Shining Hearts (A Garmau AU)

Chapter 7

???'s POV
"Hey! Someone named Aphmau requested a video chat, when she found out who I was, she seemed as if she lost a friend."

"Wait, WHAT!?"

Over the past five months, I had completely forgotten about Aphmau. When she first Skyped me again, realization hit me like a rock. However, I was too afraid to tell her hat I was married, so I just told her that I was busy.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, she was just... an old friend." I say with a sigh.

Yeah. Just a friend. I'm sorry, Aphmau.

Aphmau's POV
I hear my laptop jingle with the Skype call ringtone. I glare at the laptop and press the red phone to make it stop ringing.

Now the jerk gets to feel how it is to be ignored when you want to talk to them.

I go to the bathroom and wrap a bandage around my knuckle after washing away the blood. I was just about positive it wasn't broken, but I don't want to take the chance that it might be.

I push my hair behind my ear and take a deep breath.

For some reason, I had a feeling something was up, but I didn't want to accuse. Now it feels as if a burden was lifted, now that I know this.

My laptop jingles again, and I let out an exasperated sigh, lumbering back over to look at the screen.

I quirk my eyebrow and press the green answer button.

I force a smile, "Hey Kate." I say softly.

I notice there were tears still in my eyes so I quickly wipe them away.

"Okay this can wait! Aphmau, what happened?! You look horrible!" She gasps, "And what happened to your hand?!"

"I-It's nothing really."

"Nothing? NOTHING?! Aphmau! You are crying and your hand is in a bandage, not only that but you still look sad! If that's not saying something, I don't know what does." Katelyn exclaims.

I sigh, Katelyn did have a right to know, she was my best friend. "W-Well, if you really want to know... I-It involves A-Aaron."

Her eyes widen and her jaw drops, "WHAT DID HE DO!? I SWEAR, I'LL KILL HIM!" She shouts angrily.

"Well, I-I kind of found out h-he has a-a wife now," My sadness boils back into rage, making me become sarcastic. "And you wanna know what's real funny, Kate? You wanna know how I found this out?"

"What happened?"

"Well, after not talking to me for five months, completely avoiding me, rejecting my calls, and lying to my face about being busy, I find out he's married, by his wife telling me herself. Girl's name is Lily. She must feel really lucky, and she will stay lucky that she is in Austrailia, out of my reach because the second I see that man, he's getting a strong punch to the jaw!" I vent.

"HE WHAT!?" Katelyn gapes.

"YEP! OH AND THAT'S NOT ALL! You know how he kept rejecting my calls? Dude has the nerve to finally call me after his wife tells me about them. Like, he hasn't talked to me in five months, rejects my calls, and he thinks I'll anwer him first chance I get!?" I say, I wave my hands around dramatically to emphasize my point.

"Wow. That's some story, but that doesn't explain you hand?" She asks.

I flick me unhurt wrist, then push hair out of my face. "Oh that? Yeah, there's now a hole in my closet."

"Pfft! That's some strength you got there! He's lucky it wasn't him." Katelyn laughs.

I laugh back, "That's what I thought!"

Then my smile fades back to a frown, "But that still doesn't excuse him of ignoring me. If he had told me maybe then my wall would have been safe and my hand wouldn't sting like it was burning."

"Dang, my plan didn't last as long as I had hoped." Katelyn says placing her cheek on her knuckle.

"Katelyn, you're awesome." I say with a smile.

"Hey, don't mention it! You're my friend and I hate to see you hurt! Say, you wanna go to Olive Garden?" Katelyn asks.

My eyes light up, "ARE YOU REALLY ASKING ME THAT?! DUH! BREADSTICKS ARE MY LIFE!"

"Kay, so I'll meet you at five?" She asks and I nod.

~A few days later~
I'm walking through the park, when I see a familiar head of sandy-blonde hair. He was sitting under a tree, intently looking at his guitar as he practiced a song.

I slowly walk up, careful not to distract him. Soon, I stand next to his tree and listen to the song he plays out.

I notice how gracefully his fingers moved over the strings, as if he had been playing his guitar all of his life.

I close my eyes, still leaning on the tree, as he changes the song. I remember the song he is playing from somewhere, but I don't know where.

I seemed to know the notes, so I started to hum along. Soon after, he snaps out of his trance, noticing me humming.

He finishes the song, as I sway along to the rhythm of the notes. He places the guitar beside him and I applaud.

"How long have you been doing that?" I ask when he looks up at me curiously.

"About a year," he says, standing up and brushing himself off. "But my mother used to teach me when I was young before-" He trails off, his words catching in his throat.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up." I say and he turns to me.

"No, it's fine. I-I just miss her, but I think I'm starting to get over it. It is just really hard to forget about something that happened at such a young age." He tells me with a sigh.

"What happened?" Then I realize how rude it must have sounded, so I follow it up with, "I-If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"It's alright. When I was twelve, a bit over ten years ago, my father and my mother died in a head-on collision with a pursuit-evader, which killed the other driver as well." Garroth closes his eyes and exhales, then he opens them again. "Very soon after, my brothers and I discovered the wreckage, it left us traumatized and feeling helpless."

I could see recalling the memory was hurting him, "It's okay, you don't have to tell me everything." I told him, resting my hand on his shoulder. "I'm surprised you even told me anything, seeing as we barely know eachother."

"I-I don't know, I just feel as if, for some reason, I can trust you." He leans back against the tree, "Hmph, I guess some things will never be understood." He says.

I shake my head, "Many things in life can be confusing, it just takes time to get to know why it happened." I tell him.

"Wise words, I wonder what reasons meeting you had." He says.

"It takes time."