Damaged

[Isabella Chaos]

Isabella had heard from her best friend Alyssa that Aiden and Steph were now together. Those words stung her more than she ever thought possible. They were well into November, and Bella was finally coming to accept the fact that she and Aiden were no longer together, and that she'd be going to the ball alone, but hearing about Aiden and Steph was just like pouring salt in a wound that only just started to heal.

Unable to face anyone, she went to the gardens to cry in peace. She hated the whirl of emotions she was going through. She was angry at him for doing this to her, she was angry at herself for saying she loved him when she didn't really know what it meant, she was sad that he had moved on so fast, sad that he didn't seem to care for her as much as she cared for him.

Most of all she was angry that she was letting this affect her so much. She remembered first meeting Aiden and wanting not to seem weak to him. As a Slytherin she was supposed to be void of emotion, not let anything bother her, she was better than that. Ever since she'd been with Aiden, she'd gone extremely soft and emotional. Here she was, proving that she was weak by being deduced to crying in the gardens over someone many deemed not worth her tears.

 

[Aiden Mauven]

Aiden walked down to the garden lazily, he had hoped that Isabella was there, he really wanted to speak to her about all of this. He wanted to ask her to forgive him, he wanted to forget all of this. As he made it down to the gardens he spotted Isabella sitting in the gardens crying, he groaned silently, she was crying still. He didn't think he was worth it but maybe that meant that she still liked him.

He walked over to her sheepishly, when he reached her he looked down at her softly and said, "Hello Bella." He smiled warmly at her, there was a twinkle of affection in his eyes as he looked down at her, even when she was so sad and angry she looked perfect. Aiden sighed inwardly and rubbed his eyes, the contacts he was wearing were beginning to bug him a lot.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Isabella turned around when she heard a very familiar voice call out her name. She saw the smile he gave her but instead returned his greeting with a glare. She quickly stopped crying and wiped her face clear, not looking at him. "What do you want?" she said coldly, her voice showing no signs of emotions.

 

[Nina Patrokov]

As aiden:

Aiden frowned slightly and said honestly, "I'm sorry Bells." He bit his lip nervously and said honestly, "I'm don't love you but I still like you a lot." He sighed gently and looked down and said, "I never should have broken up with you, I was a fool, please Bella." He didn't know what to say to her but he thought that she would understand what he mean.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Isabella's face remained void of emotion but her eyes still revealed how hurt she felt. Luckily for her she wasn't looking at him so he couldn't see. "I don't love you either," was all she managed to say after everything he'd said. The words came out more harshly than she meant them to but she didn't care, she wanted him to feel as hurt as she felt now. She wasn't sure what to say to him except for that. She didn't love Aiden. She regretted saying those words for two reasons; one, she didn't understand the concept of love, and to use a word like that for their young relationship was a lie, and two, it had ruined them, it ruined everything between them and their friends. Half the time she lay in bed wondering whether the letter had any blame for it at all but she still berated herself that it was the "I love you" that caused him to call it off.

Finally she broke free from her thoughts once she repeated his words over in her head. "You expect me to forgive you when you go off dating Steph a week after we broke up?" she said through clenched teeth, finally turning around to look at him. "That doesn't exactly come across as 'I miss you' Aiden."

 

[Aiden Mauven]

Aiden frowned and shook his head and said, "No, I don't expect you to forgive me, but I thought you should know, you're own flesh and blood was the one that wrote that letter, and I broke up with Steph." He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Do as you please with this information, I've had my peace with it." Aiden sighed gently and put his hand on Isabella's cheek for a long second then turned to walk away.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Confusion was written all over Isabella's face. "What do you mean my own flesh and blood?" she repeated, still not used to considering Wendy her 'own flesh and blood.' Before he could answer it clicked and she said, "Wendy?!" in disbelief. "Why would the little brat do that?!" she asked in alarm, as if expecting Aiden to know.

Aiden said what he wanted to say and placed a warm hand on her cheek before he turned to leave. Bella sighed softly, half contentedly and half wistfully. For the moment that his hand was on her cheek, Isabella felt her anger slip away as she closed her eyes, reveling in the moment for as long as she could. Once he let go and turned to walk away she said, "No wait!" The loud protest was meant for both herself and Aiden. She didn't want him to leave because even though she wanted to just yell and unleash all her anger on him, part of her just wanted him to linger around a little longer, just to feel his presence one more, she hadn't even been within a reasonable distance from him for an entire month; and yet the other half yelled 'No wait' at herself, as if telling her to get a grip on herself! She was once again letting her naive emotions get the better of her. Her heart was telling her to hold on to him yet her head was screaming to run in the opposite direction. She sighed as she felt so confused and had nothing to say after she told him to wait. She bit her lip and played with the hem of her purple dress as she tried to think of something to say.

 

[Aiden Mauven]

Aiden saw the confusion on Isabella's face, but he knew that it would click soon enough so he remained silent. When the question of why came up, Aiden flashed her a sad grin that showed that he didn't know either. "Don't know," Aiden added with a shrug.

"No wait!" Aiden heard Bella call out.

Aiden stopped walking, but didn't turn to her. He huffed deeply then turned around towards her, then took a few steps closer to her. He set his bright blue eyes onto Bella's warm brown eyes and frowned, it was obvious that she was having trouble deciding what to say, what to think, what to do next. He was the same way, but he wouldn't admit it, there wasn't much else to admit? He had already told her that he still liked her and she had just gotten mad. I deserve it though don't I? He asked himself then scrunched up his nose at his next thought.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Isabella had stalled long enough without saying anything and figured that now that he was standing before her, she had to make him stay somehow. She sighed and bit her lip unsure of whether she wanted to yell at him or apologize, but for what?

Finally she knew what she had to say. Isabella played with a stray strand of hair, twirling it in her fingers as her brown eyes found their placed locked onto his blue ones. "I'm sorry too. I'm sorry for saying those words when I didn't really understand what they meant. It ruined everything between us even if that letter hadn't and I know I shouldn't be mad at you because it was my fault," she finally confessed. Her mouth had said some of what she was thinking, she said she shouldn't be mad, but she was. She was extremely hurt at how easily he and Steph got together. She had thought that she was the only one he'd leave a friend for.* She was a fool for thinking she was the exception.

[*Meaning, you left Alyssa for Bella. Bella thought you would never leave her for one of her friends. Get it?]

 

[Aiden Mauven]

[Yeah I got that ]

Aiden smiled at Isabella then keeled in front of her and asked cautiously, "So are we alright?" Aiden wasn't sure if she was mad at him for dating Steph, they had only gone out for a week, and they didn't even see each other during that time so she wouldn't be mad at him for that would she? Aiden moved a stray hair out of Isabella's face and put it behind her ear gently then smiled warmly at her.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

[Okay just making sure because I didn't know if it made sense by how I worded it lol]

Isabella kept her face void of emotion as Aiden smiled and knelt in front of her. She hated how good he smelled and how good he looked. Immediately after he asked the question her mind shouted "No!" but she paused for a while before finally answering. "I don't know Aiden I mean, you being with Steph really hurt me," she answered honestly. She forced herself not to smile as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked somewhere, anywhere other than his eyes.

 

[Aiden Mauven]

[I don't know what to do.. should we have them get back together?]

Aiden frowned slightly when Isabella responded to him then sighed gently and said, "Isabella, we barely saw each other, actually we saw each other more when we weren't dating, so what we were doing couldn't be considered dating, I saw her twice." He sighed gently then said, "I care about you Bells, please forgive me, I like you a lot." Aiden leaned in and kissed her cheek affectionately. Aiden smelled Bella's hair gently as he pulled away with a smile.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Hmm yeah but not 'officially' right now, just make up ish? Isn't Aiden still going to the ball with Steph?

Isabella looked at him skeptically, thinking that even if they hardly saw each other, he still seemed to have liked Steph that way and she wasn't okay with it. She and Steph weren't even good friends and yet it hurt her deeply that it was a friend Aiden got together with and she was mad at Steph. She had no idea how Alyssa could've forgiven Bella but commended her for that.

She sighed as he gave her a kiss on the cheek and bit her lip, unsure of what to do. She looked into Aiden's eyes trying to see if he was sincere in his apology and it seemed genuine, but her nagging mind still told her not to forgive him so easily. "Well..." she said softly, looking down and messing with the hem of her purple dress again. "I guess I can forgive you, if we forget I ever said those words to you," she mumbled quietly thinking it was best that they forget about that and move on from it.

 

[Aiden Mauven]

yeah.. good idea..

Aiden smiled at Bella then said, "Forgotten." He began playing with Bella's hair gently then said, "I'm sorry I was so rash earlier, I was just.. hurt I guess." Aiden bit his lip slightly stood up and then sat down beside her on the bench. He wrapped his arms around Isabella cautiously and smiled warmly at her. "I missed you," Aiden whispered into her ear softly then grinned at her as he pulled away from her.

[Gahh I'm so out of touch!!]

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Bella smiled weakly at Aiden and said, "It's okay. I guess it's my fault for springing that up on you." She wasn't really sure if she was good to forgive him so soon but his apology did seem sincere. She shook her head lightly trying to listen to her own request at forgetting the "incident." He wrapped his arms around her and her smile grew, thinking that this felt right and she had missed feeling this over the long month of November. "I missed you too," she said softly, finally allowing herself to voice the thoughts she'd been thinking in her head the whole time she looked at him.

 

[Aiden Mauven]

Aiden smiled at Bella's words then leaned in closer to her, he pulled her in closer to him as he rested his forehead on her shoulder gently. He ran his fingers through Bella's soft brown locks as he tilted his head up and kissed her cheek gently, trying to show that he had missed her. Aiden knew that she wasn't over all of this still but there wasn't anything he thought he could do now, he just figured time would be best for them.

He looked over at the Gardens and smiled as he remembered what had happened here last year, this was their unofficial spot since then. Aiden couldn't help but wonder about Steph, he felt awful about making her the rebound girl but they both had known that it wouldn't last long, actually it had lasted longer then what Aiden had originally expected. "Are you ready for exams?" Aiden asked randomly.

 

[Isabella Chaos]

Gah I know how you feel about being so out of touch.

Isabella smiled weakly as Aiden gave her a kiss on the cheek. She had missed him so much but she still wasn't ready to get back together yet. Her mind was already upset with herself for forgiving him so easily but she was a young girl who didn't know any better. It didn't help that Aiden looked better than he ever had before, but she wondered if that was just the longing she'd felt for him that made her look at him that way.

When he brought up exams to strike up a conversation Isabella sighed softly. "No," she answered completely bluntly. "It's been so hectic lately," she admitted, thinking of her struggle to pass classes though she knew she was only just getting by - completely the opposite of what she had told herself she'd do to be made Prefect. She thought of the fashion club she had to run, the nightmares she'd began having again ever since she and Aiden broke up, and her general lack of interest as she moped around the castle. "What about you?" she asked in return.