Letting Go

Chapter Four

I decided not to visit Caitlin for the rest of the week. I can go on Saturday. Today is Thursday, the day Aaron and I have to work on our project. After school I found him leaning against his car waiting for me.

"Hey" he said when he saw me coming closer. "Hey, sorry if I made you wait. I forgot something in my locker and had to run back to fetch it." I apologized.

"Don't worry. I'd wait for you for the rest of my life if it meant I got to see you." He teased or I think that was a joke. I just rolled my eyes and let out a small laugh.

"So where are we going first?" I asked.
"I don't know, what about on the other side of the rail track?" He suggested.

"What no. Lima heights? That's like the most dangerous part of Ohio. Absolutely not." I said quite annoyed at what he just asked.

He started laughing. "What, are you afraid?" He asked me.

"Yes. Yes I am very afraid of being raped, kidnapped beaten up, killed and all the rest. So yes I am afraid." I admitted.

"But the task is to find the beauty in the unnoticed, how are we going to see it if you won't look at it?" He said raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sure when she said find the beauty in the unnoticed, she didn't mean go to the dodgiest area and get killed." I sort of shouted.

He let out a low chuckle but I could see he was getting a tad bit annoyed with me, but why was he getting annoyed with me. I'm not the one who wanted to get us killed.

"Well do you have something better in mind?" He asked me.
I didn't, but I wasn't gonna tell him that. "Yeah, I do." I said without thinking. "Let's hear it." He said.
"Well what about, uhm..." I didn't have a clue. Then I thought of something.

"What about the hospital?" I asked.
He just looked at me for a moment. He knew about Caitlin. I think that's why he was silent.

"Are you sure?" He asked after a while.

"Yeah of course. I mean many people don't notice the beauty that lies between the hospital walls, right?" I said. "I guess" he said unsure.

"Okay, let's go then. Drive please." I said

We drove to the hospital holding small conversations about little things from cool punk rock bands to Mr Hudson’s new wig, apparently it’s not even real hair- just plastic. When we arrived at the hospital we got out the car and walked inside.

"So where to first?" He asked me considering I knew my way around here pretty well.

"Let's go to the courtyard, I'm sure we'll find something there." I suggested.

We walked through the hospital to the courtyard. Aaron greeted the old people as we passed them with a dashing smile and nod of the head.

"Sucking up to the old people so they will let us take pictures of them I see, I like the way you work Aaron McClaine." I said to him smiling.

He just smiled at me and continued walking. "Let's sit down here" he said pointing at the bench in front of us.
We sat down and I got my camera out.
"Wait, don't take that out yet. You first have to find something to take pictures of." He said to me.

I put it back down, and looked in the direction Aaron was looking in. We sat there for a while and we saw nothing good enough to take pictures of. I got a few pictures of old men playing chess in their pyjamas and a little girl with a bald head sitting by the pond but nothing that took your breath away.

"It's getting late and we kind of have nothing. What now?" I asked him.

"Well, we leave." He said casually.