The Girl in Cleats

⚽️Chapter 45⚽️

{Asher POV} 

I wake up in the early morning, unsure of what caused me awaken from my deep sleep. I was dreaming about Kiera, but she didn't recognize me at all. I was trying to help her remember me, but she was scared of me. Suddenly I hear quiet sobbing and realize that's what woke me up. Sometimes Catrina cries at night, but this didn't sound like Catrina. It was Lauren. 

I stand up, silently tiptoeing across the floor before quietly cracking open my door. The crying is coming from downstairs, so she isn't in her room. I quietly walk past Catrina's room, so as not to wake her. 

I walk down the stairs and wait for a moment before entering the dining room, where I see Lauren in a chair, hunched over and crying. She holds something to her chest. 

"Lauren..?" I ask quietly. 

She startles and looks at me, and I have a clear view of her face. There are tears streaming down her face, and her eyes look bloodshot and swollen. I know that look because I've seen it in myself- the loss of a loved one. I assume she misses her brother. 

"Oh, Asher I'm so sorry. Did I wake you?" She wipes her face with the back of her hand and brushes stray hairs away. 

"No," I lie. "I was just going to get a glass of water. Are you okay?" 

"Ok. Um, no, I'm not." Another tear slips down her cheek. 

"Wanna talk about it?" I ask tentatively.

She hands me something, and I recognize it as a photo frame. I look at it, expecting to see her brother, but I see another face. 

It's a man, his eyes are grey, his hair is short and brown. He looks slightly familiar, but I've seen all kinds of men that look like this. He seems to be wearing a military uniform. 

"Who is this?" I ask, looking at Lauren. 

"My brother's best friend, my fiancé, Catrina's daddy. We were going to get married, but he died before he could get back from the army."

That face, those eyes, it's all coming back to me now. 

"He wasn't supposed to come back from the army so early, but he didn't want to spend any more time away from his family." 

My head is spinning. The boy who helped bandage my knee when I fell down on the sidewalk, the boy who got me my first pet turtle, the boy who was my role model. 

"The penalty for trying to run away from the army is death by the firing squad." 

The boy who never came back.

"All he wanted was to be with his daughter. He'd already served enough years! It just isn't right!" Lauren is shaking with rage, tears falling freely from her eyes. 

She looks at me now, and her face softens. "Asher, what's wrong?" 

I realize that I have been crying too. 

"What...What was his name?" I choke out. 

"Aiden... Do you know him...?" 

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Sad and emotional chapter huh? Sorry, those are crucial to stories, we gotta make the readers feel something. Did you guys feel anything? 

Thanks for reading! 

-Kennedy Montague