Banes (19 page)

She smiled, "Hey Ben."

Lucas pushed her away, "Dude she kissed me, everyone here just saw it."

Her stomach fell as her heart stopped. Ben grabbed her arm pulling her off the chair, "Dude what did I say about staying away from her. She chose me."

Ari struggled to get away from Bens grasp.

"What are you doing?" She asked trying to pull her arm free.

His hand dug into her skin, pulling her into his burning stare, "You said that was over. You promised it was me not him." His face was hurting and some part of her wanted him to be happy and smile at her again.

She looked at Lydia who looked confused just as everyone in the kitchen did.

"I don’t understand, Lucas you and I…we, we, you said you loved me. We had sex like a week ago."

Bens grip tightened pulling her to his face shaking her, "What? You told me not before marriage."

She laughed, "Is this a joke?"

Lucas looked at her disgustedly, "You seriously still trying to make drama here Ari. I thought you moved out to escape the drama and now here you are making shit up. I never touched her Ben. I don’t know what she's on but I didn’t do anything to her."

Ari felt rage build inside of her throat as she screamed, "I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE THIS IS LUCAS. FUCK YOU." She tore her arm from Ben and ran to the stairs. She ran up to her room but when she opened the door the room was bare. All the stuff was gone. She sank against the door sobbing.
She lost her grip on the new Ari as memories started to flood her mind. Happy childhood at the orphanage, meeting Lydia at a youth group volunteer meeting when she was sixteen and moving to Lydia's when she turned eighteen and going to New York for training were all brand new memories. She looked down at her finger where her ring sat. She hadn’t gotten hers yet but there it was. Her new memories also included some very passionate kissing, not with Lucas but Ben. She'd gone with him to New York, they shared a bathroom. He took her out for dinner for her nineteenth birthday. She was nineteen. She saved everyone and ruined the life she had rebuilt. She didn’t love Ben but the new Ari did.

Lucas had never saved her, she'd never been in danger. Father James was a kind sweet man who truly was a servant of god. Father Michael was in a mental institute for violent criminals. He'd never touched her.

"Ari?" Lydia's voice spoke softly from the other side of the door.

She didn’t answer, she was so humiliated. None of them would remember her before, the pain she'd gone through. Nothing would be the way it was. They all saw her as a happy athletic girl who had her head on straight.

"Ari I know you're there, I can hear your thoughts sweetie. I know what happened. You pushed someone who had a major role in your life. Honey you cant do that."

She sighed and moved out of the way letting Lydia open the door. The loving older woman sunk down on the floor with her, "What happened?"

Ari looked at the floor lost, "There was a me, before from when I pushed the first time, she, well I, no, she lived in that orphanage but the priest was a horrid man. He hurt them or us. The other me ran away and lived on the streets. She had a bad life. When I pushed my uncle I went to her life first. You found me in an alley, you saw what I was. You saw me underneath her. She was covered in tattoos and pain and piercings. I fell in love with Lucas, he tried to help me and we fell in love. Today I went to the orphanage and I wanted to push the priest back but the other me was terrified of him and I panicked and lost control. He was hurting me and Lucas must have sensed I was in trouble, he showed up and he stopped him. I pushed the priest and Father James came and everything was better but I forgot that everything would change again." Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Oh honey, you have to stop pushing people who are a part of your life. You start them off on a new life and everything changes. No one remembers the changes except you."

"Lucas looked at me like I was something he despised. I love him so much. I gave him my virginity and my heart."

Lydia held her as she sobbed on the floor.

Chapter Twenty- Triangles, Triangles Everywhere

Aimee

She watched Lucas pace the yard as Ben sat in a chair playing with his iTouch. He looked angry in a way she'd never seen before. Aleksander came to her and put an arm around her, "I can't imagine if our lives all took different turns because one girl influenced everything we did."

Aimee turned snuggling into him letting him kiss her forehead.

"She didn't have a clue she was dating Ben and Lucas had been in love with her before?"

Aimee shook her head, "No. She thinks her and Lucas are in love and her life is like a different dimension. She changes the fabric of time when she pushes people. Usually she only does it to strangers though. I guess this is the second time it's happened. Lydia is pretty worried. She's sleeping in her room missing classes and work. Lorri wanted her to go with me tonight but she is sending Izzy instead."

Aleksander hugged her, "Well be safe. I'm heading with Dorian to that place Violet in Louisiana. Some girl has been attacked and they're certain it was my dad. She's alive still so I want to try to talk to her."

Aimee turned to him, "I love you."

He smiled and kissed her lips softly, "I love you too."

He was gone making a small wind stir in the kitchen.

Aimee walked to Ben, "You okay?"

He shook his head not taking his eyes off his game.

"Wanna talk?"

He shook his head again.

"If you do I'm here okay?"

He nodded. She sighed and walked out the back door to Lucas who was kicking leaves and cussing.

"Luke you have to calm down. Your brother is going to phase and you're going to kill each other."

"Just get lost Aimee."

She laughed, "Being mean to me isn’t going to improve things. Think about this from Ari's perspective, she had a boyfriend and her life was one way. Then she saves orphans and screws her own life up."

He sighed dropping to the bench behind him, "Yeah I know she's the conquering hero but Ben thinks I've betrayed him and she doesn’t want to see anyone. This sucks."

Aimee sat beside him, "You feel like you betrayed him because you love her?"

His head dropped, "Pretty much."

"Did she say anything to you lately to make you think she loved you back?"

He shook his head, "She told me the opposite, she said she was saying yes to Ben about moving in together and getting engaged."

Aimee frowned, "I'm sorry."

"Me too. It's like the never-ending fucking head game of doom. And to make matters worse Ben hates me, he thinks this is my fault that in some other dimension Ari chose me. Like I can control that." He bent forward and put his hands in his thick brown shaggy hair.

"She just needs to catch up. Things will get easier. They’ll go back to normal."

He turned looking at her, his green eyes aflame, "I have a chance this time though. She already loves me. I'm not giving up."

Aimee laughed, "That’s a dangerous game dude. You never heard of Bro's before Ho's before? You could lose your brother over a girl." She recalled her own predicament with her sister and Blake. Things had never healed properly, her sister was living in Boston with Blake and she never spoke to her.

He nodded, "Yeah I know Aims but I love her so much it hurts and if there is a part of her that loves me, even if it's an old dormant part I cant just let the fire die. I hurt every day I'm here with them, watching them, seeing him happy holding the girl I know is mine."

"Then you gotta do what's best for you Luke."

"I like Lucas better."

Aimee shook her head, "I don’t."

He laughed, "You're a pain in the ass Aimee."

She wrapped a single arm around him, "You love me and you know it."

She got up and left him there and winked herself home. She snuck along her back yard to the street. Dusk in a small town was a lovely sight. She remembered every step she took around to her street. Her boots clicked on the concrete sidewalk.

She tried to sneak home and peak at her dad and sometimes Shane if she was in the mood for really fooling herself into believing she could ever let a human love her after the monster she had become.

She looked from behind a truck across the street from her house at her dad in the front window.

"Aimee? Are you real? Are you back?"

She flinched and looked at Shane standing beside the truck, "Hey."

He looked hurt just seeing her, "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see him." She felt her heart break wondering why love couldn’t just be easy.

"So you're not back then, just spying?"

She nodded weakly.

His tone changed to angry, "He isn’t doing so hot. Not that you give a shit."

She turned to face him head on, she nearly melted seeing him in his jeans hugging his strong legs and his t-shirt stretched tightly across his chest. His face was more handsome than she recalled. She got how Ari felt completely. Her heart still told her she'd made the wrong choice getting back together with Aleks instead of going to see Shane and try to make things work. She knew she could hurt him and he was safer away from her but she thought about what Luke had said.

"I give a shit, about you both." Her words were weak.

"Then stay and see him Aimee. Stop hurting him. He loves you and he needs to see you. The docs are looking at it being cancer maybe."

His words were like a punch in the gut. She frowned, "No."

He nodded, "Yeah. Not that you would know. It's been over a fucking year Aimee."

She nodded looking across the road at the house with the large window in the front room where he sat watching TV. "Does Alise know?" She wondered how her sister could move to Boston knowing their father was sick.

"Yeah of course. She's insane and dating that psycho."

Aimee frowned, "He isn't a psycho."

She sighed knowing she would never win. Blake had betrayed her when he tried to commit her and broke her and Shane up and even though she was past it Shane never would be.

"Were you just leaving?" She asked looking at him and the big blue truck. It was newer than his other one. She hadn’t expected it to be his.

He shook his head, "Just arriving." He put a hand out for her, "Come with me."

She put her hand out letting him envelope it with his. The warmth that came off him was unbearable. She felt the connection of their skin immediately. It never felt like that when Aleks touched her.

Shane squeezed her hand pulling her into him, "I know you're different now, I saw you in that alley. I saw what you did to him, I get it. But I can't help myself. I love you more than I did before. I want us to try."

She looked up into his blue eyes and got lost for a second. His body against hers felt so right. She nodded, "I love you too." She couldn’t believe the words came out. She thought about Aleks for a second but knew her words were the truth.

He didn’t wait for her to back peddle. He lowered his face pressing his soft lips against hers. It was the kiss to end all kisses, his lips devouring hers, his hands pulling her off the ground up into his chest. He pressed her against the truck sliding his hand up the back of her t-shirt. His hands against her bare skin exploded heat throughout her body. Her hands started to heat. She put them into the air desperate to get them away from him, "Stop."

He stopped pulling away from her his eyes burning and his breath ragged.

She put her hands out, "These will kill you if I don’t keep control. I can't lose it for a second."

He nodded, "Lets go see you dad. Then we're going to my place. This isn’t over."

She bit her lip.

Chapter Twenty-one- Effing Sound of Music

Ari

"Miss Ari you's needs to be getting up outta that bed. I gots your favorite here now, pancakes with chocolate chips and banana slices and vanilla yogurt. Now sit up ya here. Eats something for Annabelle."

She kept her eyes shut pretending the maid wasn’t there. Her stomach betrayed her grumbling away as soon as the smell of the pancakes hit her. She opened her eyes and looked at Annabelle standing beside her with Lucas holding a plate of food.

She shot up wondering how bad she looked after staying in bed for days like a sloth.

"Lucas?"

"Morning, well evening actually but yeah. Hi." He seemed nervous.

She smiled and then frowned, "What are you doing here?"

Annabelle winked at Ari and was gone instantly.

Lucas put the tray down on the bed in front of her and smiled, "Well I was thinking maybe we could start over since neither of us seems to know one and other any more."

She nodded taking her first bite, "Okay." She felt the hurt look crossing her face scared of trusting him again.

He looked distressed, "Look you and Ben and you and me obviously all kinda have a triangle. In your memory we were together and in my memory you chose him. I just want you to maybe, uhm well, just rethink your choice."