran?" My 4 year old granddaughter, Juni says as I tuck her in bed.

"Sure, my love. What kind of story do you want?" I pinch her nose.

"Well, I told mommy I loved my classmate Jackson but she said I didn't know anything about love. What is love, gran?" She asks. I smile at her and pull her blanket up to her elbows.

"I do have a story for you, then. Now, it's a pretty long one so you better stay awake for a few more minutes to hear it all, okay?" She giggles and nods. I take a deep breath.

"It all started when this girl named Astia met a boy named Hunter..."

***

"Astia! Come and meet my friends!" The blond girl named Sienna dragged her bestfriend Astia to the cafeteria. Astia, as mean as ever, did not care about her newly made friends at all.

She just wanted to get over it and hang out with her classmates to talk about new releases of bags and dresses instead. But she holds Sienna dear and she didn't want to hurt her feelings.

Astia had a lot of secrets. And Sienna was the only person who knew all her secrets. Nobody else. Because others couldn't be trusted.

Which is why she suddenly found herself sitting in the school cafeteria with around 3-4 kids her age.

"Guys, meet my bestfriend Astia Harwood. Astia, this is Keisa, that's Nathan, and this is-"

"I'm Hunter Williams." One of Sienna's friends confidently said to Astia. For some reason, Astia was amused. All her life, everyone feared her. She was the most popular, badass girl in school. In the whole Manhattan, probably.

No boy has ever done what Hunter Williams did.

And so, they became friends. And these two were cowards, you see. They were always in denial. Astia thought she would never ever feel vulnerable but that changed and she wouldn't admit it to herself.

Hunter always stamped the thought of being alone forever in his heart and mind. Every girl he ran into was a game in his eyes. Not until Astia. Everybody knew. They liked each other.

Like I said, Astia had secrets. And one of them was her illness. She had stage 2 cancer. And as she was spending her whole summer with Hunter, going to adventures and travelling the world, she got weak. And eventually, she died

"I love you.." Hunter was alone now. Astia's coffin was buried under the ground and everyone else had already left. "I'll always find you. You'll always be with me. In our next lifetimes, I'll find you and I won't stop until I do."

"They don't get their happy ending, gran?" Juni asks and I smile at her.

"You heard what Hunter said, my love. He was always gonna find her."

"You're going to the Homecoming party, right?" Quinn said. "Come on, Riley! It's going to be really fun!"

"Of course, I'm going, Quinn. Don't be silly. Parties are my thing." They both giggle. And so the two contacted their designers and told them to deliver the dresses on time.