Becoming "Forever Yours"

Ch. 12 Scars.

"What's up, doll?" Her figure now clear to me as I approached, leaning with one leg against the wall.

I felt my heart throb.

"It really is you." I stopped short of her, trying to even out my breathing. "Where.. have you been?"

"Come. Sit with me." She took a seat on an old crate.

I felt my pores tingle as she gestured for me to sit beside her. "You've missed a lot." I tried to make small talk after sitting down. She hadn't even made eye contact with me. Had I done something wrong?

"I've missed you." She said so surely.

I felt my voice catch in my throat, then looked down to hide the blush I felt creep across my nose. "Yeah? I don't know why. I've been so.. mean to you." I couldn't stand myself for it.

"You like me." She chuckled softly. "That's why."

"You just.. know it all, huh?" I couldn't help but to laugh too. "Well, did you know that I.. I missed you too.."

She looked up at me then.

"Because I have. I've missed you, Gwen." So much.

"Your face.." She looked guilt-ridden, and every part of me hated it. It wasn't her fault. I needed to do it, it was.. freeing. "I shouldn't have left you alone."

"It wasn't because you left me alone." I smiled. "This one, I picked."

"Oh?" She pulled that one side up into a smile, melting my icy heart.

But your eyes.. they're so, so sad..

"So how do you feel?" She nudged me with her shoulder.

"I don't know, I've never been beaten up before." I smiled at her.

She eyed me.

"And I haven't yet." I flexed a muscle, laughing. "It felt good to put her in her place, you know?" I laughed. "And I promise she looks a lot worse than I do. You should've seen-"

She touched my face with her hand, stopping my sentence.

"I didn't mean to come into your life and reek havoc. I only meant to pick up where I left off in life. And then there was you."

I swore I could hear the blood rushing through my body. Was that possible? I needed to pay more attention in science.

I grabbed her hand and held it in mine against my face. "We can talk about it some other time, or never talk about it ever again. Just come back to school." I hoped she knew what I meant and by the look on her face, she did.

Sighing, she dropped her hand. "I owe you the truth. Especially after turning your days on their head, you deserve an explanation." I could tell she was struggling to find the right words.

Let me help.

"Why did you start coming to the alley?" I asked softly. "What was it about it?"

"It's fairly dark, even during the day. Hidden. And I.. smelled you."

I gave a quizzical look. "Smelled.. me?"

She turned her gaze away. "I'm not.. like you. Or anyone. I used to be. I was a regular girl, seventeen, going to school. And then not. It's.. fuzzy, the old memories. Not like the movies where we remember every single detail of that life, no. I remember fragments. The only thing that became clearer was the life I had after I.. was turned." She said even softer.

"Turned.. so you're a.. you are.." I couldn't say it. I believed it, but I couldn't say it.

"Yes.. and no." She took a deep breath. "I come from a family not of related blood by birth, but by.. experimentation. I'm.. just a lab rat." She shook her head with a scoff.