Perfectly Unseen

68: liar.

(Liam's Point of View)

"Have you heard from her—I mean Ailie. Have you heard from Ailie?" The voice pulled me away from my locker as I turned with a clenched jaw.

"Nothing." I said, the waver in my voice angering me. "She doesn't want to be found, Emma. She's... she's gone." I shook my head, my hands balling into fists as I shook my head.

Why was this happening again?

Emma's bright eyes hardened as she looked at me, "You of all people know how fucked up she had been." She pointed out as I looked down; my eyes seeing nothing as I thought over the past few weeks.

She was right. Every time I looked at Ailie it was like she was unraveling a little bit more each time. I didn't stop it. I should have stopped it. But I foolishly thought that maybe just by being there she would get better—I thought that she would heal over time.

I was so fucking full of myself. Why haven't I learned? After Cassie, I should have known better. People don't just heal. They get worse until it's too late.

"Don't give up on her." Emma spat venomously, "I don't care what she said—that was not Ailie."

I looked up, my eyebrows furrowed, "Maybe it's not the Ailie we know... but we both know she was hiding something. Maybe she wasn't lying, Emma. Maybe this is a side of her we just didn't want to see." Pulling my hand through my hair I swallowed through the thick dryness of my throat. "I don't know what to think. But I didn't help her. I don't think I can help her now."

I failed her already. I can't just watch as it happens again. I can't watch the only person left that I cant lose, leave me. I can't watch it. How can I prevent it? I can't. She's not here. She's already gone.

Emma laughed humourlessly, her eyebrows stitched together in a bemused expression that felt painful to see. "I can't believe I ever thought you were one of the best things to have happened to Ailie. That you were one of the nicest guys I've ever known." She backed away, shaking her head as I watched, stunned. "You're pathetic, Liam. You talked a whole lot about helping her but when it's finally time to do something, you turn tail and run." With one last laugh, she turned around and started walking away. "You're just like Ashton."

My brain turned over her words, trying to find something to excuse my behaviour... but was she right. I was a coward. I was Ashton. How could I be a coward when it was her. I had to be stronger for her—I had to try to save her even if I couldn't. Emma's cruel blue eyes were spearing my insides despite her back turned on me and I finally got what she was saying.

"Wait!" I called out, her steps halted hesitantly before she turned around and crossed her arms across her small chest. "You're right. She's not Ailie." I exhaled, shutting my locker before walking up to meet her in the crowded hallway.

She waited, her hardened eyes not leaving mine until I cracked under the pressure.

"What do we do? How do we bring her back?"

~+~+~

(Ashton's Point of View)

"Fuck." I hissed quietly, my hand flinching just as I pulled the tool back in time.

"Baby boy, let me do it. You're taking forever." The black haired girl suggested, her feet kicking up and down on the bed as she laid on her stomach.

"Maybe if you'd stop fucking moving I wouldn't have to pull back so often?" I growled, hitting her hand away as she reached for the gun.

Rolling her eyes she flipped over onto her back, revealing her beautifully decorated skin. "Well excuse me. It's not like I'm a tattoo artist or something..." she pointed a look at my unimpressed face, "oh wait."

"Shut up." I grumbled, touching the pen to the temporary lines to make them painfully and irrevocable permanent.

They burned into me, the words that felt so sickening. I wanted to feel every prick of the needle, every word that was inked onto my skin. I wanted to feel the story—like all of the other stories on my body. With it, I would learn; I would finally let it seep into me that it was all just one big fucking joke. One big goddamn lie.

Not to me. Maybe not to her at the time. But to the universe; every stitch of a flutter I felt for her. It was a joke. It was something I couldn't have—something I couldn't save. Every word she spoke, she contradicted it with her actions. It wasn't much; maybe I shouldn't have held them to her as I did. But I did and then she left. She left like Cassie. Only different—she disappeared without a trace and after promising me she would fight. Who even knew if she was alive? It had been a week and there's been nothing. Not a sign.

It was suffocating.

"This girl messed you up, pumpkin." The girl sighed, trailing a finger down one of my tattoos. "That's one of my favourite quotes too. Only your tone is much darker when you use it."

"I was already fucked before her. She's just proved something I already knew." I spoke through my teeth as I finished up the last word: liar.

"Can I decorate it now?" She asked as I turned the gun off and wiped away the last of the excess ink before inspecting it. "Let me free hand something—I get your pain. I've been there. Let me make it not so harsh on that flawless skin of yours... especially with that beautiful tattoo under it. You don't want to take away from it."

Nodding, I moved the table closer to her while I rested my almost completely covered arm on it. She beamed, sitting up before pulling up her bra strap and moving around to find a comfortable position on the bed. With the temporary ink she quickly drew something out that blended into the map under it, not caring to be careful around the fresh wounds before tattooing it and making it apart of me.

I wouldn't forget again.

You can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved. And you can't hold a liar to her words.

~+~+~

Love tattoos.
Where's Ailie 😯
It's like "find Waldo" but with a girl whos beyond messed up.