Captive Heart

Aurora was dropped off at the camp she had gone to for the past two years. She loved this camp. An entire week away from "adults". An entire week to herself, free from stress, free from expectations, just plain free. She wanted to scream her happiness. Instead she took a deep breath and walked happily into her cabin to begin unpacking her things.
Before long her entire cabin had shown up and was unpacked. The girls all seemed to get along, which was a good thing; however, some were more quiet than others. One girl in particular was more quiet than most. Aurora decided that this was the girl she wanted to befriend more than anyone. She would have this girl out of her shell by the end of the week, she swore it.
On Wednesday night, she got her wish.
"Do you guys know Sean?"
The other seven heads in the room shot up at the sound of her voice. Aurora spoke first. "Sean who?"
"Sean Ryder," she replied.
"I've heard the name, but that's it. I don't know who he is or anything." After a moment or two of contemplation she added. "Why do you ask?"
"He asked me out." The girl, Angelique, replied.
"What?" Aurora all but screamed the question. "How long have you known him?"
The girl shrugged. "Since Monday. I don't even know him, we met two days ago, and he asks me out."
"The bounder!" Aurora jokingly chastised the boy. "You have to show him to me at breakfast tomorrow. I can't wait to see this boy." The subject of Sean was then dropped for the night as the girls told stories of love-gone-wrong to see just who did have the worst story. Aurora ended up winning some Pringles, Circus Peanuts, and Starburst. The girl's finally went to sleep around 2 AM, as far as they could tell.
The next day at breakfast, Angel, as she was now called, brought Aurora over to Sean to introduce her. After the introductions Aurora went back to her table to sit with her usual group of friends. She had a stricken look on her face, and when asked what was wrong, she looked at them all and replied:
"I'm going to marry that boy."

Sean was obviously infatuated with Angel, but that didn't deter Aurora. She could feel in her heart that this boy was special. She had never been wrong with a gut feeling, and she didn't believe she was now. She constantly made herself to be in his company. She tried to be subtle about it, but with a 15-year-old girl in love there is no such thing. Each day at camp her feelings grew stronger for him.
Then Friday came. It was time to go home. Phone numbers had been exchanged, along with addresses and many promises that wouldn't be kept. Aurora said a quick good-bye to Angel and Sean before getting into the car and leaving herself.
The entire ride home she could think of little else but Sean. Would he actually call her like he had promised? She liked to believe he would, but with her luck she would never see him again until camp the next year. She didn't let the thoughts trouble her. She had had a wonderful week, and she wouldn't let anything ruin that. She and Angel had become good friends and promised to write and call each other, that was a promise that would be kept.
When Aurora got home she dropped her many bags and went straight for the shower, as did many other campers. With over 100 people and only 4 showers (two per gender) you didn't get to stay very clean. Most of the girls had resorted the washing their hair everyday with the hoses outside of every cabin. It was cold, but at least their hair was clean.
Aurora stepped out of the shower, feeling clean for the first time that week, and hurriedly got dressed. It had never felt so good to be clean. People take showers for granted, she told herself as she began doing the laundry that would keep her busy for hours.
The phone rang. It was about 9:30 at night and Sean was the farthest thing from her mind. She was reading one of her new novels that she had meant to bring to camp, but forgot at home.
"Hello?"
"Is Aurora there?"
"This is she, may I ask who's calling?"
"It's me Aurora." He mistook her stunned silence for a silence that meant she didn't remember him. "I feel loved. It's Sean," he continued.
"Yeah," she said after a moment, as she put her book down. "I know." Aurora shook herself out of her shocked state and proceeded to have a somewhat normal conversation. They talked about school, which would soon be starting; sports, Sean mostly talked about sports; and movies. At the end of the conversation Aurora cradled the phone and stared at nothing in particular.
He had actually called her. Sean Ryder had called her. She was still disbelieving when she went to bed that night. Maybe I was right, she contemplated before drifting off to sleep.
Sean didn't contact Aurora any more that week, and Aurora made no attempts to contact him. The next weekend, Aurora was at her aunt's house, where she spend most of her time, and she and her cousin were talking online to many of her friends. Then Sean came on. Sean and Aurora talked for a while, flirting shamelessly with each other, all in good fun.
Aurora had to go upstairs for a few minutes to help serve the food to everyone who had shown up (many people came over on Saturday nights). When she came back downstairs her cousin had a huge grin on her face.
Aurora smiled, "What is it that you find so amusing?"
"Well," her cousin started. "I could find it amusing that the Red Sox lost another game."
"I hate baseball," Aurora answered back.
"Then again, I could find it funny that you are now dating Sean."
Aurora looked at her cousin. "That isn't funny."
"I'm not trying to be." She protested. "Look for yourself."
Aurora looked over the conversation they had been having, and came to a shocking realization. Her cousin had been talking to him when she went upstairs. She had accepted when he asked her to be his girlfriend, officially. The moment she had been waiting for had been taken from her by her cousin. She didn't know whether to laugh, or cry, or both.
She decided to laugh. For a full ten minutes. Her cousin looked at her indignantly.
"You can thank me any time ya know."
"Thank you for pretending to be me and answering a question like that without even asking me? Never!"
The two girls continued to argue until Aurora noticed that they had both completely forgotten about Sean, who was growing more aggravated by the minute because he was being ignored by his girlfriend of ten minutes.
Aurora went back to the computer, and the two made plans to meet at the beach Aurora was going to with a friend the next weekend. After they both got offline Aurora sat back with a self satisfied grin. She had gotten what she knew she wanted, now, to keep it.

Finally, the day had come when she was to meet him at the beach. She was so excited. This was the first time she had seen him since camp. They had been dating for almost a week now. Aurora was surer than ever that this was the guy for her. Sean, on the other hand, seemed to be distant. Aurora knew she wouldn't hold him for long at this rate. She had to do something, but what? She decided she would worry about that later. Sean was coming tonight; she was going to see him tonight. Nothing else mattered. She hummed the song "Tonight" from West Side Story, and continued her shopping. When they were leaving the store she saw a familiar face. She couldn't quite place it, but when she saw the shirt the girl was wearing she knew.
Aurora walked up to the girl and said, "Hi, I'm from camp too. How are you?"
The girl smiled broadly and embraced Aurora, everyone at camp was close like that; they were more like a family than anything. "I'm great, how about you? What have you been up to in the last few weeks?"
"I'm dating Sean." Aurora beamed.
A look of foreboding crossed the other girl's features. "Sean who?"
Aurora was too happy to notice. "Sean Ryder! He's coming out here to see me tonight, and he's bringing Paul Hunter too. You have to come."
The girl, Nickki, agreed to come, although she was hesitant to say the least. They agreed on a time and place to meet before parting ways. Aurora and the friend she was with, June, finished up their shopping and returned to the hotel. It was only a few hours before they were to meet the boys and Nickki.
After what seemed like years to Aurora, it was time to leave. They were to meet him outside of the travel offices. It had started to rain so Aurora and June went inside the travel place to keep dry as long as possible.
June was looking at brochures and talking to Aurora when she noticed that Aurora wasn't there anymore. She looked up and realized that Aurora was now in the arms of a very shocked looking guy. She rolled her eyes and went outside to join them.
Aurora was so happy that it didn't even occur to her to apologize for leaving her friend, to run into the arms of her boyfriend, without letting her know she was leaving. The four made their way to a game stand that was located inside a building so that they could keep dry.
Aurora had completely forgotten about Nickki until she came into the same game building looking for them. Aurora saw her and at once ran up and apologized. Nickki laughed and told her it was no big deal.
The group had a lot of fun in the game building; so much fun, in fact, that they got themselves kicked out for being too loud. That didn’t faze them at all. They simply went somewhere else and had just as much fun.
Eventually Nickki had to leave, and it was back down to the original four. They decided to go play miniature golf, since there was nothing better to do. It wasn’t a serious game; everyone was cheating for everyone else. By the end of the game, no one was really sure who had won. The guys claimed the two girls had cheated, and the girls claimed the two guys had cheated. That was a dispute that would never really be settled.
After miniature golf, the group went to the beach. The four laughed and joked about different things together, the most notable was when Sean informed the girls that men had a sacred trust between them. They would never kick, hit, or knee each other “where it counts”. They understood how much it hurt and decided that nothing was worthy of that much pain.
Later, Aurora and Sean went one way and June and Paul went another. Aurora’s stomach was turning somersaults. She knew that this was going to be when she kissed Sean for the first time. When it came she was shocked at first, it had been so sudden, but she eased into it. Then, as abruptly as it had begun, it ended. She was disappointed to say the least, and she gave him a questioning look. He motioned for her to wait a minute and walked over to Paul. Before she could realize what was going to happen, she say Sean bring his knee up to Paul’s groin, and saw Paul hit the ground.
Aurora’s jaw hit the sand and she ran over to Paul. “Sean! How could you? Paul, are you OK?” After the two girls fawned over Paul enough to realize he was OK, Aurora turned to Sean. “Sacred trust, eh?”
He smiled, shrugged, and pulled her away so they could be alone again.
Later that night, after Sean and Paul had left and the two girls were in their hotel room, June asked, “So, is he a good kisser?”
Aurora smiled. “I never kiss and tell.” After a moment of silence she added, “But he does have very fresh breath.”

Aurora sat in her room staring at her pictures from camp. Sean’s in particular. She had to smile every time she saw it. He wasn’t drop dead gorgeous by the “in” standards of today, but he was absolutely perfect for her. He had the sort of cheeks you wanted to pinch very badly, but God alone could save you if you did. His hair, which she swears is black, was perfect for running your fingers through. She wanted to do that very badly right now. She sighed and put the picture away before laying on her back to think about her mock-relationship.
She knew that he didn’t like her in that way, but it didn’t seem to matter to her. She told herself that he would realize soon enough that he liked her, loved her even. She felt so strongly for him, it couldn’t be one-sided, it just couldn’t. However, the events that took place the next weekend were far from shocking.
Aurora and Sean were talking online, as they did so often, but he seemed like something was troubling him. Aurora tried her best to find out what it was, in the back of her mind knowing exactly what it was. She ended up calling him and the fateful conversation took place.
“Sean, what’s wrong?” She wanted to drag this out as long as she could, try to change his mind.
“Well, it’s, uh…” a moment of silence made them both uncomfortable. Aurora decided now that she just wanted it over and done with.
“Sean, just tell me.”
“Well, you see, it’s…My sister!”
Aurora looked very puzzled. “You’re sister?”
“Yeah, she’s having problems with my mother and stuff, and it’s really worrying me.” He was silent again.
“You’re sister isn’t what’s bothering you, Sean, tell me what is.”
“Ok, I’m just going to get this out. This is very hard, but, um, I think I just want to be friends.”
Aurora was filled with relief mingled with sorrow. “I can do that.” She laughed.
He was very relieved and they had a normal conversation for another twenty-or-so minutes.
When he said good-bye and they hung-up, despair hit Aurora. She felt she had lost her first and only chance with him. What was she to do now?
She pulled out her Trisha Yearwood CD and played “How Do I Live?” over and over and over again.
School started a week later, and Aurora was glad to have something to take her mind off of Sean. She walked mindlessly to all of her classes, saying “Hello” to the friends she hadn’t seen all summer, and gossiping with long-time friends in the halls.
Then sixth period came.
She sat down in her seat and waited to see who else would be in that class. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw him. It was Morgan Blythe. She hadn’t talked to him in years. They had been best friends in grammar school, they had even “dated” for four years straight. Then, inexplicably, he stopped talking to her. That had been six years ago. They had never before been in a class together, and Aurora wasn’t sure how to act. She decided to be herself.
“Hey, Morgan.” Morgan turned around in his seat, a shocked expression on his face and for good a good reason. “That shirt is very tacky.” Aurora gave him a dazzling smile and faced forward in her seat, leaving him to wonder at her.
For the next few months their friendship blossomed once again. They acted more like brother and sister than anything; constantly fighting with both fists and words. Aurora won the verbal battles, she was considered a wit in her school, and Morgan won the physical battles, he was nearly twice her size.
They were soon inseparable and it came as no surprise when he asked her to be his girlfriend one-day at lunch.
Nickki, who had become one of Aurora’s closer friends, advised her to say yes. Aurora, who could never be too serious about anything answered with, “I suppose.” And a hearty laugh. Morgan smiled and told her that he’d see her in Math.
After school Aurora got a phone call from Morgan. He asked if he could come over, Aurora had to agree. She had been thinking about him ever since she had gotten home. She didn’t like him in that way, not in the least. He was like a brother to her; it seemed almost twisted that they were dating. She didn’t want to be with him like that, but it was too late for that now. He was coming over; she had to pretend for at least this one day. When her sister arrived home from school, Aurora made her promise to never leave her and Morgan alone. She didn’t want to have to actually do anything with him. She hated this charade, but she wasn’t quite sure how to end it. Then, Morgan arrived.
Aurora tried her best to stay away from him. It wasn’t entirely easy. He kept trying to maneuver her into being alone somewhere. She kept dodging his attacks. After what seemed like an eternity to Aurora it was time for him to leave. He made his one last attempt and caught her off guard. She was repulsed by his kiss. Not through any fault of his; he just wasn’t Sean.
The following day Aurora went up to Morgan at lunch, with Nickki close behind. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him out of his seat. “We need to talk.” After she dragged him completely out of the cafeteria, she spun him around and said in one long breath:
“Look, this isn’t working out, you know I love Sean, you aren’t Sean, this isn’t fair to you or to me, and I really think we should just break it off right now before it gets even more complicated and we can’t ever be friends again because I don’t want that, I’d like to be friends with you, people like you are one in a million and I don’t want to lose that, ok?”
Aurora could tell that his head was definitely reeling, he was trying to make sense of what she had just said, and it really made little to no sense in the way she said it. However, after a few moments he nodded mutely and they walked back into the cafeteria. Morgan went to his table, and Aurora and Nickki went back to theirs.

A few weeks later Aurora began re-planning her sixteenth birthday party. Her original plans had been cancelled when her grandfather died. Life had stopped for her when that happened. She didn’t want to have a party at all, and part of her still didn’t, but she wanted to see Sean, and this seemed like the only way to get him to come and see her.
She planned the entire thing around him. She asked him which weekend was better for him. She asked him everything she could think of how to make the whole thing easier for him. She had even arranged to have a friend of his come, because he had wanted it that way.
Finally, it was the night before the party. Aurora called Sean to talk before she and her friends went to sleep. It was during that conversation that Sean mentioned that, “By the way, I won’t be able to go tomorrow. I don’t have a ride out there.”
Aurora racked her brain for a solution to this problem. She ran up the stairs and for twenty minutes begged her father to pick up Sean the next morning, finally her father agreed, only because he knew how his daughter felt about him. She called Sean back and he told his father, only to come back with a new problem. Now he didn’t have a ride home. Aurora ran back up the stairs and begged her father for this. He hadn’t been getting much sleep so he told her that either he would pick him up or drop him off, he couldn’t do both. Defeated, Aurora accepted that the party she had planned entirely around Sean, was going to be lacking something big, namely, Sean.
Aurora called him back and told him what her father had said. He apologized for not being able to go, and told her that if she gave him the number to the restaurant, he would call her there while the party was going on. Aurora, who was now happy once again, ran to get the number for him.
After she got of the phone with him, her parents sat her down.
“Aurora,” her mother began, “Look, I don’t want you to get your hopes too high. He’s probably not going to call you. Your father and I never expected him to go to this party, and we hated to see you get so excited. I don’t like this boy, and I can’t tell you why, but I don’t trust him.”
Aurora jumped to Sean’s defense. “It wasn’t his fault he couldn’t go. It was his father, he refused to bring him out here or back after he promised he would. He’s going to call me at the restaurant, just you wait. You’ll see.” And with that, Aurora stormed out of the room.
Her parents exchanged knowing looks and decided not to ever bring up the subject of “Sean” with her again.
At the restaurant, the next night, Aurora waited impatiently for his call. Morgan and a few other friends did their best to take her mind off of the phone call, but it just wasn’t working. And her mind never left that call, not even when they were all leaving. The call never came.
Aurora talked to Sean less and less. They now only talked about once or twice a week. But it was Angel whom she was talking to when she got the shock of her life.
“He asked me out, Aurora.” This wasn’t what had shocked her. She knew that he still liked Angel, had never stopped. “But I can’t go out with him because I know you still like him, a lot, and I could never do that to you.”
Now Aurora was shocked. “You want to go out with him?”
“I don’t know. I’d never ever risk ruining a friendship over a guy. I’m not going to do that to you, I never would. Forget I even mentioned it.” Angel proceeded to try to change the subject.
“Angel, if you want to go out with him, I’m not about to stop you. He doesn’t like me; he never has and probably never will. Other people are going to date him if you don’t. Believe me, I won’t care.” Ok, so she was lying. She would care. But she wasn’t about to let foolhardy feelings get in the way of what her friend wanted. She knew that Sean would never feel for her the way she felt about him. If Angel wanted to date him, who was she to stand in their way?
“Aurora, I know you. It’s going to kill you if I go out with him. I won’t do it no matter how vehemently you protest.”
The subject was then dropped, for the duration of that conversation anyway. For the next month Aurora tried to talk Angel into dating Sean.
Finally, she succeeded.

Nothing much changed in the next four months. Angel and Sean seemed ‘in love’ and Aurora dealt with it. It didn’t bother her as much as she believed it would. Yes, it hurt to hear Sean talking about the things they did together (Angel never spoke of Sean to Aurora unless she was directly asked), but it was getting easier with time.
Every day during fourth period in school, Morgan, Aurora and Nickki were in the same Study. Nickki and Morgan would constantly tell Aurora how terrible Sean was. Nickki didn’t like him for obvious reasons, but Morgan just didn’t like him. Still, Aurora would defend him every day.
No matter what they had to say, she had something to say back. She couldn’t deny that what he had done to Nickki was terrible, but she also believed that he had been naïve about it and was much more ‘mature’ now.
Morgan was now dating a girl he loved very much, and she loved him too. At one point they had vicious rumors circulating about them, but what’s High School without rumors? The pair seemed to be a match made in heaven, and Aurora was envious of every last ounce of it.
She made up for it by ganging up against Morgan with Nickki. The two of them always bested him in a match of wits, although either of them could do it single-handedly. The three of them remained good friends through it all.
At this point Aurora had completely lost touch with Sean, although, she still talked to Angel occasionally. Aurora’s life had just fallen into a peaceful lull when she got another shocking phone call from Angel.
“We broke up.”
“What?” Aurora almost screamed.
“Yeah, it just wasn’t working. I mean, we never ever talked, and we hardly ever got to see each other. I just didn’t want that."
It was that night, laying in bed awake, that Aurora realized that none of her feelings for Sean had diminished, as she had believed. She still loved him, with every fiber of her being she loved him. Yet, she also realized that nothing would come of this. It was one-sided, and the only thing harder than dealing with unreturned sentiments, was dealing with the break-up that came after you convinced yourself that these same sentiments were really returned.
She picked up her photo album and flipped through the pictures until she found the one she was looking for. She slipped it carefully out of its clear plastic protective case and snapped the light over her head on so that she could see better. She stared at his picture like that until she finally drifted off to sleep.

Finally, school was out for the summer. Everything had drifted back to normal. Angel was back to her old self, Nickki never stopped listing Sean’s vices at the least provocation, and Aurora still defended him with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Morgan was still with his girlfriend and rarely had time for anyone else. Nickki and Aurora constantly teased him about this, but they also made it quite clear that they were happy for him.
It was at this point that Aurora’s entire future would begin to change. The next few incidents would lead to a roller coaster that would leave her feeling forever changed once she got off the ride. If only she could have seen six months into the future.
It was June 25. School had been out for a few weeks and Sean was the farthest thing from her mind, romantically. She went online, as she often did, and saw that he was on. She figured she had nothing better to do, so why not see what he was up to?
Their conversation lasted the entire day. They talked, flirted, and just plain had fun again. Aurora couldn’t remember the last time she had had so much fun talking to someone online. Unfortunately, after hours of talking, Aurora had to leave. She promised him she’d be online later that night, and he agreed to meet her there.
For the remaining hours of the day Aurora had butterflies in her stomach. Maybe he does like me after all, she mused to herself. She sincerely hoped that he did. Only time would tell, however, so she tried her best to occupy her mind with other things, to little avail.
Easing herself into the computer chair Aurora’s stomach was turning somersaults once again. It amazed her that after nearly a year, he still had this effect on her. She still loved him. It hit her hard, and more forcefully than ever before. The voice in her head seemed to be screaming, “You love him, you fool”.
She tried to drown these voices out as she signed online to see if he was there.
The computer was taking forever. She hated how long it took to sign on. Modern conveniences? Ha! She drummed her fingers nervously as first one screen came up, then another and another…Finally! Her “Buddy Box” screen came up. He was on! Before she could get a chance, he had IMed her. She sighed her relief and began talking to him in a very relaxed manner.
After about an hour, the chain reaction began. “I think I’m falling in love again.”
Who could he possibly mean? You, obviously. Her mind raced. Dare she believe it? She decided to make herself more sure. “Oh really?”
“Yeah. But I’m not sure she likes me.”
“Who couldn’t like you? You’re wonderful.”
She nervously awaited his reaction to this statement.
“Well, I know she likes me, but I’m not sure she LIKES me.”
Aurora was sure now. She couldn’t say why, but she was sure. For the next two hours she tried her best to get him to ask her. It wasn’t working. She then noticed that Angel had signed online. She told Angel what was happening and asked her permission, making it more than clear that a “no” from her wouldn’t upset her at all. Angel swore that she wouldn’t mind in the least.
“Do you want me to be angry about this?” Angel had asked.
“No.” Aurora had replied.
“THEN STOP ASKING!” The two girls broke into fits of laughter. Now, to convince Sean.
It took another twenty minutes or so, but he finally came around. “Will you go out with me?”
Aurora contemplated making him sweat it out, but decided that that would just be cruel and unusual considering how nervous he already was. “Of course I will.” She replied.
And so, another chapter in her life began.
Aurora was walking on Cloud 9. She couldn’t have possibly been any happier. Sean was hers. He was really and truly hers. She had an idiot grin on her face from dawn to dusk, and even sometimes in her sleep. She couldn’t express her happiness in words, but those who saw her, knew right away exactly what had happened.
“Good for you,” Morgan had said.
“Watch it, don’t you get yourself hurt,” Nickki had warned.
“I still don’t trust him,” her parents had agreed.
Aurora couldn’t have cared less what any of them thought. She knew that he was the one for her, and this was just further proof.
They didn’t get to see each other much. He lived over an hour’s drive from her house, but they didn’t let that faze them. They were determined to make this work.
Aurora was sure of her feelings for Sean, and she knew Sean loved her. But she couldn’t help but wonder if he loved her like he had loved Angel. That love had completely disappeared in only a few months. She was keeping her guard up until he effectively brought it down one night.
For some unknown reason Aurora was being plagued with insomnia. She could never fall asleep until 3 or 4 in the morning and she always woke up early the next morning. Sean could never sleep those nights either, and he swore it was her lack of ability to fall asleep that kept him from falling sleep too. It was on one of these sleepless nights that they were talking at two in the morning.
It started as a joke. They were going to get married and move in together and have four kids. They had jokingly begun to look for houses that were for sale online. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t a joke.
“Well, you want to go to a college out in Boston, and I want one in Fitchburg. The town closest to the middle would be Cambridge. It would only me a 20-mile commute for us. What do you think?” Aurora had asked.
“Whatever you want, Hun,” he had replied.
“Look at this page,” she sent him the URL for a site with houses for sale in Cambridge. “Which one do you like best?”
They discussed the pros and cons of each house brought up by either of them. Would it be OK for kids? Was the heating system good? How old was it? Where was it located in town? Did it have a backyard?
“Sean?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think we’re doing this because it’s two AM?”
“No,” he replied. “I don’t.”

It was the day before camp. Aurora was happy she was going to be seeing Sean, but she also realized that three days after they got back home he would be leaving for Rome for an entire week. She also knew that the five days and four nights they had together would fly by very quickly and she had to make every moment count.
As always, Aurora was the first to arrive.
“First one here again?” The camp coordinator asked.
“As always.” Aurora replied, beaming. She got her papers and left to find her cabin. After setting up her bed and shoving her things underneath she went to see who else had shown up. Within a half-hour her entire cabin had shown up. The main people she was bunking with were Angel and Nickki. There were other girls, some Angel’s friends, and some Nickki and Aurora’s. There were eight of them all together, and they all got along perfectly.
“Is Sean here?” Aurora asked no one in particular.
“Yeah,” Nickki answered. “He’s playing baseball with the other guys out there.”
Aurora had to laugh at this. She knew that it was meant as a direct attack to her. A year ago she couldn’t stand baseball, hated to even hear the word. Then Sean had taken a hold of her. She now was the biggest Red Sox fan on this earth. Especially when it came to their star shortstop: Nomar Garciaparra. She decided that she wasn’t going to interrupt his game. She had waited two months to see him, she could certainly wait another two hours.
Finally, everyone had arrived and it was time to go into the main building to go through the Rules Through Charades, and the Introduction to camp. Aurora sat down with her friends and searched for Sean. While still looking, she felt someone put their arms around her waist. She jumped and turned to greet Sean’s smiling face.
“Hello there.”
“Hi!”
They sat together, holding hands. Aurora couldn’t have been more content.
The rest of camp progressed much the same way. They would sit together, hold hands, and playfully fight each other. Aurora even really hit him a few times, purely by accident. One of the times she was standing underneath his chin and jumped up, connecting with his jaw. She felt bad and he couldn’t talk for a while. She also kept turning around a elbowing him either in the chest, the shoulder, or, in one case, his nose. She felt so terribly about it all, but she also couldn’t help but laugh. He had laughed a few times himself.
The day they would have to separate was fast approaching and Aurora was growing more and more weary about it. She knew that when the separated the wouldn’t see each other for a long while, they tried not to think about that last day, but before they knew it, it had arrived. As always, they had mass before they were to leave. At the closing everyone sang “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Aurora rested her head against his heart and just listened to his voise resonate in his chest. His voice would forever echo in her mind.
“You’re going.” Aurora ordered over the phone.
“But I don’t want to leave you for that long.” He whined.
“Sean, I will be perfectly all right. You are going to Rome, and I don’t want to hear another word about it. Call me if it’s going to be so hard on you, geez.”
Sean gave in (like he wasn’t going to go to Rome, c’mon) and dropped that topic. They talked about different things, and made tentative plans for him to come and see her when he got back. They both knew that this was going to be the longest time they went without communication and neither was prepared for it.
After he had left, Aurora sent him at least two e-mails every day, some days she sent as many as six or seven. She missed him terribly. He called her about five times, but every time she wasn’t at home. One of those calls was especially aggravating. Aurora walked in the house just as her sister was cradling the phone again.
After that phone call she wrote him this e-mail:
“I think i'm ok now. what i really think it was, was a gradual building until yesterday when i thought i would kill someone if i couldnt talk to you (and to top it off i missed your call) and now i'm gradually comming down from that and i'm at the point where i just miss you very much bad and plan on shackling myself to you the minute i see you and throw the key into some deep dark place where no one will find it. :) i'm better! lol. maybe tomorrow i'll settle for handcuffs......no comments please. ok, ok, i want to hear you comment again, you'd probly say something like "growl". lol, i'm that bad, having imaginary conversations with you. this is very sad, it really is. remind me to never let you go this far away for this long, and without communication, without me ever again, ok? thanks. ok, the men in white coats are here so i'll let you go, they want me to look at some more pictures of you ( they call them inkblots, but they look exactly like you, plain as day) o God, i'm gonna stop before this gets anymore like I'm trying to stalk you, i'm really not, just because the weather has been in the mid to upper 80's all week, with partly cloudy skies, adn a slight wind comming in from the west that usually stays between 8 and 15 mph............. I love you? (that was actaully me putting a funny twist to his e-mail, i looked up the weather for no other purpose but to freak you out, lol. it worked wonderfully with Paul. he's like "you're insane, you remind me of someone" I almost killed him, i really did. i am NOTHING like her, most of this is just because i'm bored out of my mind and no one is online. yes, i do love you. ok, i'm seriously gonna stop now. I love you Aurora”
This e-mail was much like her others, but it truly showed the extent of how much she missed him.
Finally, Sean was home. He called her the minute he walked in the door, and they were finally able to talk. Aurora was so happy that she was grinning like an idiot, again, for the rest of the day. They made plans to meet the next Wednesday.

The following Wednesday Sean came out to see Aurora. She waited for him at the window, watching for his car rather impatiently. She gave up the wait and decided to keep herself occupied by going online.
The computer was in her mother’s room, so she went in there, turned it on, and started chatting with her mother, who was doing to laundry.
“He’s not coming, you know.” Her mother laughed.
“Don’t start with me, mom.” Aurora gave her mother a warning look and turned back to her computer.
“He’s here!” her mother shouted.
Aurora jumped out of her chair, and ran to the window. When her mother started laughing, she sat back down and growled a curse.
They went on in silence for the next few minutes.
“Hi,” her mother said.
Turning to her mother, Aurora yelled, “If you think that-“ she stopped dead. He was standing in the doorway…of her mother’s room. Aurora jumped out of her chair and ran into his arms. “I’ve missed you,” she said against his shoulder.
“I missed you too,” he breathed into her hair.
They stood like that for a few moments, until her mother shoed them out of the room. They were driven to the mall later, and caught a movie. Aurora still had that flu and wasn't feeling very well, but she had a great time anyway. Sean was with her, nothing could have gone wrong.
When they were sitting together on the bench, Aurora resting her head on his shoulder, him playing with her hair, she asked him,
“Sean, how did you get into the house this morning?”
He laughed, and she smiled at the rumble deep in his chest. “Well, I knocked and no one answered, so I just went in and walked to where the voices were coming from.”
Aurora thought about this for a few moments. “But what if it had been the wrong house?”
He laughed again and answered, “Then I would have apologized and moved on to the next one.”
They both laughed at this, and realized that it was time to leave. They got up and walked to where they were supposed to meet Aurora’s mother. They were driven home, and Sean had to leave soon after. He gave her one last kiss good-bye, got in his car, and drove away.
Aurora felt despair steal over her once again.
Who knew when she would see him again?
It was the Wednesday before school was going to start again. Sean was coming to visit. Aurora couldn’t have been happier. She had Sean had been getting more and more serious over the months. They now had solid plans to move in together after high school, and Sean had sworn he wanted to marry her. Their future seemed to be set in stone.
Jennifer was still wary of Sean, but decided that he was being sincere with Aurora. She truly believed he had changed. She thought that maybe Aurora was what he needed in his life to make him realize that love wasn’t something you played around with. Love wasn’t a feeling to be toyed with.
This time Aurora was waiting by the window when he pulled up. She ran out of the house, out to his car, flung open his car door, and kissed him. He looked very shocked, but not altogether unpleased with the greeting. “I love you,” she whispered to him.
“I love you too,” he answered.
They went inside and Aurora told him that she had made the arrangements that she told him she would. She had told him that she would rent a hotel room, and she didn’t think he believed her. So, to prove that she would do it, it’s exactly what she did. They were also to meet Morgan and his girlfriend and see a movie first. They were driven to the mall once again.
While waiting for Morgan, Aurora and Sean were walking around outside of the mall, laughing and joking with each other. After they had calmed down, Sean pulled out a necklace of some sort. At Aurora’s questioning look he began his story.
“My grandmother gave me this before she died,” he said. “I was going to give it to the woman I planned on marrying.” He didn’t go any farther than this, at this point. He just put the necklace away and they went back to their joking.
After Morgan arrived with his girlfriend they all drove to the hotel. Aurora had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she could tell that Sean wasn’t feeling to well either. After the two of them talked it out, they decided that this was stupid. They weren’t ready for this. They left the hotel and went back to the mall to catch the movie they had previously planned. It was there that the necklace came back out.
The previews were rolling and Sean and Aurora, and Morgan and his girlfriend were the only ones in the entire theatre. Sean took out the necklace once again. “You know, I wanted to give this to Angel when we were dating. But every time I was able to get out there, something came up and I had to put off giving this to her for another week or two. Then, I decided I wanted to give it to you, and miraculously, something opens up and I’m able to come and see you. I don’t think that was a coincidence. I love you Aurora.” He paused dramatically, “And I want you to have this.” He put the necklace in her hand and she sat there, stunned for a few moments. She leaned over and kissed him.
They both completely lost all thought at that moment. They went from kissing, to much more intimate things. Before they knew what they were doing, Aurora asked, “Are we really going to do this?”
After a moment of contemplation Sean looked her straight in the eyes and said, “Yes.”
Aurora couldn’t believe what he was doing to her. He made her feel like her head was spinning, like she couldn’t think straight at all, like she never wanted him to stop. Then logic overtook Aurora for a few moments. “What if I get pregnant?” her mind asked her. “Sean?” Was that her voice?
“What?” He once again was looking her straight in the eyes. She could drown in those eyes.
“We really are going to get married, right?”
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation, “I promise.”
Suddenly, the movie ended. Aurora and Sean looked at each other. What had they almost done? Aurora couldn’t believe her body had betrayed her mind like that. Where had her rational side gone? She was shocked at what she had done; but, as she realized upon reflection, she wasn’t ashamed or sorry for it.

Aurora and Sean had many discussions about what had happened between them in the theatre. They acknowledged that desire had been a part of it, but for the most part, it was love that had driven them to what they did. Both thought that something like that was a sacred thing meant for two people who would be together forever. It was not something to be taken lightly.
Sean also talked to his mother about this. He had a very open relationship with his mother, whereas Aurora couldn’t hold a civil conversation about things like this with hers. It was this that was the true beginning of their problems.
“Are you still coming out on Saturday?” Aurora asked hopefully.
“Nothing could keep me away.” Sean answered her. “I’m having some trouble with my mother about it, but everything should be fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll be there.”
Aurora thought nothing more of it. Until that Friday night, at eleven o’clock.
“Aurora, we’ve got a problem.”
“What?”
“Well,” he stammered, “you, see…uh…”
“Just get it out,” she laughed, “It can’t be all that bad.”
“It is. Aurora, my mother won’t let me go out there until she talks to your mother about what happened.”
Aurora’s stomach dropped and she paled to a very unhealthy shade of white. “But, Sean, my mother doesn’t know what happened.”
“I know,” he apologized.
Aurora felt rage boil inside of her all at once. “It’s none of your mother’s concern what we do. This relationship is between you and me. Not between you and me and her. Sean, she can’t do this, it’s not fair.”
“I know it’s not fair, but it’s her car and I can’t use it until she talks to your mother. So we won’t be seeing each other for a while.”
They talked about it for about another half an hour before Aurora decided to take the biggest chance with her mother that she ever took. She was shaking, and she felt like she was going to be violently ill. “The things I do for him,” she thought to herself.
“Mom? I need to talk to you.”
Aurora’s mother looked up and became alarmed at the sight of her daughter in that state. “What’s wrong? Did he do something to you? So help me, God, if he did something—“
“Mom,” Aurora interrupted, “he didn’t do anything.”
“Then what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”
Aurora took a deep breath and fought back the tears that were threatening to spill over. “I need to talk to you about Sean. Please don’t interrupt, I need to just get it out. Before I tell you, I’d just like you to know that we realize what a stupid mistake it would have been and we were adult enough to stop.”
“What did you do?”
Aurora gave way to her tears. “We almost slept together. Well, not slept, but—“
“Had sex?”
“No!” Aurora shouted. “Sex makes it sound dirty and vulgar, and that’s not what it was. It wasn’t ‘sex’. I don’t know what it was. I love him, he loves me, we love each other. We’re going to get married, and—“
“And where was this? You two are never left here alone for long enough for anything to happen. The only place you went was—“
“The theatre,” Aurora finished.
“The theatre?”her mother shouted. “You acted like a little slut! I can’t believe a daughter of mine would act like that. What do you think Pepere was thinking?”
The thought of her grandfather made Aurora cry even harder. She loved him so much, and still felt the pain of his death whenever he was mentioned. They were very close and his passing hurt Aurora more than anything ever had. “That’s not fair.” She cried. “We stopped, don’t we get at least a little credit for that?”
“You get absolutely not credit at all, because you let it happen in the first place.” Her mother left Aurora in tears.
“I did it for nothing,” Aurora thought to herself. “All of that for absolutely nothing.”
The next few months went by very slowly. Aurora’s mother refused to talk about the incident. The few times Aurora had brought it up again, her mother either told her not to talk about it, or tried to accuse Sean of “manipulating an innocent girl into doing things she wasn’t ready for”. Aurora gave up trying.
She and Sean talked every night, and they missed each other terribly. It was driving them both insane, but Aurora held on to the fact that for all of the time they were forced to spend apart now, they would be able to make up for in the future.
She carried the necklace with her everywhere. No matter where she was going, or for how long. It was always within a hand’s reach. Aurora’s love for Sean grew stronger every day, along with how much she missed him.
Then Sean’s Disney trip came. His school was going down there for a week to sing for the Christmas show. He wasn’t upset about leaving, like he was when he went to Rome. He was looking forward to it. This got Aurora somewhat worried. They had been fighting a lot more lately, and communication was strained. Aurora prayed every night that things would get better. She loved him with all of her heart and soul and didn’t want to lose him to anything.
That Monday morning, he left for Disney.

Saturday morning Aurora woke up with a childish anticipation to talk to Sean. It was still early so she went online to e-mail him and welcome him home. To her surprise, he was on. They started talking, and right away she noticed he was acting differently. He kept claiming nothing was wrong, but she knew him better than that.
When he got off Aurora decided to check up on her online diary, as well as her friends to see if they had posted any entries about the Disney trip. One of them had, and one entry in particular caught her eye. It was the diary of her friend, and Sean’s “best-friend” who happened to be a girl. The entry said that she had fallen asleep on Sean’s bed one night and was shivering so badly that she woke him up.
Aurora’s mind was racing. She slept in his bed one night? They were close enough for her shivering to wake him up? She didn’t know whether or not to be angry. She knew that he would never ever cheat on her, that wasn’t even a question, she knew him better than that. It was the fact that he slept in a bed with another girl that got her so angry.
She e-mailed him asking him why she was there. Her e-mail was much ruder and blunt than it should have been, considering nothing had happened, but just the same, she wanted answers.
Shortly after e-mailing him, the girl came on. Aurora Imed her and asked what the problem was and why she was there. The two of them discussed what had happened and came to an understanding. The girl was sick, as Aurora already knew, and had crashed on one of the beds in the guys’ room. It happened to be Sean’s bed she fell onto. Sean had really bad knees so he wasn’t able to carry her to her bed, so he just crashed there next to her.
Knowing both of the people well enough, Aurora accepted this and dropped the subject with a “never let it happen again” note. The subject was closed, as far as Aurora was concerned. She had completely forgotten about the e-mail she had sent to Sean.
The next day Aurora found that Sean was none-too-pleased with the e-mail he had received from her. He saw it as her accusing him of infidelities. Aurora tried to explain that this was the farthest thing from her mind, and the only reason it came across that way was because of how angry she was. He knew she had a bad temper, and should have realized this. However, he didn’t. The fight escalated over the next few days. Aurora had an upset stomach for that entire weekend. She knew that something very bad was going to come of this. She prayed it wasn’t what had been nagging at her in the back of her head.
Christmas Day night, and their 6 month anniversary, they were talking online. Aurora could sense that something was still bothering Sean. She tried to joke him out of it, but it wasn’t working. A long conversation ensued where Sean proclaimed, “I can’t handle the stress anymore. I’m growing up way too fast, and I can’t handle it.”
Aurora’s heart stopped. He was breaking up with her. She kept telling him how much she loved him. It wasn’t working. By the end of the conversation Aurora was sobbing uncontrollably and Sean was merely asking, “Are you ok?”
Aurora called up Nickki the next morning in tears. “Aurora, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“He broke up with me,” she wailed into the reciever.
“He what?” Her tone was icy. “I can’t believe him. Ya know, I thought he had changed, apparently not. I can’t believe he did this to you. When did he do it?”
“Last night,” she stammered.
“On Christmas? On your six month anniversary?” She nearly shrieked. “I’m going to kill him. He’s dead, I’m going to kill him.”
“Don’t kill him. I love him,” she pleaded.
Nickki then gave her a lecture on how Sean did this to every girl he had ever gone out with, except for Angel who broke up with him before he got the chance. She comforted Aurora and calmed her down a little, then she got off the phone because she had to go to work.
The next person Aurora talked to was Morgan. He offered to take her out that night to get her mind off of it. They drove for hours that night, just talking about what had happened, and why it happened. Morgan told her that she and Sean were meant for each other, and Sean didn’t know what he was throwing away. “If he’s smart, he’ll realize what he’s done, what a wonderful woman he has right here, and he’ll come back for you.”
“But I don’t know if I could do that again. It hurts so bad.”
He hugged her. “I know it does. And it will for a long time. You just have to be strong and carry on. You’ll be ok. He’ll come around. I’ll see you two married yet.” He smiled at her and got her to smile back.
Over the next week Aurora ate about two meals and lost about 5 lbs. She was in terrible shape and everyone around her noticed it. She had completely shut down. Then, after she started to come back to reality she realized that what she needed to do was force herself to come to terms with what had happened. She sat down at her computer and began to type.
“Aurora was dropped off at the camp she had gone to for the past two years. She loved this camp. An entire week away from "adults". An entire week to herself, free from stress, free from expectations, just plain free. She wanted to scream her happiness. Instead she took a deep breath and walked happily into her cabin to begin unpacking her things.”