It was never effortless to love Aaron Warner. He was a difficult teenage boy who seemed to forget a lot of the time that that was what he was-a teenage boy. He'd always felt that loving or even caring for him would be impossible for all the world to...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
FIGHTING THE URGE to beat this woman up every five minutes is getting harder and harder with every passing second.
Of course her wiping of my memories didn't work. I'm still Mara—Eden—whatever—and Evie has fed me countless lies within the last two weeks. According to her delusions, I was in a violent car accident and suffer from amnesia—lying bitch—and now she's taking care of me. She's dampened my powers with a pair of metal arm ringlets that wrap around my wrists tightly. She says they're devices used to try and prompt my body into strengthening itself again.
Evie doesn't let me leave my room and it kills me to know that Ella is out there somewhere. Alone. Scared. I don't even know if they're treating her the same way they're treating me. Either way, I'll find her. And then I'll find Aaron.
She doesn't know that I know her experiment on me failed. In fact, it did the exact opposite of what she intended—instead of removing memories, mine are being replenished.
I put the flower crown on his head and smile at the way his cheeks turn red. The sun makes him squint his eyes as we kneel across from each other on the grass by the lake. The smell of sunscreen fills my nose and I wish it could be summer forever.
"See?" I say. "Now you're as pretty as me."
Aaron gulps. "I don't think anyone can be as pretty as you, Eden."
I giggle. "I'm so telling your mum you said that."
His eyes widen with alarm. "No, please—"
I interrupt him by kissing his cheek and laughing. I have such a big crush on him and he doesn't know it. But he looks like a prince, so obviously I love him. I think I want to marry him. Then I can wear a pretty white dress and we can eat cake together.
"Ewwww—" Ella whines. "Mum, they're kissing!"
"No, we're not!" Aaron and I shout at the same time, turning to them.
No one can ever know I have a crush on him.
Tears flood my eyes again as Evie hands me a pink summer dress. It's hot out. The mountains beyond are tipped with snow but the lake is so blue it's almost terrifying. This place is so familiar to me. This is home, as much as I hate to admit it. My childhood—the one before I was wiped of my memories and tossed in an orphanage—was spent here. This is where Emmaline, Ella, Naz and I played together. This is where we swam in the lake. Hiked trails in the lush forests and fields surrounded of the mountains.
This is where Aaron and I kissed for the first time.
Sure, we were practically babies and I only did it because I wanted to scare him. But then I ended up getting scared because I thought that kissing someone on the lips got a girl pregnant. Obviously it doesn't.
