Summer Fling

Chapter 10

Liam didn't respond; he was afraid to make it worse. Instead, he held her tighter a rubbed soft circles into her arm with his thumb. She sobbed harder. He didn't care that she was soaking his shirt with her tears, or ruining it with her snot. He didn't care that she looked like an emotional wreck. He just wanted to take away her pain.

After a moment of silence and her sobbing, he kissed her forehead again. "You don't have to talk about it, but you can if it'll make you feel better."

She sniffed and looked up at him. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah" he supported her.

She smiled slightly. "You sound like her."

"Really?" he asked with a curious grin.

"Yeah" she replied. " No matter what she was doing or how she was feeling, she would always listen to my long rants, even though most of them were pointless."

" She sounds like a great person" Liam commented.

Paris snorted. "Great? Probably not. She had some major character flaws. However, she did have some redeeming qualities. So maybe unique is a better word. I mean, she was rather ordinary, and yet, she was different."

"How so?"

" She was twenty years old and still lived with my mom and dad" Paris laughed. "And she was extremely timid. In fact, she hated going to the bathroom alone because she was scared. I always had to go with her. But once you got to know her, she was weird. She liked the oddest things, like crime dramas and animes. She was a beautiful artist, but she never wanted to show off her artwork. And if she felt comfortable with you, she was loud and annoying. She argued about everything!"

"Really?" he asked. "That's so strange."

"I know" Paris laughed. It grew silent for a moment. " I guess you would say we were close. Sometimes, she was all I had. She didn't want to be a camp counselor. That was something mom forced her to do. But she was good at it. She was amazing at dealing with eighth graders."

"What happened?" he asked.

Paris swallowed. "It was two days after camp ended last year. We were all hanging out for one last cookout before we went our separate ways for the year. She was supposed to go back to the state university in town and I was planning on moving to New York to go to a small private school that had an excellent writing program. London always encouraged my dream to be a journalist; she even helped me find a school that would send me to study abroad for my junior and senior year."

"That's cool" Liam stated.

"Yeah" Paris sighed. "Well, anyway, the teenagers were hanging out on the playground, which over looks the lake, It's on a small hill/cliff thing and at the edge of the hill there's a huge tree. There used to be a tire swing there. We would swing off of the tire swing and into the lake. It was a lot of fun. We had been doing it all summer. All of us except London. She was huge chicken. And finally, we convinced her to go. I went first, and landed in the water fine. I was teasing her from the lake as she almost chickened out of trying it. And then she climbed on and let Jake push her. After the first couple of swings, she still hadn't let go. She was about to when the branch broke. Part of it his land and the other part swung against the small cliff.  She hit her head and then fell into the water."

Paris was crying again, this time soft, quiet tears. She swallowed. "At first, I thought she was fine. But when she didn't resurface, I panicked. I thrashed around in the water and looked for her. It took me five minutes to find her body. They couldn't resuscitate her." She bit her lip.

"You don't have to continue" Liam suggested.

" I'm fine" she squeaked. She sobbed a little longer before taking another deep breath. " The medical examiner said she was still alive when she hit the water, but do to her head injury she couldn't swim. She drowned right before my very eyes and I can't help but think if I had been a little quicker, than she could still be alive! I could have saved her, but I was too late!"

"Hey! Shh!" he held her tight again, trying to calm her down. " Shh!" he cooed. " It was just bad luck" he whispered into her hair. "It's not your fault!" he assured her. "There was nothing you could have done."

He would never admit it, but he loved the feeling of her using him for comfort. She's never admit it, but she felt secure in his embrace. They sat like that, her sobbing in his arms, for another thirty minutes before she pulled herself together. Liam suggested it would be best if went to get herself cleaned up before she returned back to the kids. Unlike the other times she had cried in front of someone over her sister, Paris actually felt better after talking with him that day.

And as her father observed her throughout the summer, he was proud that she was becoming her happier self again. Mr. Kennedy never disclosed it to anyone, but he felt as if having the band One Direction there that summer, even if it was by chance, was the absolute best thing for his grieving daughter.

Author's note: I feel kind of bad ending it on a depressing note right now, but I feel it's necessary. I promise the next chapter is much happier, but I feel like this chapter is sweet and shows a little more depth to the characters, especially Liam and Paris.

BTW @VannaNoel17, this chapter is dedicated to you because you begged me for a long chapter. Don't say I didn't warn you when I said it would be sad!!! haha