Chapter 2- Miss Mourning
She just sat there.
Her photo album was on the bed next to her. She was thinking about her best friend when there was a knock on her door.
"Hey." it was Aunt Raea. "Do you want your dinner up here or will you come downstairs?" Aria had always been grateful that Aunt Raea understood when she need to be alone.
"Here, please." Aria replied.
"Okay sweetie." her Aunt closed the door.
Aria looked at the album next to her. Its purple and silver cover caught the slight bit of moonlight seeping through the window. The word 'Remember' was scrawled across the front in big loopy silver lettering. "No! I will not look! It will just make me cry..." she thought as her hands picked up the book. She ran her fingers over the fuzzy fabric cover. Her hands were red from rubbing her fingers together the way she always used to when Leo was around.
Her reddened hands opened the book. Leo was staring up at her from almost every picture.
Aria could remember leo. His curly hair and brown eyes. They had been best friend sense she had moved to Maple Flo Way.
She turned the pages and just saw more Leo. Leo and her at the park, Leo at the ice cream parlor, Leo in her room, and Leo in Frank's back yard.
She heard another knock from the door. "Come in" She called.
"I have some food for you" it was just Aunt Raea. "If you need anything else...just...well give a shout." she kissed Aria on the forehead. "I hope you feel better."
"Feel better? Yeah right. After that I'll raise Leo, Frank and Hazel from the dead or hang with Will to have some company." She closed the album. Silent tears were streaming down her face now. She flopped over and saw the food.
It was her favorite, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with a hotdog on the side cut into an octopus. Her favorite comfort food.
She took a bite. It tasted so good right now. Sill crying, she thought of Leo with his cocky smile, his funny pranks and sense of humor, and all their fun together.
Once, when she fell out of a tree and sprained her wrist, instead of laughing like Will had, he had scrambled down, helped her up and told her silly jokes till she too was laughing when her aunt had come outside. But now that she had thought of it, her aunt had given him a weird look where her unwrinkled face creased into something like, 'you better not have hurt her!" or maybe, 'Ewww, you smell!". The face had vanished after a second, But Aria had still seen it.
That had been one of the last times she ever saw him, thanks to a faulty engine failure on his flight home. Tonight represented the three year anniversary of the plane crash. That crash had cost her her best friend. Leo had been the best thing that ever happened to Aria. She had died inside when she found out. To this day, part of her was still gone. She remembered hearing about the crash on the news like it was yesterday...
"Tonight, just over Eden Ville, Michigan, a passenger plain crashed into the Sanford Lake." droned the news lady on TV. "Only a few of the passengers on the plain have so far been identified. Many of the bodies are missing. According to flight records, some of the bodies may include those of Frank Zhang-"ZINN
NNNG!
The TV flipped off.
Aria had looked at her aunt with a horrified look on her face. "That was their flight home from New York, wasn't it?"
"Probably not. I mean, they could have been on any plane, or the might have missed their flight" her Aunt replied. "Besides, what are the odds that the one plain that has your three best friends is the one that crashed on the way to Montana? They probably are on a different flight and will land in Montana and then fly here.
The phone rang. Aunt Raea picked it up. As she listened, her faced paled so deeply it was almost green.. She hung up slowly.
"Who was that? Was that..."
Her aunt was clearly stunned. She shook her head slowly. "It was Sammy Valdez. He said that... Oh never mind. Why don't you just go to bed. I need to go to the Retirement Home".
It was too late. Aria knew. She knew her Aunt too well. The look on her face told Aria that Leo was gone. He was never coming home, ever.
Aria's scream had been blood curdling and full of pain...
She lost sense of everything around her.
Her ears rang and tuned out all sound other than the monotone ring.
She got in the car.
They drove to the Retirement Home.
She saw Sammy Valdez.
She watched her aunt talk to him.
She got in the car.
They drove home.
She went upstairs.
She lay awake still in a daze, until she finally had cried herself to sleep around 3:30am.
After she finished eating, she cried herself to sleep never not thinking of Leo. Her dreams though was more blood chilling then her scream had been, three years ago.
