The Time We Have Left

Chapter 8: Stonger

(Previous Chapter: So, be our friend!" Ava demanded. I sighed heavily... but I did feel a lot better. "I have a strict no-unnecessary-socialization poli-..." I stopped mid-sentence, "you aren't going to give me a choice, are you?" I asked. Ava and Matthew nodded, smiling.

"But... Hope seems really mad, so... She's probably gonna take a while to calm down." Matthew said, "but remember... this is a gift you have, Aidan. Not a curse." He said.

I nodded, slowly. This is a gift, I told myself again. A gift...then why couldn't I save my own parents...?)

Chapter 8: Stronger

"Strength grows in the moments you think you can't go on, but you keep going anyway"

I flinched, trying hard to get out of bed. 

"Woah, woah, woah. What are you doing?" Ava said. I stood up, holding my stomach in pain. "I want to talk to Hope." I said, and left the room before her and Matthew could protest against it. 

I walked down the hall to look for Hope and saw her outside through the glass doors of the hospital. I went outside and met her leaning on the railing of a stairway. 

I stood next to her and gazed off in the direction of where she was. I gulped nervously. "I'm sorry for being...stupid." I said, feeling like I could barely find my words. She shook her head almost immediately. "It's not okay." She said.

"Oh, uh... okay, then." I said and turned around to leave. She grabbed my hand. "You're stupid. You're not supposed to leave, you're supposed to - ugh. Forget it." She said, genuinely frustrated. I turned back to her. "Okay, so do you want to be my friend or not?" I asked, confused.

She looked at me oddly. "What? But I thought you said you didn't want to be..." She trailed off. I nodded. "I did say that, but then I came to apologize for saying it and you said it wasn't okay so then I was going to go back in bed... because standing hurts." I said with a shrug.

She punched me. "What are you doing here?!" She yelled at me, angrily. I sighed heavily. "I just told you."

Hope furrowed her eyebrows and then hugged me. "Why are you asking if I want to be your friend, Aidan? Didn't I tell you that you didn't have a choice?" She said, smiling slightly.

I forced a smile. "Yeah..." I said, quietly. But I was thinking about what Matthew had told me. This is a gift.... But I didn't feel like it was. I didn't like living in fear and being so different from everyone else... But I wasn't sure that I wanted to live a normal life either. 

"Anyways, let's go back inside." Hope said, letting go of me. I nodded in agreement and followed her back into my hospital room. Matthew and Ava helped me into bed and I lied down. 

"Well isn't this an odd group? Dead Heart, a mad scientist, and a girl who's clearly in love with you." Ava said, with a hearty laugh. Hope gasped. "I am not in love with Aidan!" She said.

I closed my eyes and drowned them out. I thought of my parents and how much I missed them and longed for their company even though I had hardly known them. My mother was kind and loving and my father was brave and funny... and yet I couldn't even cry over their deaths. It did seem like I didn't care about them, but I really honestly did... And I never missed them so much in any other time of my life. Why now did I wish they were here so badly?