Leave What Was Found

21: After

Avery was sitting under the rocks now close to the water. The water was just faintly spraying her. Tears were pouring freely down her face as the sound of the waterfall filled her ears. She had her knees up against her chest with her head resting on them. She had wanted answers, now she had gotten them. She wished she had just accepted her father's version of events. To know that her mother had been sleeping with her uncle and dating her father at the same time made Avery sick. Not only did her mother desert her as a baby, but she ruined a bond between two brothers. And what did that mean for Avery? What if Uncle Mark was her father? It was all too much for her.

Julian stood two feet away. He was staring at her; she could feel his eyes on her. He must have felt awkward, this was not what he had signed up for. He had just wanted to go to a party, now he was standing under a waterfall with a sobbing girl.

"You can leave if you want," she said quietly. "I don't need you."

He stared at her a moment longer. His expression was unreadable. Julian had his arms crossed over his chest and for a second, she thought he was going to leave; however, he surprised her.

He walked over and sat down beside her. She glanced over at him and his dark eyes did not look so bitter anymore.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I know that this was the last thing you were expecting to see today."

Avery laughed but there was no humor behind it. "I don't really know what else I was expecting, to be honest," she admitted as she wiped her eyes. "I always thought I would want to meet her, I always thought she had a good reason for leaving, but now," Avery sighed and looked away. "Now I know she's just a bad person and somehow that only makes it worse."

Julian glanced over at her out of the corner of his eye. She looked away in embarrassment, she didn't want him to see her like this. However, this was not the first time he had seen her cry, so she forced herself to look back over at him. His eyes were full of concern now, but still he refused to move an inch. He remained perfectly still six inches away from her. She wished he knew what he was thinking. She wiped her tears away and turned to face him.

"I feel like I am just like her," she whispered.

"How so?" he asked.

"I'm everything I promised my dad I wouldn't be," she mumbled.

His eyes softened and this time his body was not so still and far from her. He moved closer and he put his arm around her. At first, Avery thought about pushing him away, but she was tired of being alone. She was sick of pretending that she was okay, she was far from it, and she liked the way his arms felt around her. It was comforting.

"You are not a bad person," he said quietly.

"You don't know that," she mumbled into his chest.

He held her a short distance away, staring into her blue eyes. There was a long pause, almost as if he was contemplating his next words carefully.

"Yes, I do," he whispered. "Come on, Avery. I don't care about whatever guilt you feel about what happened all these years. You and I both know that I am the only person around who truly knows you."

She looked up at him and he looked into her eyes with such sincerity. Her eyes drifted to his chest where a similar silver necklace was hiding under his shirt. She carefully reached over and picked up the necklace and pulled it out from underneath his shirt. He watched her expression carefully as she ran her thumb over his own shark pendant.

"You still wear your shark necklace?" she asked, staring back into her eyes.

His eyes drifted down to her chest where the silver stingray pendant was. He used his thumb and index finger to pick up the chain carefully and held the pendant between his fingers.