Another City Of Lights.

Chapter 46.

Aaron's POV:-

The city that never sleeps. People call it that, probably borrowed that phrase from some magazine or something, people here are great at that sort of a thing. Although it is true, time seems to always stand still here whenever I'm out at night. Smoking a joint with Dash, or hanging out by the beach. Time always stands still when you're doing something you shouldn't. And sadly, it's been 24 years of my life, and I'm still famous for that. No matter how utterly fucked up it might be. Old habits die hard. And old flames burn brighter if rekindled.

It's 2 AM, and I'm sat on the sidewalk behind Sam's house, the ground cold and wet from the rain. That was a surprise too, the unexpected rain, and it's still drizzling. My hoodie is useless and soaked, but I haven't bothered to take it off. I'm currently on the fifth cigarette, I'm trying not to smoke this one in a hurry, I only have one left after this.

The entire scene makes me seem more of a stalker than I actually am. And trust me, I'm not. When Dash straight up told me not to go after her again, I actually listened to him. Mostly because she had been avoiding me like the plague since that night in Dash's kitchen, and I had stayed away too. But it had been a week now, and she was leaving tomorrow. And there was no way I was going to let her leave without saying goodbye. There was a very high possibility that I might never see her again if she vanished like the last time.

And so here I was, waiting not so patiently outside her house, perfectly hidden where no one could see me. I had sent her a text informing her of my current location, but it had been two hours, and she hadn't replied, or shown up.

It was getting more difficult by the second to sit and wait here, the rain was coming down in sheets now. I gave her house on last look, and began to walk slowly back home. The night was almost over now, I could see the first rays of sunlight beginning to peek out from under the clouds, and I was craving my bed and a hot shower.

The disappointment was greater than expected, and had caused a heavy blow to whatever was left of my ego.

The way she was acting, it felt like I was the only one getting all the blame for the disaster that had happened. But I knew that she was an equally eager participant, and maybe that was what felt wrong the most. I could see why she wouldn't want to see me again, obviously it was better to pretend that nothing happened, and never seeing my face again was the ideal situation, but it was unfair on so many levels. But somehow, I was okay with it. Because I truly deserved everything for being the way that I am, and the things I do.

When I stepped in to the shower, I expected the water to be ice cold like the rain outside that had almost drowned me. But it wasn't, and I was grateful. The steaming hot water did little to calm my mind though, and I stayed in there, letting it burn through my skin in hopes of getting the stress out.

When I finally got out, my room felt colder than it had before. I had left the window open, and now half of my room was soaked as well. I walked over to close the window, trying very hard not to fall on my face, when I noticed a pair of eyes staring at me from my bed, and it nearly gave me a heart attack.

"Holy hell, Sam. What the fuck?", I yelled, and she raced across the room and covered my mouth with her hand.

"Stop yelling", She whispered, "I thought you wanted to talk".

"You sneaked in to my house? How the hell did you get in?", I inquired, still recovering from the shock, and I got my answer when she looked towards the window. No fucking way.

She moved away from me, and walked back to where she was originally sat. She was drenched, I noticed then, her hair peeking out from under her beanie.
She wasn't looking at me, and I realised it was probably because I was still undressed.

"Give me a minute", I muttered under my breath, and escaped back in to my bathroom to change, and also calm myself down.

She was here, she was actually here in my room. She hadn't ever been in my room before, not even when we were kids, and I had no idea how she knew how to climb and how she knew which window was mine. What the hell was even happening?

I tried to recollect the entire speech I had prepared in my mind before walking out, and even before I stepped foot inside my room, Sam's mouth was on mine. I stumbled back from her sudden attack, and grabbed on to her arms to prevent us from falling. She didn't give me a chance to think, and I couldn't think straight either with her kissing me like this. I could feel her hands in my hair, and her lips were cold against mine, and she felt like everything I had ever wanted.

But before I could even get a chance to prolong that moment, she moved away from me completely, leaving me in shock once again.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't leave like this. Not knowing when I'll see you again", She says, a mixture of emotions on her face that I couldn't figure out.

"Sam..", I start to say, but she cuts me off.

"I have to leave, you know that. I just came to say goodbye", She says, her voice shaking, and my mind is a mess.

"Sam, you don't have to go", I find myself saying, and I feel betrayed by my own voice. This wasn't what I had planned.

"Aaron. I have a life there, a life that I have worked so hard to build. And I can't run away from that now", She replies.

"But you can run away from this again, right?", I snap back at her, and she looks at me with surprise on her face and tears in her eyes. Heartbreak is more painful than expected.

"Aaron. You don't understand-", She begins to say, but I find my traitor of a mind betraying me again.

"You can find all of that here, Sam. You don't have to leave again", I say, and she's already shaking her head.

"No, I can't", She says firmly, "please don't try to stop me, I've thought everything through and this is for the best".

I look at her, and feel like I really don't know her anymore. Not anymore can my pathetic attempts to convince her can have any affect. There's only so much a person like me is capable of doing.

So I stand there in my room and try to memorise these last few moments with her. I try to memorise what her hair looked like halfway dried, how cold her jacket felt when she hugged me, how she smelled like the rain outside, how she finally broke down in to tears when I told her I loved her, and how quiet she was when I walked her down the stairs and out through the door. I tried to memorise these things, so that when I looked back at these moments I would always remember how it felt when she broke my heart and left for good.