AM, PM

the abrupt ending to an an abrupt story

the abrupt ending to an an abrupt story

Aiden was a soft man with a tough exterior. He had a punching bag and fixed cars, but also had a vinyl player and loved with his whole heart. Layla was a loud, fearless girl with a love for her parents' bakery and red headed girls with Disney princess names she called her best friend.

She had all the support system she needed, but was unable to love herself. He had lost his sister and that made the support system he had irrelevant.

When a century long curse and rival families caused the world to forget Layla, it was Aiden's strong heart that came to her rescue. They slowly fell for each other, but they realized that was what made their situation worse. The curse was placed by a heartbroken lover, wreaking a solemn wrath on the generations to come. This curse made it inevitable for Layla and Aiden's bloodlines to fall for each other, but the consequence was that one would forget the other. To preserve Layla, Aiden moved across the ocean to France to live with his cousins and dig in the ruins of their ancient house.

Layla was being remembered slowly every day, but she was now living in a world completely different from what she knew, a world where she had not been present for almost 17 years. A world where her father had killed himself, where their bakery did not exist, where she had a brother with the same birthday as hers and a broken best friend still building herself from the broken bones her ex boyfriend had left. Aiden was trying to go along with a life in Europe while his love was building a new life miles away.

After years of long work, Aiden managed to find the answer to the curse. I never thought he would have deciphered it but a part of me really was glad he did. With the his twin cousins by his side and his fiancé, Marianne, they managed to free all the members of the Asli and Ozim families.

Marianne is a sweet french girl that had appeared in Aiden's life right when he needed it. See, life did not work the way it was meant to with the two young, teenage lovers. Or, rather it worked out perfectly.

The care the two had for each other was undeniable. Even I felt bad for them, it felt wrong what was happening to them. After a year of being abroad and switching schools, Aiden was getting used to life in France, but every time he turned on the webcam before going to sleep to see Layla, his heart broke a little more.

One day she was mad at him for his incompetence, one day she cried for him to come back and the other she was an angel asking him how he was doing. It was an understatement to say that the situation was taking a toll on her: she had to live with a life void of her father and the bakery and that was not easy. It was an exaggeration to say Aiden was okay with it all too.

It was not until a few months after the new school year started that Layla's mood started to improve. Her and Ariel were back to being the great Topanga and Angela they were supposed to be. (One of the few shows I followed from this side of the universe.) The boy who ripped Layla from her ability to choose, Calum, left their school for her senior year and frankly, it was a godsend. Her mother's health was rejuvenating with her daughter back in her life and Layla and her brother were getting along very well.

The mystery that was the leather jacket wearing Oscar unravelled. On their date, Layla waited for the perfect moment to snoop in his belongings and managed to get a hold of his wallet. His name was Oscar Asli. He was a long lost relative of hers and she let herself get close to him for a while, only to find out he was a part of the group of people that attacked Aiden's sister. Oscar and his father and uncle were the reason Aiden's sister died and Layla could never forgive him for it. That's when she start spiralling down again. It took a few months of self love and a nice boy named Anthony to come into her life and make her realize that she deserved to be happy.

The news of Oscar's actions followed by the news of Anthony's existence had a negative effect on Layla and Aiden's relationship mostly because of how mad it made Aiden to see Layla run off happily while he was in France trying to fix her life. Let's just say he did not handle the situation very well and he went on a rampage of breaking hearts himself. It wasn't easy for him to get back on track, but that's when Marianne arrived. One night in a bar, Aiden made the rookie mistake of hitting on a gang leader's girlfriend. Needless to say, the fight that followed left him in the rain on the sidewalk, alone. Until closing when Marianne left the bar she was working at, Aiden was drowning in his own bruises and blood. Marianne fixed not only his wounds, but his heart. Together, they finished this journey.

Layla and Aiden's Skype calls occurred less and less often even if their care for each other remained intact.

When the curse broke, Aiden proposed to Marianne on a rooftop overlooking the whole city and the ruins of the mansion that started this all. Overlooking the adventure they had lived together that Layla did not know of.

Layla and Anthony were relatively happy living a life much less adventurous than Aiden's but with their own share of mundane problems like school and finding jobs.

Ariel met a woman that made her really happy and on the night of her wedding, as the maid of honor, Layla could not control her tears. Those tears did not stop when she spotted a handsome young man walk in with a girl by his side that she almost did not recognize.

"You're here," she said in disbelief.

"Thank your best friend for reuniting us after all these years."

They might not have fallen in love and Layla might not have been by Aiden's side the whole time, but all was forgiven when they saw each other again after all these years. Both happy. Both with their own set of scars and ready to gain some more. Both families rid of the curse.

They were happier than I was. They were stronger than I was. Overseeing everything they had almost made me ashamed of my actions, but I'm glad I was on the sidelines. I learned so much about our family histories and I think they learned a lot about themselves too. I might not have been as lucky and hard willed as these younglings were, but after centuries of watching Aslis and Ozims suffer, I'm glad that someone's finally broken my curse.

(P.S. Emmeline has done such a great job as an Asli witch. Almost putting me to shame, well more than the century long curse already has.)

- Cemile

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When two teenage authors in love with the idea of creating love and magic met on the third floor of their high school to come up with the idea for this story, I don't think they ever imagined that the story would have been left untouched for over a year. That they would never see the end of it.

We both loved this idea and this story and the characters very much. As much as we loved the story, we realized that our time and creativity was limited and we could only preserve whatever little motivation we had for the characters that we carried in our hearts. Unfortunately, we both did not write Aiden and Layla's story long enough to find that connection.

I hope, although abrupt, this can at least give some idea as to where Layla and Aiden ended up. This can be some sort of ending for the new readers as much as those that loved these characters for a long time.

Yas and I are still writing. In fact, yas just recently finished one of her books absolutely magically and I'm currently writing the last book of my trilogy.

If you'd like to follow our writing, we would love to to have you join us.

If you wanted to follow the journey of these characters, I hope this chapter is something to make you happy.

Keep reading, love.

@-swiftly-

(big, big, big round of applause to sarah for everything that has been written. this lovely woman has taught me so much about writing and about the magic of leaving reality. thank you for sticking with us. -yas)