SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 WATTYS!
Brooklyn Carson loves Avery Harlow, it's practically written in stone that he always has and always will. Travelling back to his home town was never going to be easy knowing she definitely doesn't feel the same way a...
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BROOKLYN had this thing, something he couldn't ever let go of, no matter how angry he was at a person seeing them cry was something he couldn't handle, the fact that this person happened to be Avery only made his need to comfort that much stronger. He couldn't help himself just like he hadn't been able to stop himself coming here, if his sister, India even had an inkling that he was here his phone would pretty soon be filled with angry voicemails, it was a good thing she didn't.
India had been the one who'd encouraged him that fateful day that what he needed was a fresh start, that he would never get over Avery if he stayed and was constantly being reminded of her, seeing her. When she'd first suggested that he take the offer from work to be transferred to the Orlando branch of Harington and Son Limited he'd thought she must be out of her mind. But eventually, the idea had grown on him, seeing Cameron Fisher's continued posts about Avery had solidified his resolve and he'd sent his application in, and somehow against all odds he'd been accepted.
It was crazy how much, and how little had changed in two years, Brooklyn knew that if he looked at Avery with pity and then hugged her she would be furious enough to alert someone of his presence and have him forcibly removed, so he didn't give her a chance to react he just walked forwards and crouched next to the metal bars of her bed and put his arms around her. She was smaller in frame than he remembered but if he closed his eyes then everything was perfect, he and Avery as it always had been as it always would be, she sniffed and realising that her sobs had subsided and knowing he had to be the first one to talk before angry words could leave her mouth he backed away and stood up even though every nerve in his body screamed at him to go back, to try and ease the hurt.
He chose the less painful option and took the wooden armchair next to the bed trying to find something to say, anything. To his surprise, she spoke first.
"That didn't mean I forgive you, by the way, a moment of weakness."
"The same goes for you Avery, you know about that awful habit of mine, I can't seem to get rid of it no matter how hard I try, I have to try and make sad people happier, and yeah I know I'm going to get some snarky remark about how you're not sad but if you weren't sad you wouldn't have been crying all over me just seconds ago."
And she smiled, though she tried to hide it, once trying to make Avery smile had been one of his daily goals, now it just seemed like a sad reminder of everything they had once been.
"So you said you're here because you saw something about me having cancer and you have that Brooklyn thing where I treated you like crap but you still came back because you're a good person, I sit here daily and all I think is bad thoughts, jealous thoughts about everyone else's lives and here you are trying to make me feel better when I really don't deserve it."
He'd been wrong, when he'd first seen her bald head he'd thought he would never be able to get used to it, that she looked completely wrong, but now seeing the fierce set of her jaw and the way that she was still just as determined he knew that if he stayed long enough, the absence of her hair would just become another thing on the long list of thigs he loved about her because who was he kidding, she knew it and he knew it India's list of things he needed to do to get Avery out of his head and heart had decisively failed.
"I'm here because you have cancer Avery, but that's not the only reason, you probably don't understand the extent of how hard it's been for me these two years living in another country and learning all these things I've never learnt before but constantly feeling guilty at the way we left things. I'm not here on some kind of misguided attempt to win you back if you think that's what this is, I'm here so that we can stop pretending that we're two people who hate each other and remember all the good times before the bad times took over, the times where we were best friends for sixteen years. So, I've taken time off work, they'll give me a couple of weeks they're pretty flexible about things like this. Here's what I propose, I', going to get a hotel somewhere near here and come here and see you, we're not going to bring up the past or talk about anything except for the present, how does that sound?"
Brooklyn hadn't even known how that sentence was going to end until he'd spoken it aloud and he realised that it was the perfect solution as he said it, the perfect way to gain back a valuable friendship with a friend he had once treasured. Maybe in a twisted way, Avery's leukaemia was the universe's way of telling him that maybe the way to get over her was to finally get the closure he deserved.
Avery nodded, two bobs of a head that looked like it was too heavy for her neck.
He wasn't sure who should speak next and they didn't have to endure silence as at that very moment the woman who next to his sister had raised him entered the room, Riley Harlow entered the room and the first thing he noticed was the wrinkles that had appeared on her face which had never been there before. If he was asked to make a list of people who had impacted his life he would have her in the top three, she was the one who had supported he and India after his Mother's death who had made him as a young boy believe that the world wasn't falling apart.
Her reaction was fitting, her hand flew to her mouth and she stared at him with immediate tears filling her eyes, unlike her daughter there were no harsh words no screams for him to leave, she walked over to the seat in two long strides and collapsed onto the bed, Avery let out a squeak of indignation but Riley didn't seem to hear her or care she threw he arms around Brooklyn's neck and as the scent of jasmine seemed to waft in the air around them he realised just how much he had missed her, the woman who had entered his life as the best friend's Mother and who he had left feeling like he had lost his Mother all over again.
If moments could be captured forever, this one would be a great one to commemorate.
