Forgotten Memories

Chapter 12: Just Keep Swimming

-Luke-

Everyone's silent, including Aria. She buried her face in my shirt and practically blocked the world out for the past hour. I've read the letter three times and I want to shut down too, because I don't know what I'd do without Aria. She can't leave me. I don't care if I'm selfish, but she just can't leave me.

The 23rd is in three days.

I carried her to her bedroom a while ago, like around midnight, so that she'd have some privacy, and Daniel and them could come up with something to do about it.

We're sitting on her bed. She's curled up in my lap and her arms are around my torso. She needs to eat something. I don't think she's eaten anything since she left for the party.

I hug her tighter and whisper in her ear. "Are you hungry?"

It takes a while, but she nods.

I text Daniel to bring something to eat, but just leave it on the bed. A few moments later, he appears, places the plate on the bed in front of us, then leaves.

She doesn't move, and neither do I.

Eventually, I feel Aria go limp, so she falls asleep, but I'm thinking about the letter. How could what Marks said be true? If she's gonna-

No. She's not gonna die, but if what Mark says is true, why would her wanna take her away? I couldn't bear the thought of her dying somewhere I can't help her.

Aria stirs. I check the clock. It's around 2 in the morning. I hear no one downstairs, so they probably fell asleep.

"Luke?" she whispers hoarsely. I turn her head towards me.

"Something wrong?"

She smiles sadly. "Your glasses are still crooked." She moves them off my face and places them on the bed stand.

"There."

I frown, confused. "What for?" She knows I can barely see without them, right?

She stands up and pulls me with her. "I," she looks at the floor, "I want you to sleep here with me. I haven't felt complete without you. I missed you so much, and it's true, I did need you the most lately. I'm sorry for w-"

I place my finger on her lips and she looks up, startled.

I laugh softly. "Tell me you weren't just apologizing. And anyway," I step back and drop my hand, "you didn't have to ask."

I go to the bathroom so she can put on her pajamas. I don't really have pajamas here, so I just take off my shirt. When I return, I find her sitting on the edge of the bed, holding something in her hands. I walk closer and see blue.

"Oh. Yeah, that's for you," I say. "I saw you looking at it at Claire's, so I bought it. I was carrying it around because I planned to give it to you later, but here."

She looks up and I take it from her. I turn her around and she lifts her hair away from her neck. I link it in the back and, "voilà!" I exclaim.

She starts laughing. "You know, a friend of mine once told me, and I quote, girls are capable of putting on their own jewelry, not like on TV, where boys dramatically put necklaces on the girls. It's-" she pauses, laughing. "It's complete BS."

Laughing, I lay down and pull her close, her back to my chest, and we lay there, listening to each other's heartbeats until we fall asleep.

••••••••••

-Daniel-

"What about a tracker? Do you think he'll notice?" Rue suggests.

"Now, where would we get a tracker?" Milo counters. "And anyway, if he did notice, we'd risk the possibility of him taking Aria away."