Nowhere Girl | The Darkest Minds Fanfic

Epilogue: How About it, Gorgeous?

"So what took you so long?" I asked.

　　After dinner, the others were watching movies in the living room, so Cole and I retreated to his room to have some alone time. Cole and I were sitting on his bed, leaning against the headboard. He threw an arm around my waist and snugged me into the side of his body.

　　"I went back to Wilmington with my family first. I stayed for a week, and headed straight here—" He answered. "—Well, not really. I did take a detour to the Ranch to get some stuff."

　　"What stuff?" I was kind of surprised; by the looks of him when he confronted me this morning, I didn't even think he could've been patient enough to go back to North Carolina, let along take a detour to California. He literally went coast to coast before getting here.

　　"I picked up some little things I wanted to keep." He rolled over to the nightstand and picked up a framed photo. "Here." He put it in my hands.

　　It was a picture of his mother and a little brown hair girl. "Is this...?" I asked.

　　"Claire? Yes." He answered. "Oh, you reminded me, I got another one." He reached into his duffel bag, and took out a photo with his whole family on it. He looked no older than 12 in this picture. He put both of the photos on the nightstand, and arranged them side by side. "There, all of them in one place."

　　I turned around and reached into his duffel bag, wanting to help him sort out his luggage, but found an unexpected texture—a slim plastic case. I took it out, and it was a CD case. Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys.

　　"This is not yours." I showed the plastic case to Cole.

　　"Oh, no. Course not." He shook, "It's Lee's. I figured I should give it back to him when I got the chance. It seems important. The kid even wrote a stupid note in it."

　　"Hey, that's not nice." I said, "It could be private. You shouldn't pry on it and make fun of it, too."

　　"Yeah, it's private alright." He said with a low chuckle, "You know, Ruby is an Orange, and before the League got to her and Lee, he had already told her tons of his mind on how the League was evil and stuff, so when they were taken in, Ruby cut a deal with the League to let Lee go, on the ground that she erased all his memory of her."

　　I was stunned beyond words. I couldn't imagine the amount of sacrifice it took; how lonely it must felt to be the only one bearing a loving memory just so the person you love could be free. Would I be able to do the same if I had that kind of power? To Cole? To James? Ang? Drew?

　　"Anyway, Ruby ended up giving Lee his memory back, and for fear of losing it again, Lee wrote that stupid note, reminding himself of how everything was, and how much he loved her." Cole concluded.

　　"That's...kind of romantic, actually." I suggested.

　　"Not if you know anything about Ruby." He sighed. "The kid will ignore the three consecutive 'you love her' on the note, and proceed to take the note's existence as an evidence of him not trusting her. Hence the stupidity."

　　That was a...pretty pessimistic view on things.

　　"Do you think I should burn it for their sake, or should I trust Liam not to be stupid again and give the thing back to him?" He asked with a grin.

　　"You mean the note, right?" I asked, and he laughed out loud.

　　"Of course." He ruffled my hair, "Why would I bother taking the CD if I want to burn it?"