Page 77 of When Our Stars Aligned

I proceed to tell Uncle Chris everything, from how I met Aly at the pool, to how we fell in love (I leave certain parts out), to how we were basically living together and how everything ended.

“My God, I can’t believe it.” My uncle’s voice is shaky. “Are you sitting down? I need to tell you everything.”

“Yes, I am,” I respond and listen in awe as my uncle fills in the gaps of Aly’s life story. Aly was always so open about everything, except aspects of her childhood. I never wanted to pry or make her upset. But after listening to my uncle Chris, I get it now. I understand everything.

I end the call with my uncle and take the picture back in my hands. I stare at it for I don’t know how long, then I start to do the math. Mia and Lyndsey are two years younger than Aly and me, which means Aly is sixteen in this picture. This was the year I broke my leg. The year we canceled our trip to visit Uncle Chris and his family.

This was the girl Gram wanted me to meet.

Anger runs through me. If I hadn’t broken my leg, I would have met the girl of my dreams at six-fucking-teen years old. That’s fifteen years of happiness that I missed out on. That we missed out on.

I take my water bottle, which is the closest thing to me, and hurl it against the wall. It’s not enough. I need to expel more energy. I throw on some gym shorts, planning to head down to the gym, so I can punch something there. As I turn to leave, I remember the velvet pouch that accompanied the picture. I go back to the pouch and pull out the familiar silver chain with Gram’s and Pop’s wedding bands still attached.

I’ve got to find Aly now!

43

Aly

Thump. Thump. Thump.The heartbeat of Jess’s baby holds strong on the monitor.

“You two gave us quite the scare,” I say as I hug my best friend. It feels so good to be in her presence again, even though it’s not under the best circumstances. Jess’s husband, Brady, had come home to find her on the floor and unresponsive. In true Jess-like fashion, she was doing too much, and her blood pressure got too high. She passed out and hit her head on the side of the coffee table, leaving her with a mild concussion, some nasty bruising, and a couple of staples in her head.

“The doctor is telling me I have to be on bed rest for the next few weeks. What the hell am I going to do?” Jess whines.

“Catch up on Netflix? You could always do some reading. Maybe read one of those books with Jacob on the cover.” I wink.

“Oh, hell no!” she yells, and I burst into laughter. Jess and I both like to read the occasional romance novel, but we draw the line at reading anything with Jacob on the cover.

“I can’t believe I’ll be spending Christmas in the hospital,” she groans.

“I can’t believe I’ll be spending Christmas with you!” It’s not that I’m not happy about that; it’s just that I never expected to be back on the East Coast this soon.

“You look like hell.”

“Gee, thanks.” I sit down next to her bedside and pull at the waist of my leggings that keep riding down.

“You’ve lost weight,” she states.

“Haven’t had much of an appetite lately.” Truth be told, I haven’t had the energy to do much of anything. If Jacob hadn’t called to tell me about Jess, I would still be in my bed, drowning in my own self-pity.

“The circles around your eyes are so dark. They’re worse than when we used to pull all-nighters during finals.”

I tried my best to cover up the circles under my eyes with makeup, but my eyes have been so swollen from all the tears I have shed.

“I’m fine, Jess,” I say, a little annoyed since I’m supposed to be here for her, yet she’s concerned about me. “I’m just jet-lagged.”

“You know you can’t pull that with me, Aly. It might work with your roommates because they don’t know you as well, but I know you’re beating yourself up inside.”

“I should’ve told him. I was the one woman outside of his family who he trusted and I blew it. I broke him. I broke us.” My eyes burn with fresh tears brewing. Jess and I rehash everything over again, but talking about it doesn’t make me feel any better. I thought the breakup with Trent was bad, but it’s nothing compared to the enormity of losing Jax. I don’t think I can recover from this.

“You really love him, don’t you?” Jess says softly.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” I stare out the window at the gray sky and snow-covered trees. “It’s over.”

“I don’t think it is.”

I snap my head back to look at my best friend. She must’ve bumped her head harder than expected.

---