Timeless || All Stories

9 || Midnight Memories

Fifteen year old Aurora stands in the middle of a large yard as the clock strikes midnight, repeatedly throwing small rocks at a window on the second floor of the house.

Her phone vibrates in the pocket of her hoodie, signaling a text. Putting her arm down, she quickly checks it.

Weirdo: Are you throwing rocks at my window?!?!

Aurora can't help but to grin proudly before replying.

Maybe.

Weirdo: You could have just used your phone - which, believe it or not, can be used to communicate with others so you don't have to resort to throwing rocks at windows!

The girl laughs and tosses another item instead of answering. The window, much to her pleasure, opens mere seconds later and her best friend's head pokes out of it.

"Did you really just throw your phone at my window?" Sixteen year old Mark whispers bewilderedly. "That is not what I meant!"

"It got you to open your window, didn't it?" She points out smugly. "Put a shirt on and get down here before I pull out my air horn."

Mark sticks his tongue out childishly and shuts his window as Aurora retrieves her phone from where it landed in the bushes.

He had an important geometry quiz in the morning and would most likely be too exhausted to focus on it if he snuck out, but he couldn't find it in himself to really care. Despite Aurora's teasing grin and laughter, he could tell she was upset over something and needed to get her mind off of it.

So, pulling on a hoodie and tennis shoes, Mark quietly sneaks out his front door - careful not to wake his brother or parents - and walks across the lawn to pull his best friend into a hug.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Absolutely not," Aurora shakes her head fervently, pulling away. "I want a milkshake."

"Then let's go," Mark smiles, turning around so she could jump onto his back.

****

Living in a small town in Virginia, there weren't very many places open at odd hours of the night, especially on a Tuesday night. Luckily, Aurora's and Mark's favorite diner was always open twenty-four hours.

Bob's Diner had the best milkshakes ever, according to Aurora. She thoroughly believed they were better than even Dairy Queen's. And Mark always had a craving for their overly salted fries. So, soon after discovering the place during the summer before her freshman year of high school, Aurora and Mark soon became regulars.

Gus, a senior working at the diner to save for college, didn't even bother to question the two as they entered the deserted place. Instead, he immediately brought out the usual order of a large salted caramel milkshake and large order of fries before going back to his corner behind the cash register and napping.

"Would you run away from this town with me?" Aurora questions suddenly, staring vacantly outside the window from their booth. "We could go somewhere far, like LA. You could become a famous author and I'll be a photographer, we'll have a nice apartment and never look back."

"What about our families?" Mark asks, arching an eyebrow and dipping a fry into the girl's milkshake.

"My parents wouldn't fucking care," she laughs humorlessly. "I doubt they'd actually notice if I just left one day and never came back. Your parents would support us because that's the kind of people they are. They'd probably move with us."

"You've thought this through."

Aurora shrugs her shoulders dismissively. "I can't handle being stuck here for the rest of my life. They're somehow becoming worse and it's killing me."

Mark frowns and pulls Aurora closer, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. She draws in a shaky breath, the tears she's managed to hold back all day threatening to spill.

"When I got home earlier today," she begins slowly. "Mom told me she had fired Joanne."

Joanne had been the Daniels' housekeeper since Aurora was born, and doubled as a mother figure to her. She kept the house clean and raised Aurora as her own daughter while her parents were off doing who knows what.

Aurora loved the woman to death and went to her with all of her problems - whether it was something as simple as how to tie a shoe or a big issue such as the latest rumor going around the school. Joanne had always been there and she never once thought losing her was a possibility.

But, for reasons her mother wouldn't share, Joanne was no longer allowed to work at the house.

"I'm so sorry. I'll travel anywhere you want to go," Mark promises her. "We'll even leave the country if that's what you want. I hear Canada has plenty of room."

Aurora chuckles lowly and rubs at her eyes, wanting to push it all to the back of her mind. Finishing off her drink, she sits up and glances over at Mark, plastering a mischievous grin on her face.

"Don't give me that look," he laughs. "That look means we're about to either do a really dangerous or a really stupid stunt."

"I'm offended you think so lowly of me," she gasps dramatically. "But. . . . I did see a few cans of spray paint outside."

"Oh boy," Mark groans. "I'm only coming along to see what your plan is."

"That's what you said last time, yet we both ended up spending the night in a jail cell."