Met by Coincidence...Separated by Destiny...

I love him..

Jo's Point of View...

Hero drops me and before dropping me off, he promises to meet me in the evening, to understand how it went with Lucas.

To say I am nervous would be an understatement considering that Lucas hates Hero. Maybe "Hate" is a big word. Let's settle with "Dislike". Or maybe "Hate", it depends on how he responds to me telling him that "I like Hero". Is it just "liking"? Or is it more? I know he said he loved me and I was the one who uttered the 3 words first but just admitting that you love someone does qualify as actually loving that person? All these feelings are new to me. I have never felt the same way towards anyone as I feel toward Hero.

Slowly I walk to my house. I see no one on the front porch and I see the Front door unlocked. I enter and a sudden silence welcomes me.

"Luc..".."Aunt Sydney"..at first I was merely calling their names but a couple of moments later I found myself shouting and running across the house to search for my family. Yes, both Luc and Aunt Sydney are my family. As real it gets.

I try for Lucas's cell phone but it keeps directing me to his voicemail. As far as Aunt Sydney is concerned, she never liked carrying a cell phone of her own, it was always the home number to which she responded.

I dial Hero's number hoping he won't have gone too far after dropping me. He picks up after the third ring.

"Jo.." He pauses and then calls my name again.."Jo..are you there?"

"Hero..Something..Something.."I find myself in a state where I am unable to comprehend and understand what to say. Lucas and Aunt Sydney aren't home, the front door is unlocked, I don't see any trace of robbery or mishappening and Lucas isn't answering his phone.

"Jo, what's wrong..tell me?" I hear the screeching noise of someone's car pulling outside my house and I run towards the front door, hoping to see Lucas or Aunt Sydney. But, it's Hero. By the time I reach the front door, I see him running towards me. He reaches me and pulls me towards his chest, wrapping his arms across my body.

Some of my tension and stress wave off as I hear the heartbeat of Hero, knowing he is with me and I am not alone. And then I can't help but cry. Warm tears fell from my eyes on my face which was pressed across Hero's chest, thereby wetting his shirt. He continues to hold me and moves one of his hands across my back in a soothing way to calm down my tears.

"Jo it's OK. You are OK. Look at me baby..tell me what's wrong."

I look up to see a concerned Hero, looking down at me with love. Love what he has for me.

"There is no one at home. And I can't reach Lucas either. I searched the entire house, and everything seemed fine except Luc and Aunt Sydney weren't home. The front door was unlocked and it's highly unlikely that Aunt Sydney would go somewhere without locking the front door, that's why she always insisted for me and Lucas to have spare house keys."

I say everything in one breath without taking any pause. I don't even know if Hero understood anything that I blabbered to him.

"It's ok. Let me call my dad. He might know where they are."

I nod and watch Hero calling his father. He talks to his father as I stand nervously in a corner carefully observing his face. I can't hear him or what they are saying to each other. Hero only nods and nods. He is speaking less and is more listening. It must be 10 minutes max when he comes to join me in the corner of the living room where I have been standing while he talked to his father. It doesn't look good. He looks nervous. Why he is looking nervous?

"Jo..your Aunt Sydney is in a hospital." And it seems like everything in my surroundings becomes still. I didn't hear much, all I could hear was "Aunt Sydney", "Hospital", "Admitted"," Fainted", and "Blood". Why there is "Blood"? The next thing I know, I was with Hero and he was driving us to the hospital.