The Album of You and I

Runaway

After Theo had decided that the river had sufficiently cooled him down enough, he met Emma lying  on the grass. She looked so spaced out, deep in thought- as Theo had come to recognise.  He let his mind go blank as he dried off, the sun slowly disappearing owing to the lateness of the day.

Emma was completely confused. Did she want to have sex with Theo? Did she not? She was never the sort of girl who was confident in everything she did, living by having no regrets. But recently, she had found that just living in the moment made life more enjoyable- especially with Theo. Today Emma had unlocked a whole side of er that must have been simmering in her subconscious. When she thinks of how her body reacted earlier, it made the decision easier to process. If the moment came- maybe?

'I think I'm dry enough- you want to carry on walking?' Theo asked, slowly putting his green t-shirt and blue, baggy jeans on. 

'Yep. Yep. Sounds good. Which way?' She said, surveying the area, looking in every direction but Theo's. 

Instead of replying, Theo took Emma's hand and lead her to their right, a different path from the one they had emerged from originally.

'Is this another one of your, ''I don't know where I'm going but it may be fun'' sort of things?' Emma questioned, minutes into walking out of the clearing and into the tall trees.

'I see you're getting the gist of things now. Don't you find lfe is better when you can't predict the outcome?' Theo replied, removing a stick from the path so Emma wouldn't trip over it.

'I don't know. Life is already hard to predict- I mean, who knows what will happen to me. I don't even know if I'm going to enjoy what I do. I'm scared of finding myself in a place that has no interest for me.' She admitted, twisting her ankle slightly but hiding it from Theo.

Her efforts were in vain as he chuckled at the slip-up. Theo stopped walking and knelt down- puzzling Emma to no ends. He gestured to his back,

'Get on. We're never going to get anywhere if you keep twisting your ankle.' He smiled.

Reluctantly, Emma got on his back, Theo's arms easily holding her up as if she weighed nothing. 

'Put me down as soon as I get too heavy ok?' She bargained, worried that she was physically imposing herself. 

'Chill Sunshine, it's all good.' 

Twenty minutes had passed, and Emma was beginning to think that Theo had gotten them lost. She relayed her doubts to him, who merely shook his head.

'You have no faith. I promise you, you can walk anywhere and eventually find a place that you will recognise.' Theo stated with certainty, looking over his shoulder and then back again.

Suddenly Theo stopped, much to Emma's surprise. They had arrived at the edge of a road, with a tree to the side of them. The tree itself was covered in lichen but it looked no different than any other tree.

'T? T, what's wrong?' Emma asked, sensing that there was something causing his dramatic pause.

'I can't believe it looks as if nothing happened. I mean, what did I expect? It was 10 years ago, why would it look different?' Theo breathed. Emma immediately got down from his back. Upon further observation, it appeared that Theo was in disbelief, his face twisting in pain as if he was reliving a painful memory. 

'Theo, what's going on?' She cautiously asked, not wanting to provoke the situation.

'It was just here.' He said, reaching out and touching thin air.

It finally clicked within Emma. 10 years ago. Theo's accident. The day that he lost everything. It must've been here.

'How can it look like nothing happened.'

'T, maybe we should-'

Theo ignored Emma as he walked closer to the tree and sat at the base. He felt every groove, touched the point of collision,  shuddering as he relived the shivers that ran through his body 10 years ago. Theo felt the terror and the fear seep into his bones.

Emma witnessed all of it. She watched helplessly as Theo crumpled and shivered. She cried as she saw him curl into a ball. The shock of how quickly everything escalated into trauma only making it worse. All she could do was provide comfort.

Sitting down next to him, Emma wrapped her arms around Theo and gentle held him as he let the tears fall. Emma concluded that Theo must have been holding it in, repressing it for years but coming back here opened the floodgate.

'It's ok, T. You have me, and Harry and Max and Jay. You're not alone.' Emma repeated softly in his ear, stroking his hair.

'It's going to be ok.'

When Theo had decided that he was out of tears, shakily he stood up. He held out a hand to Emma but didn't say a word.

'Do you want to go home now?' He questioned, his voice lacking emotion, once again surprising Emma. Wasn't he going to elaborate or something? It seemed like he was shutting himself off from the world even more.

'Ok. T do you umm, you know- do you want to talk about it?' She asked hesitantly, unsure if she was picking up the right signals.

'No, I kind of just want to pretend that it never happened. Life's better that way.' Theo concluded, marching along the road in the direction Emma assumed was back to his car. 

'T! You can't just leave it like that.' She shouted as he continued walking further. Emma began running to catch up.

'Sunshine, there are things which I never want relive- this is one of them, can you let it be for one moment and not make a thing of it please?' Theo replied exasperated. 

One day. One day he might be willing to tell me. It was all that Emma could do to reassure herself, she knew that if she pushed Theo too much he would ultimately reject any sort of comfort to make it better.

Speeding up she grabbed Theo's hand, and gave it a squeeze.

As long as he knows I'm ready and here for him.

Theo simply smiled in response- neither said a word on the way home, but there were a million almost conversations.