Someone Better Catch Me

Chapter XIII: Aidan's confessions

I woke up to yellow light streaming through every crack in the thick canopy drawn around my bed. I squeezed my eyes shut against the sun, already knowing that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep anyways.

I was restless; I hadn't been out of the house in weeks.

After taking a quick bath and pinning up my dripping hair, I changed into cropped off sweatpants and a thin cotton tank top. I didn't put on any makeup, I was too exhausted.

When I walked by a pair of large picture windows on the first floor, I felt an idea bubble to the surface of my brain. A hike would be incredible! The hills behind the estate would be an awesome location for a hike.

Collette was walking down the stairs with a blissful look on her face. She'd been so happy lately; I couldn't help but be happy for her.

"I'm thinking of going on a hike this morning, do you want to come?" I asked her. Her serene smile dropped slightly.

"Sorry Noelle; Seamus and I are spending the day together." Her face turned a deep shade of red; I'd never seen her blush like that before.

"Wow." I raised my eyebrows suggestively as her blush grew even deeper.

"I know."

I surveyed what she was wearing; she'd obviously just gotten up, her hair was a mess and she was wearing a fluffy light pink robe.

"You better go get ready!" I exclaimed. She jumped, and looked down at herself in realization.

"You're right," she said, blue eyes wide. I laughed as she scuttled back down the hallway toward her room.

Nothing could bring me down that morning, not even my mother. I waltzed past her in the hallways, on the way to the kitchen. She looked dumfounded, and didn't even open her mouth to say anything to me.

My heart dropped a bit when I saw Aidan sitting in the kitchen. He glanced back at me, and then turned his head back to his food, slumping over the counter. I sighed and tried to fight back tears. I'd been so emotional lately; I could hardly control myself around Aidan.

He was such a jerk, making me fall in love with him. It was those golden eyes, that perfectly structured face; I couldn't get a hold of myself around him. I was coming unglued.

I flopped down on the barstool next to Aidan, trying to ignore the shock I felt sitting that close to him. I felt like my heart was ripping apart in my chest. It was an actual, physical pain.

"What are you planning on doing today, Noelle?" Jacques asked me, putting a plate full of my usual French toast sticks in front of me.

"I'm thinking about going on a hike in the hills, but Collette can't go with me," I said, sighing. I knew I shouldn't go on a hike without anyone else, incase something happened; my plans were fading slowly before my very eyes.

"I'll go with you," the until-then silent Aidan volunteered. I quickly squashed the feelings of light-headedness that boiled up when I turned to respond. I didn't look him in the eye, for I knew all too well the power of those creamy golden eyes.

"Alright," I responded before thinking. I really shouldn't spend any time with him, if I wanted to get rid of these silly feelings. "I'll see you in the lobby in about fifteen minutes," I said, giving my un-eaten food back to Jacques. Jacques looked under his reading glasses at me, giving me a pointed look when he saw I hadn't eaten. He knew I loved his food.

I gave him a sheepish smile and turned away, unable to face him.

Upstairs I grabbed a backpack that had been sitting in a corner in my room gathering dust. I put a water bottle that had been sitting on my dresser, a watch (I hated wearing watches), an apple, and an extra pair of shorts (hey you never know) into the backpack.

I was down in the foyer very early. I paced along the floor, with my arms crossed behind my back for what seemed like an hour.

A cough echoed off the walls of the foyer; I turned abruptly to see who the culprit was. Aidan was standing in the center of the room, gazing at me.

"Are you ready?" Of course he's ready, Noelle. Why else would he be down here?

"Yeah."

We walked through the back door and onto the patio. Gazing up at the thickly forested hills, I realized I had no idea where we would hike to.

"Is there a trail anywhere on the hills?" I asked, turning to Aidan. It was almost painful to look at him.

"Yes, I'll show you. Seamus and I used to play on it when we were boys," he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the hills the entire time. I was loathe to let him lead, for I'd been planning on being the fearless leader, but I begrudgingly complied because I had no idea where this mysterious trail was.

It was hard for me to imagine Aidan as a boy. I furrowed my brows and stared absently at his back as I tried to picture him as a little boy. I couldn't. It seemed neither of us knew a thing about each other.

The trek was long, but when I stopped looking at Aidan's back, I realized just how beautiful the grounds around us were. We were surrounded by beautiful, straight, pointy evergreen trees. The light from above wafted through them, dappling the shadows on the ground, and throwing beams of light with dust dancing through them on our pathway.

I stared straight up at the sky for several moments. It was absolutely pure blue, but I could only see a patch of it that was uncovered by the tall wall of trees.

I kept walking, my head lolling back, until I ran straight into something hard, that I was sure wasn't a tree.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, looking up at Aidan. I'd stepped away from him, smiling sheepishly.

"What were you doing?" he sounded a tiny bit annoyed. I cringed.

"Looking at the sky," I tried to sound as normal as possible. It didn't work.

Aidan stared at me for what seemed like a whole minute, obviously wondering if I was mentally competent. I waited for him to resume walking.

We walked in awkward silence for a whole minute. I resisted the temptation to shout "Gay baby!" to try and break the tension. It was a silly impulse, really.

We came to a beautiful clearing with a small, clear river running through it. There was one rotten, warped log and a disintegrated looking tree house in one of the expansive oak trees on the fringe of the clearing.

"This is where Seamus and I used to come," Aidan said fondly. I sat on the log and looked around with wide eyes. It looked like the perfect scene from a movie.

I smiled, actually smiled at him. It seemed all the walls were down when we were in this clearing.

"Did you guys build that tree house?" I pointed to the disintegrating wood. Aidan gave a short chuckle that made the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention. I could feel the shiver making its way down my spine.

"Yes, we had some good times up there." His eyes looked far away, distant.

"What this must have been like…" I mused. I saw Aidan's eyes snap back to earth and focus on me. I felt guilty for pulling him out of the fond memory he'd been visiting.

"What do you mean?" he asked, not sitting down next to me like I'd hoped he would, but standing and looking me straight in the eye. I tried to avoid eye contact; I could tell he could sense my slight fear.

"I grew up in the city. My backyard, as you saw when you went to my house, was about three feet by three feet. I never got to go outside." I sighed and gazed up at the sky, finally breaking away from Aidan's deliciously overbearing eyes before I hyperventilated.

"Really? I never thought of what that might be like."

"Cramped, I always felt like I couldn't move, like I was trapped inside a box with no way out." I still didn't make eye contact with him. I wondered if he could sense my fear of his eyes, my fear that my eyes would give everything I was feeling away.

I was sick of saying these strange things that Aidan worked out of me and having him not give me an answer.

"Why don't you answer me? Why do you just not say anything?" I sounded as if I was just musing; which I suppose I really was, musing out loud, I didn't really expect an answer.

I got one anyway.

"I'm contemplating." I sat up to look at him. He was staring off into the forest, his jaw clenched and his form perfectly still.

"Contemplating what?"

"You." His face suddenly, magically transformed for a split second. He looked so vulnerable, so confused, that I suddenly knew what he looked like when he was a small child. I felt my heart go out to him, and I unwillingly stood up and floated toward him, sitting next to him. It was only after I sat on the cold ground that I realized what I'd done. I'd broken the carefully maintained no-contact space that we always kept. It was like breaking a law.

Aidan visibly tensed next to me. I could feel his every muscle tensing as he tried to adjust to me sitting so close to him.

"Me?" I whispered. It was another unwilling response. He turned his head a fraction of a centimeter to look at me out of the corner of his eye. I gave him a half smile. "There's nothing interesting about me." It was true; there really wasn't anything about me someone like Aidan would find remotely interesting.

Suddenly he turned to me, his eyes were pleading, wanting me to understand. He focused on me as he spilled all of his thoughts out.

"I don't understand you; you're not like anyone I've ever met! At first I thought you were in on this arranged marriage for the money, but when you refused my credit card to explore the castle?" I blushed, remembering how stupid that must have been.

"I'm not that amazing." I didn't know what drugs Aidan had been taking to think that.

"You have no idea; everything you do amazes and fascinates me," he whispered. He looked so much like he was trying to convince me of something with just his eyes, something he couldn't formulate in words.

I felt tears come to my eyes, I couldn't feel anything, numbness penetrated my body. I was an experiment in a Petri dish for him to examine, nothing more. When I was through amazing him and he got to know me like I so longed he would, he'd grow tired of me, and I'd be left to pick up the broken pieces of my poor heart. There was no way someone as beautiful and mysterious as him could like me like he said. There was no way anyone could love me as much as I loved him.

"Stop!" I said when he opened his mouth to go on. Tears were flowing freely now, and I didn't care anymore, I didn't care about anything.

Aidan stopped, surprised. I stood up and turned away from him, running down the path and as far away as I possibly could, far away from everything. Just running, fueled by pure adrenaline, away from all my problems, the life I'd been forced to live, my love for Aidan, and eventually just running for the sake of it. Because it made me forget everything and everyone and just concentrate on the pounding of my feet and the pumping of my heart.

A/N: The end is drawing dangerously near, just one or two more chapters! I want you guys to keep reading my stuff though, I'm going to start working on a few more stories after this. And, if you have a facebook, I have a link to mine on my profile. Add yourself to my friends!

I hope you all liked this chapter, and without further ado, here are my Review Respones:

Unique Child: Thank you!

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I Quoth November: Thank you for reading my other story, but I'm thinking of deleting it; and thanks for following this story and 4 ur wonderful reviews!

Alexandra90:thank you, you have no idea how good it is to hear that!

Female Odd: I hope that's not the only reason it's your fvortie story, lol

anangelsmiles: that's just his character, lol, he does kinda get annoying tho.

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babyonee: I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, lol.

Terra12: lol, it's still got a little more life in it! What would I write a sequel about?