Infinite (Unedited)

∞CHAPTER FORTY∞

"Nate, are you real?" I turn and ask him. My hands shake and my throat feels dry.

"Am I real? What? Aria why wouldn't I be real?" He shakes his head and laughs.

"Are you?" I ask, hearing the desperation in my own voice.

"Yes!"

"Prove it."

"How? What're you talking about? Why wouldn't I be me? Are you okay?" He looks concerned.

"What's the nickname I made for you the time we couldn't sleep and went to watch a movie and we fell asleep and had to sneak back to our rooms before anyone saw us out before we were allowed out of our rooms?" I say in one breath.

"Ninja." His expression softens. "You called me ninja."

Relief and reassurance run through my veins and make my head feel light as a feather and my heart pumps a million beats a minute. This is him, and even though I mostly knew it was, the confirmation is exactly what I needed. This is really Nate. This is really the boy I love. And I have to tell him now. I have to tell him now because I don't know if i'm going to have a chance to after all this.

Swallowing any dumb fears, I grab his shirt, stand pressed against him on my tippy toes, and kiss him.

"I love you too," I whisper as he looks at me in shock.

"You do?" His voice his raspy and quiet.

"Yeah." I smile. "Is that okay?"

"That's more than okay. Thats amazing. That's... Oh my gosh!" He smiles back at me. His eyes look greener than normal, almost having no blue in them at all right now. "Really?"

"Really." I blush.

"I love you."

Ready to go? A text pops onto my phone.

"We're ready," Nate says. "We're going to be fine."

Yes, I send.

I gulp in a breath of fresh air and run my hands over the area that I need to freeze. As I focus my attention on my hands, a white smoke swirls around and between my fingertips.

"That looks like dry ice," Nate whispers.

"I think it is."

"Ever done that before?"

"No."

He nods and continues watching me while I continue freezing the plants. They slowly wither and die, turning brown and white, and losing eighty percent of their size. It only takes a minute for me to completely finish killing it, and then the two of us step through, arms out in a defensive position. Looking at all the other sides, I see everyone else standing in similar ways. In the space between though, are the not-so-friendly faces of the people just waiting to kill us; but no one moves.

"Are you going to surrender?" Alex breaks the tense silence with his sickeningly malicious voice. "Or are you going to die?"

"Didn't know you were coming to join the party," Anna calls out.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." He smirks.

"To answer your question." I stare him down. "No to both of those."

"That's a bit unreasonable, don't you think?"

"Not at all. That's not all though."

"Really?" He raises his eyebrows and purses his lips. "And what else do you think is about to happen?"