Snow On The Beach | AruAni highschool fanfiction | Attack on Titan

23

~Annie's POV~

The photo album's on the counter. Armin's cheeks are turning red. He used to be a little kid with glasses and a twin-sized bed. His grandfather's telling stories about him at the beach. Photo's of Armin as a kid blissfully stare at us from the album. The majority of them are with his parents but he doesn't seem to mind. He looks happy to look back on those memories. He's just embarrassed. 

"Grandpa, put that away!" He presses the album to a close. His hands are positioned on top of it so he can keep it out of his grandfather's reach. 

His grandfather chuckles in that friendly way that all old people chuckle. "Alright, alright. I'm going to sleep now, you two. I'm not feeling so well." Once he's out of the room, Armin and I have the night to ourselves. Late in the night, the city's asleep, so we do the one thing all couples do at midnight. Dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light. It's Armin's idea and I have no choice but to oblige. 

"Tomorrow at 5pm" comes quicker than I anticipated. I'm sitting in Pieck's car, staring out the window. Neither of us has said a single word. Staying with Armin and his grandfather isn't so bad, although Mr. Arlert wasn't feeling the best last night. A part of me wonders if he really wasn't feeling well or is he was only faking it as an excuse to leave us alone. Either way, I don't wanna doubt the man. He's letting me stay in his house and has been nothing but kind to me ever since he met me. 

Outside the car, I spot a little girl with her father. It looks like he's comforting her about something unknown while she holds a clump of the leftover snow. How I wish that was me. I can't help but feel a pang of jealousy while watching them. So I look away. Whoever that girl is, she deserves to have a loving father. But so do I. 

I remember the first time I went out in the snow with my father. It was a few weeks after the accident he was in. That same day. Pieck had told me how her and her own dad had built a snowman in their garden. I wanted to try it out so I foolishly dragged by father outside. It surprised me how happily he obliged and followed. But as soon as we were outside, he started throwing an abnormal amount of snow my way. At first, I thought it was a fun little game and laughed. That's what he told me. And me being a young, naive child, didn't realize that the game would only be fun for him. The snow started to drown me. I hit the ground, landing on my wrist. I heard a slight crack before the tears began to flow down. But that didn't help my situation. Snow was still being thrown my way, burying me deeper into the ground and cutting off my air supply. I was a kid but I wasn't clueless. He tried to drown me in the snow that day. 

"You should be more careful, Annie. This is why you sprained your wrist."  He said once we were out of the hospital. He tried playing off the kind, caring father outside but the brutality returned behind closed doors. Someone who loves you wouldn't do this. I've tried to erase that day from my memories but it somehow always finds a way to haunt me. 

Pieck parks the car in front of a cafe right as "Driver's Licence" ends. She's dressed in a cute winter dress with white leggings. Upon closer inspection, her makeup looks perfect. She isn't far from reaching her stars. 

The cafe is nice and cozy. It's warm. The walls are a light shade of pink with white clouds painted all throughout them. It reminds me of cotton candy. The floor is made out of nice, beige tiles. We sit down at a table that Pieck chooses. She orders a milkshake while I go for hot chocolate. Once our orders arrive, I glare at her.

"Speak now." 

She seems a little taken aback but continues stirring her strawberry milkshake with the straw. "I was scared." She shrugs. 

"Of what?" I raise an eyebrow. I sound more demanding than I had expected. My eyes grow icy the more I look at her. 

"My father..." Her voice is as shaky as her lips are. "After mom passed... He changed. Some days, he'd yell at me and hit me. Others, he'd be the best father in the world. To other people, it always seemed like we were a father and daughter grieving over the death of the person they loved the most..." She stops and clenches her jaw. Her eyes look up at me and she takes a deep breath. Her eyes look like lost stars, floating through space and looking for their glimpse of hope. But, I don't understand. Her and her dad have always been the perfect father-daughter duo. I guess it just wasn't entirely what it looked like. I should've known better. "So when you told me your father hit you... I got scared and ran off. And when I got home my father had packed all our belongings and we were moving. I couldn't say goodbye to you. I- I was gonna tell you we're moving... But I didn't want to accept it." She reaches her hand towards my own. I jerk is back. "I didn't wanna leave you behind. And then it was too late..."