What I Wouldn't Give

Chapter 8

The silence after the whole pageant was peaceful. Never did Aria knew could something like a beauty pageant take so much of her attention that she would never notice what she had missed. But although there was a silence she had never experienced before, the silence felt similar to how she felt after her parents had died in that car accident. But somehow her thoughts were still going back to when everything had happened. She still couldn't figure out a lot about the accident and tried to wrap her head around it all.

Aria was sitting in a big mansion in Huntington, warmly wrapped in blankets in front of the fire, while she had constantly thought back of the days when her parents had died. She didn't even know how much she did still miss her parents until the pageant rolled by. And now she was thinking about everything that could have been. She was 17, unsure about college and still frightened to let anyone near her. But she also didn't want to miss out on anything that could happen.

"Aria," Ella said as Aria looked at her best friend.

"Yeah, what's up, Ella?" Aria asked as Ella looked at the shallow tears in the eyes of her best friend.

"Nothing," Aria lied and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her shirt.

"It's not nothing. What..." Ella said as she saw how Caleb and Noah came into the room.

"Everything okay, girls?" Caleb asked.

Ella shook her head as Aria lowered her face into her hands and Caleb instantly knew something was wrong. Ella rubbed over Aria's back as her sobs became louder and saw as Caleb approached them.

"Will you just tell me what is the matter already?" Ella asked as Caleb sat down next to Aria and slowly placed his hand on hers.

Moving her hands away from her face, their eyes meeting up, Caleb could see that her eyes were bloodshot red and something was wrong. Caleb stroke over her cheek, wiping away the tears that were streaming across her face, like water in a river. Exhaling, Caleb moved closer, and took Aria in his arms. Holding her tight against him, Caleb could hear Aria's crying getting quiet and quiet until he couldn't hear it anymore. Mouthing "stop" to his sister, Ella stood up, and walked up to her room while Noah had followed her up.

"You need to take it slowly. You can't want to force everything out of her," Noah said.

"I'm her best friend! Not Caleb. Not you. Me! What the hell is going on if she can't speak to me about it?" Ella asked.

"Ella, calm down, for goodness sake. You don't know what is going on with her. Nor do I or Caleb. He is just trying to help as best as he can. That does not mean she is favoring anyone over someone else. Please understand that," Noah said.

"I am her best friend, Noah," Ella said, clearly upset, while Noah knew his sister's frustration came from somewhere valid.

"Ella, where you two are there are just a lot of differences that she doesn't necessarily want to speak about. Leave this for Caleb," Noah said as he left the room.

Caleb had looked at the girl in his arms. He has seen Aria in all kinds of situations and he has also seen his own sister upset. But with how the friendship of these two young women were also busy changing fast as they grow older. And neither knows how to deal with it.

"Shouldn't you maybe take some time off from school to figure life out? Things have gotten extremely difficult for you. And I can't promise that the more time that goes by, the less painful losing the people you love are. I still miss my own parents every day. But I do learn to cope with it. But you need to talk to Ella," Caleb said.

"I can't," Aria said looking at Caleb.

"I can't," Aria said as she stood up and walked out of the house.