Young Queen

TWENTY EIGHT

Warning: Mention of a mental breakdown and PTSD flashback. Could be a slight trigger, but also please remember this is a book of fiction. None of these events are real. 

THIRD PERSON POV

Vegas had flown by too quickly for any of the teenager's liking. Saturday night was spent clubbing yet again, and Sunday afternoon they returned back home. The plane ride home was significantly more quiet than the ride there because everyone was paying for the aftermath of the last night in Vegas.

The first day back to school for Aria had been nerve-wracking, to say the least, although the day had flown by smoothly as she had her friends by her side. With her head held high, she made it through her classes that week, the week after, and the week after that. Her routine was pretty much the same as it had been last year: she went to school, came home, did homework, enjoyed dinner with Leo, and then the two went to bed. Although, some mornings and nights involved activities the couple had grown to enjoy since the trip. Otherwise, things seemed back to normal.

At least as normal as they thought normal should be. There were still many aspects of their lives that were far from normal, to say the least, but both were happy they weren't completely normal. Normal is boring.

Aria had also made significant progress with her mental health. Of course, the nightmares still came here and there, but it seemed like she was back to enjoying her life again. That was until an invitation for a Halloween Party the following Saturday arrived at their apartment the night before. Aria was already in bed pretending to be asleep by the time Leo arrived home, so he slipped into the bed and fell asleep without noticing how troubled she truly was.

It was almost instantaneous how quickly the night of her party slipped into her head at the thought of wearing another costume. Last time she had dressed up innocently for a costume party, she ended up killing someone. After Leo left for work that morning, instead of getting up to get ready for school like she usually would, she stayed in bed. It was as if all of the anxiety she had felt before tore into her, and she couldn't find it in herself to forget about it enough to endure school for the day. What did she do to deserve a life where she was traumatized at the aspect of dressing up for a party while in High School?

Maybe it would be better if her life was normal. Maybe then she wouldn't be drowning in the guilt she felt right now while in bed.

While the girls waited for Aria to arrive at school before their first class, she never showed. It was during lunch when Aria had yet to make an appearance that the girls decided to call her. Each of them tried multiple times to reach her, but the phone went straight to voicemail every time. It was then that they started fearing for the worst and decided to call Leo, who was thrown into panic as soon as he heard Aria hadn't shown up to school. Of course, Aria was completely unaware of this happening, as she turned off her phone to have some alone time.

She knew this was one of the episodes she expected to have, she just didn't know how to handle it. All she knew was that every time she drifted off to sleep that morning - due to her anxiety keeping her up the night before - she was plagued with nightmares of her birthday.

She laid under the covers, lost in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the door open downstairs or the footsteps that were running up the stairs and into the bedroom. However, when Leo opened the door and saw her figure under the sheets, he knew she was okay physically.

"Aria? Baby, I was so worried about you," he spoke in a gentle voice, walking closer to her. "Aria, you can talk to me, tell me what's wrong."

She turned over now looking at him, but it was as if the world around her changed the moment he spoke the words, "I love you." She felt herself becoming sick, and her eyesight was blurry. It was like she was slipping from her reality, and into a past one.