•Before I Let Go•

•Chapter 15•

Stunned, he pushed Alida back, but was sure not to do it too hard. "I'm telling Mom and Dad."

"No!"

"Who's is it, Ali?"

"Cory's." Alida whispered, placing her eyes to the floor beneath Aidan's feet.

When she gathered the strength to face him again, she wished she had kept her eyes on the beige carpet instead. She had never seen Aidan so angry before.

"Cory? Are you fucking kidding me—Cory?" Aidan's hands went to his head, gripping his wavy blonde locks so hard it looked like he was trying to rip out his own hair. His summer kissed skin was glowing a red hue—his anger boiling. His arms dropped to his sides with an audible thud. "I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna fucking kill him-" Aidan turned, starting out of her bedroom.

Alida raced in front of him, pushing Aidan back with all her strength—he barely budged. "No! Don't you dare touch him!"

"I told him to stay the fuck away from you. I told you too, Ali! I told you not to fuck around with my friends. I already warned him to stay away from you once before-"

"You're not the boss of him! And you're not the boss of me either!"

"I'm gonna kill him." Aidan stated again, pushing past Alida with ease. She grabbed a hold his wrist, pulling him back into her bedroom.

"No! Please—please, Aidan... I love him." Tears sprang from her eyes as she made the desperate plea to her brother. "He doesn't even know yet—I haven't told him."

"Well you better tell him soon. The guy ain't even got a job. How the fuck you expect him to take care of you or that kid? He's gonna pay for it. He's gonna find a way to get you the money to get rid of it. I'll kill his fucking Aunt Gemma! Then when he gets her life insurance money, I'll fucking kill him too. But not before I cut off every single fucking finger of his first." Aidan's index finger was in Alida's face. His breathing hard—his body shaking.

Then suddenly, Aidan seemed to break. "Out of all the guys to get involved with, you fucking choose Cory." Aidan deflated, begging her for an explanation. The first time in Alida's life since the death of Pop-Pop, Aidan looked like he was going to cry. "My best friend."

-§§§-

The following week, Alida and Aidan barely spoke. Summer break was nearing a close, which meant Aidan would be returning to Syracuse.

Aidan would never make it back to college—he would be the cause of a catastrophic accident that would leave him dead, and Cory Hartley an empty shell of his former self.

"Aidan knew, Cory. He knew about us. I told him we broke up to get him off my back but... it got back around to him a week before he died." Alida found herself closing the space between them timidly, yet desperate to touch him.

"I didn't wanna leave you," Cory admitted. "But I had to—because if I didn't, it meant that Aidan died for nothing. I couldn't live with myself. His death would've been in vain."

Alida's hand found Cory's cheek; the sensation of her soft touch caused him to jerk subtly, still afraid of displeasing a dead man.

"When I heard about the wreck... when they told us there had only been one survivor," Alida's eyes brimmed with tears, gazing into Cory's.

Matched with sadness, Alida let her tears fall; she couldn't believe what she was about to admit, "I was relieved that it was you—that you were the survivor." Alida wrapped her arms around Cory. She didn't embrace him because she needed to hold him, she had done it to hide from the vulnerability of her confession.

"No- no you don't mean that. Please don't tell me you mean that. Aidan was your brother." Cory tried removing himself from Alida's arms, but the weight of her comforting embrace had him frozen in her grasp.

Alida started to admit that it was because he was about to be a Father. That it was because she was going to need him around—Zora needed her Father more than her Uncle.

"Tell me you don't mean that. Please, Alida... tell me you don't mean it." Cory pleaded. He needed her to backtrack that statement. He needed to let her go so that he could go. Alida shook her head, refusing. "But if you could choose again... if you could change your mind—after all these years of me being gone, after I left you...it'd be Aidan, right?"

Alida shook her head confidently, knowing that even after all these years, her choice would still be the same. "You were the love of my life, Cory."

Shaken by her words, Cory's arms interlocked around Alida's waist, gazing down at her in admiration and remorse. "I love you... I still love you. I wish I could take it back, I wish more than anything that I'd stayed. I want you to know how sorry I am- how much I wish you were still mine and that Zora was mine-"

Alida didn't think as she pressed her lips to Cory's. His plump lips dancing against her soft pink flesh breathlessly. The warmth of his mouth felt like home. Cory's hands went to Alida's face, holding her head steady to make sure this was real—that she was real.

"Don't leave," Alida spoke against Cory's lips, "don't leave me again- I swear to God, Cory, if you leave me again-"

"I'm not goin anywhere," Cory said, kissing her again before pulling back once more, "I won't leave you, unless you tell me to."

This time, Cory was sure he could no longer let go—at least, not yet.