Previous chapter was a letter to Jake, explaining what happened to Flo two years ago. 

Please read the authors note at the end of the chapter, happy reading!

Part 1

So, it isn't much, but it's enough for me.

I smile as I look around my new apartment. Well, it's a studio apartment, so nothing special. The bedroom and kitchen are essentially the same room and the bathroom is not too bad either. This place is small, but it's mine.

Although I've been here for a week, I've only just finished unpacking everything. Some days I don't want to get out of bed, and the only thing that drags me out is the fact that I don't have that much money and I need to work in order to keep this place. That reminds me, I need to go looking for a new job. No way am I going to keep working at bloody Bella Italia's with snobby customers and a pervert for a colleague. Unfortunately, once school starts in a week, I'm not going to be able to work as much.

A knock at the door distracts me from my thoughts and I push myself off of my bed to look through the peephole and see who it is. Smiling, I open the door.

"You shouldn't have," I gleam at Aiden, holding chinese takeaway in his hands.

"Yeah you don't mean that," He pushes his way past me and to the kitchen, placing the food on the counter.

I laugh, "I know, I'm hungry as hell."

"Well, luckily I've got you two meals, one for now and one for later." He says while quickly unwrapping our food and getting plates out of the cupboards for us to eat from.

After shutting the door, I make my way towards him, watching as he fills the plates up with egg-fried rice, prawn chow mein noodles and vegetable curry.

"Aiden?" I say, waiting for his response.

He looks at me without moving his head, concentrating on the food.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," I smile. "For everything, thank you."

He stops what he's doing and turns to me, a warm look in his eyes. I really do appreciate all that he's done for me, from helping me move my stuff and settling into this new apartment, to buying me food and keeping me company. He doesn't know what's gone on, and he doesn't pry, but he's been such a good friend to have around this past month.

"You don't need to thank me, Florence." His smile widens.

I roll my eyes. "Eugh, don't call me Florence, how many times!" I cross my arms over my chest, pouting.

"Oh you don't want me to call you Florence oh, didums," He says in a baby voice, making me smile.

"Shush, loser!"

"Come on let's eat, the food's getting cold," He hurries with the rest of the loading until our plates are practically overflowing.

Grabbing some glasses and orange juice, we sit down on the floor since I haven't managed to buy a dining table yet, and dig into our food. We're pretty silent, just munching away, but I can't help but think of a bunch of questions to ask him.

"Aiden?" I call his name again.

He finishes his mouth-full before answering, "Florence?"

I smile at my name, before asking the question. "How's Georgia?"

He picks at a few pieces of egg from the rice as he thinks of a reply. "She's okay, last year was hard for her."

"If you don't mind me asking, how come?"

"No it's fine. Well, first thing is she and River broke up, it was a long time coming kind of thing, everyone could see it coming, but she didn't take it well."

The mention of River's name brings back memories, good and bad. I miss him, and Ky, and Georgia, and Emily.

"Why did they break up?" All I can think of is the baby, I left when Georgia just found out that she was pregnant.

"Georgia just changed and River found another girl. Lea, I think her name is. She seems really sweet, but obviously Georgia hates her." Aiden sighs.

"I'm sorry you probably don't want to be answering all these questions, I just feel like I've jumped into the fifth season of Gossip Girl and I don't know what the hell has been going on." I admit, truthfully.

Aiden looks at me with some look, you know that look. Between pity and empathy. It's an annoying look but also I don't blame him, I wouldn't know how to handle the situation either.

"Ask me anything, whatever you wanna know. Don't think it's too personal or anything, just ask." He tells me, to my relief, because I want to know much more.

"Are you sure?" I question, cautiously.

"I'm sure."

"Okay..." I bite on my lip, the question screening in my mind. "What happened to Georgia and River's baby?"

Aiden's eyes widen for a split second at the question, but he's quick to recompose himself. "She had a miscarriage."

I can't believe me ears. I can't believe what he just said.

Miscarriage?

Fuck.

"I'm so sorry," I don't know what else to say although I do feel like an idiot when I say that.

"Don't be. It was hard for her at the time, but it's fine now."

I wonder what it must of felt like - having your best friend kiss your boyfriend when you've just found out you're pregnant, then your best friend disappears and you lose your baby, then your boyfriend leaves you for someone else. Fuck.

I will tell you something, I didn't know someone to love another person like how Georgia loved River. We were young, but she would do anything for him. When she told me she was pregnant, she was so happy despite the fact that it would impact on her future, she was just glad she was carrying a part of River. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for her, and I was never there to help her along the way.

Part 2

We'd both finished our meals, and the subject of conversations turned to a more light-hearted one than before. It had us both laughing at the top of our lungs at how stupid we were as kids, recalling all the memories we had together. The laughter slowly died down as the sunset sky dimmed into a dark one.

"Can I ask a question?" He says after a moment of silence.

I look towards him, over the empty plates and opened fortune-teller cookies. "Shoot."

"You're gonna hate me for asking, though," he warns me.

My heart clenches a little, unsure of what he's curious of.

"Just ask," I urge.

"Why are you in for counselling?"

A weird feeling just overwhelms me. There's something about Aiden that just makes me want to pour my heart out to him, I just want to tell him everything. He's been so kind and open to me, I want to do the same for him.

"Because I'm clinically depressed and they say that it'll make things easier. I call bullshit though, I don't like talking about my problems." I say it so candidly that it surprises him a little that he even got a reply out of me.

For a moment I think he doesn't know what to say, but then he speaks. "It is bullshit."

"What about you?" I've already guessed it's a drinking problem, but there might be more to it.

"If I tell you, then I'd have to kill you." He smiles a dead smile, it holds no humour or happiness whatsoever.

"Kill me, I wouldn't mind dying." I joke but instantly regret it. I know I should never joke about these kinds of things and he doesn't take it lightly either.

"Don't say shit like that, Flo," He snaps, it's the first time I've seen Aiden slightly pissed off.

He gets up from leaning against the foot of my bed, taking our plates and cutlery with him to the sink. Opening the tap of water, he starts to wash them. Jumping up to join him, I place my hand on his arm in an attempt to stop him.

"You don't need to, I'll wash them," I say, but instead he lightly pushes my hand away with a nudge of his arm and continues.

"Aiden, honestly let me," I say again, this time reaching for his hands.

Suddenly, he drops the plates onto the ceramic of the sink and they land with a loud 'clunk'. Then, he turns to me until my body is trapped between the kitchen cabinet and his tall figure, our faces only mere inches away from each other's. His eyes look deep into mine, searching for something. The acceleration of my heart rate causes my cheeks to overflow with blood, warming them until I'm sure they're the colour red.

I can't stop him but neither can I tell him no. I don't feel afraid, neither do I feel completely comfortable. If he wants to kiss me what do I do?

"Aiden," I say, barely above a whisper. My voice is so shaky.

He takes a step away from me, still maintaining eye contact.

I thought I would feel a little relieved, isn't the close proximity what makes me feel nervous? But instead, I actually want him close to me. Yet when I close my eyes, all I can think about is Jake.

This isn't Jake in front of you, it's Aiden, I remind myself.

What I'm wishing for right now is Jake. Who I want right now is Jake. But then why do I want to hug Aiden? Why do I want him to take the step back closer to me?

What's wrong with you Flo?

"Never say anything like that again, okay?" He speaks so quietly. "You don't understand how much you mean to a lot of people. If anything were to happen to you..." Never finishing his sentences, he closes his eyes for a few seconds too long before looking to the floor.

"I'll call you later," he adds, before turning on his heel and walking to the door.

Although I don't think I'm thinking straight, I think, my legs carry me towards him before he's able to reach the door. Grabbing his shoulder, he turns back around to face me. Honestly, I don't know what I'm doing, but as soon as I see his face I just wrap my arms around his neck and press my head against his chest.

For a few seconds, his body is stiff in shock, his arms at his side not returning the embrace. But he quickly adjusts and hugs me back, wrapping his arms around my back only to bring me closer to him. He is the first guy I've hugged since the incident two years ago, apart from my dad of course. Although I thought it would be my worst nightmare, I find comfort in this embrace for right now.

Part 3

It's been hours since Aiden left. Not much happened after the hug, apart from a few goodbye's and I'll-call-you-later's. However, as soon as he left I instantly regretted the hug. Not that it made me feel uncomfortable or anything, in fact it's actually just what I needed tonight. Yet, part of me feels guilty for leading Aiden on - if he feels that this is anymore than just a friendship, he's utterly wrong. I don't have feeling for him in that way.

Plus, when I shut my eyes, I imagined a different face to the person I was hugging. It wasn't Aiden. It was Jake.

The time on my phone reads 3:19 a.m. I can't sleep for shit, a bunch of things keep circling in my head and just want to call Jake. You don't understand how long and hard I've search for his number on google, but I can't find it anywhere. I don't even think I would call him if I found it, so I don't know why I've spent the past few hours searching for it.

In frustration, I throw my phone to the other side of the bed and relax my head on a pillow, staring at the ceiling.

"Please, God. I just want a sign. Anything. Just let me know that I'm doing the right thing by being here. I'm so confused right now. Sometimes I just want to go back to Australia, but I need something, anything to show me that me being here is the right thing to do right now." I pray under my breath, closing my eyes.

I thought coming back would fix things, and I know it's a process but I didn't think I'd become even more confused.

My phone vibrates against the bed sheets near my feet, making my eyes snap open. It's three in the morning, who is up at three? Who is sending me a message at three?

I sit upright and hesitantly reach for my phone, glancing at the screen. Brightly lit is a message from an unregistered number, which reads: Brine, are you awake?

+++

Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you enjoy how the story is going at the moment. 

MPAI will be updated very soon! I know I keep saying that but I'm so close, you don't understand. So hang in there for me, and you won't be disappointed! I love you guys so much!

Stay beautiful, 

Indie xoxo