among the fallen leaves

Chapter Seven

After successfully avoiding Hunters' questions about why she stopped walking suddenly with what he called a 'look of astonishment' on her face, they arrived back at the house. Aurelia almost immediately ran to her room, Hunter only hearing something along the lines of 'need to go change,' and 'sweaty'. Ines gave him a questioning look as she asked what happened and if her daughter was okay.

"She was totally fine, then when we were walking back on the beach, she stopped walking with this look on her face, God, I can't even describe it; it was a combination of pure astonishment and complete fear. I tried asking what was wrong, but she wouldn't let me in." Hunter said, his thoughts racing at what could be wrong, worried out of his mind. Ines almost instantly began trekking up the long stairway to her daughter's room, seemingly knowing exactly what was wrong.

Once reaching the room, she knocked on the door, "Relia, honey, it's me, can I come in?" She heard a quiet yes from the other side of the door and walked in. She found Aurelia sitting on her window-ledge with a pillow and her blanket, looking out at the water below.

"I don't wanna talk about it," the girl said the second her mother shut the door.

"Aurelia, I think we need to talk about it; Hunter's worried sick now, you practically scared the life out of him. What's going on with you two? You've always been close, but suddenly you're sneaking out at midnight until the morning and falling asleep together by the damn fireplace? Yeah—I came downstairs early this morning all to find that beautiful smell of dead fish crowding the space. Are there no rules in this family anymore, Aurelia Rayne? Should I give up on mothering you now?" Ines sat down on the windowsill. Facing her daughter, she put her hand on Aurelia's leg.

Aurelia, who had been looking down at her hands for the entirety of that speech, looked at her mother. From there, it was just tears upon tears out of her light brown eyes.

Not saying anything, Ines held her daughter until she calmed down enough to admit one thing, "I love him, mom—" she paused to sniffle and take a deep, yet shaky, breath. "I really love him. Not the kid love that I thought it was all these years; not the best friend love, either; it's the scary love. The love where if he jumped into the freezing ocean right this second, I'd follow without question, or if he suddenly decided to move to another state, no matter where it was or how much I hated the place, I'd go with him because I can't go a single day without looking into his eyes or hearing his laugh when I do something embarrassingly dumb in public—

I love him.

I love Hunter." She said in a scared whisper, terrified the boy might have heard her, she covered her face with her hands, dark black mascara bleeding onto her palms and fingers. She continues with a sob; "Oh my God, mom, I love Hunter. Crap! No. I can't do that. He's going to hate me and never speak to me again, mom you have to help me stop!" Aurelia spiraled again in her mind, the loops of fears she had been holding back for years coming to the surface to swallow her whole, all the while, knowing she couldn't talk to the one person she really wanted to talk to in this world because she didn't know if she could lie to him and say she's fine this time around. She knew she wasn't fine and wouldn't be fine until she found a way to stop loving him. The only problem was: could she? Could Aurelia stop loving someone she'd been absolutely in love with for years?

"Oh, my sweet girl," Ines held Aurelia tightly, kissing her head and wiping her tears, "I don't know how I can help you with this. You love him, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure he feels the same, too, I've seen him look at you like you hung not only the stars, but the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter in the sky in record time," She laughed. "My love," Ines stroked her daughter's hair out of her face, "my darling baby girl, you're growing up. And part of that means falling in love. There's no one better for you to fall in love with. So if you're asking me to make you unlove this man, then I can't do that. I love him, you love him, your father loves him; he's a part of all of us, and I do believe he loves you more than you can possibly imagine.