Apart

Chapter 3

AILEEN RIVERS

JULY 15, 2248

I was coming back to visit him again. Did he miss me as much as I missed him?

My life at the Legion was pretty stressful, us both entering a military political school for the young bright futures of the Legion. We graduated there with second and third best scoring scholars of the grade. There, we participated in rigorous courses, both mental, physical and emotional. Such activities consisted of Weapon Wielding class, where I leaned how to use an arrow, a sword, a sniper, all different types of guns, and knife throwing. When August comes, the scouts would be accepting and watching which people would be able to go to the highest Command School, The Legion Command Military School. There, if I got accepted, I would be attending the first grade. I hoped to apply, but did not know whether I would go in or not. Aris would though, puberty has taken a large toll on him and he had a nice transformation, complete with a lean, muscular frame. Not only that, but he had beautiful overachieving grade and strong mental capabilities. My slim body form and high IQ wasn't bad either, but hopefully this year they would be able to accept more people.

I had arrived on a tele-ship to here, and I was granted a 2 day visit to here. Aris didn't come, he had a mission that he still needed to complete, so I took this opportunity to visit Adrien. Where would he be? Would he be at the same rock, or would he be in his home?

As I boarded down the sleek tele-ship to the familiar grounds of Boston, I was hit with nostalgia, almost making my legs feel like jello. This was, after alll, the place where I had spent most of my childhood on. I spotted our boulder sitting on the coast, and I ran over, sitting on it, looking at the sea that I had tried swimming in. Normally Adrien should be here right now, but where was he?

So I waited. And waited. And waited. But Adrien never came.

So I decided to go to his house. Knocking at the mahogany doors I once knew so well, I waited, and waited, and waited.

Finally, the door opened, but who came out wasn't Ian.

His older sister, Astrid opened the door slowly, peeking through the door, no doubt wondering who was knocking at noon. Then, as Adriana caught a glimpse of me, she suddenly stopped, her eyes widened into an 'O' shape, and her amber eyes widened. She quickly threw the door open, hugging me tightly, as I was engulfed into the perfume that she always wore. Adriana was like an older sister I never had before. She was older than me by 3 years, so when we first met, she instantly swooped me up and played dress up with me in her room. She was the one who would help me bandage my cuts whenever I fell.

"Come in!" She chirped. As cheerful as always, it seems.

Putting my shoes away on the mat, I came in the house.

"Hi, Astrid." I replied.

Astrid suddenly stopped walking, and looked me from top to bottom, her gaze lingering on my face. I had grew a little bit more due to the extensive training I had gotten while attending school over there, so my slim, yet muscular frame was more prominent now. I had also grown a lot more mature than I was one year ago, being learnt of the things that are happening in this world right now. And boy, let me tell you, the future doesn't look that bright... at all.

"Aileen, what happened to you? Why are you suddenly so lean, and so.... Quiet?" Astrid queried.

I smiled grimly. "One year of heard training does that to you. Aris is even better though, he bulked up and finally looked manly. "

"By the way, have you seen Adrien? I tried waiting for him at our old meeting place, but he wasn't here. Is her here?"

Now it was Astrid's turn to wince. Instantly, my eyes widened at the small gesture. What happened to him? Was he hurt? Was he... killed? Oh my...

"Aileen, before you go and visit him, I might need to warn you though... He's changed. Drastically. I- uh... He's, I don't know how to say this to you in the easiest way, but you aren't going to like it... He's outside somewhere... He keeps going out and sleeping who knows where these days, he rarely even goes home or eat dinner outside!" Astrid ranted, pulling at her caramel brown hair, pacing around.

My heart thudded slowly. What had he, my best childhood friend become? Where had the nice boy I once adored so much go?

"Well, uh, thanks for the notice. I'm gonna go find him. Bye!" I shouted.

And as soon as my feet left the house, I raced to the rocky shore, my feet carrying me as my combat boots thudded painfully on the dirt path leading to the shore, as stray rocks skidded around me. I looked around wildly, knowing that Adrien must be around here somewhere.

That's when I noticed some kissing noises emanating from around the curve of the coast, far from my point of view. Curious as to who was there, I followed the source of the noise, and silently crept to the blind spot behind one of the boulders that signified a turn in the coast, and peered over the boulder, into the direction of the noise.

And it hurt so, so much.

He was there, sitting behind a boulder, frantically kissing another girl. That wasn't the worst part. The worst part, is that the girl looked exactly like me from faraway. The same height, the same dark hair, same length of hair, the same face shape, but it wasn't me that was kissing him so passionately. It wasn't me that was making him groan in delight.

He broke the promise. And my heart paid the price.

Fighting back gut-wrenching sobs from escaping my mouth, I stumbled back wildly, making a wild dash for the rocky dirt path. But suddenly, it seemed, by old habits were back and I was stripped off, vulnerable. I had forgotten every stealth mode that the Command School had ever taught me, and in the midst of escaping from this horrible, wretched fate, tripped over the irregular rocks and fell on my knees. This caused a large skittering of rocks sound that echoed across the lonely coast of the sea, alerting everybody. Knowing that Adrien had probably already heard the sound a long time ago, I quickly stood up, running for my life.

But my luck was always the worst, and soon enough, I heard the faint skittering of pebbles clattering, and the sound got nearer as I almost reached my destination.

"...love?" The sound came a faint whisper from my pursuer, although quiet, I could clearly hear every single word of it. He didn't deserve to call me that. Maybe once, but not anymore.

The skittering stopped. I stopped, out of instincts. I couldn't bear to look back.

"You don't deserve to call me that." I said quietly, my head lung low, tears finally breaking free of the dam, and now flowing freely along my heart shaped face and falling in faint drops that went smacking on the cold grey pebbles outlining the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

"You... Broke the promise..." I managed to say out loud, my voice trembling like the vibrations of an earthquake.

Out of the corner of my eyesight, I saw his hand move. But I didn't want to touch him. Not now. Not after what he did. I thought that we had something, a spark that could blossom to fire. Of course, it could extinguish just as fast.

Without looking back, I slowly raised the palm of my hand back at him, slowly, ever so slightly trembling, as in a motion that meant, please, stop.

He broke the promise. He broke the promise. He broke the promise.

"-love - Lena, I-"

"But, I mean, I guess promises are supposed to be broken anyways, aren't they?"

I ran for my life back to the tele ship, wondering if I could ever erase the image out of my head again.