Happy Endings

Wouldn't life be nice if it were the way it is in those books? The ones where the girl likes this guy, stuff happens and in the end the guy's not worth it or she finds a new guy who's better or the guy likes her back. You know, "happy endings."


Real life isn't "nice" and, as some smart person said; happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet.


Don't get me wrong, I still like to imagine me and my best friend, Luciano, as the characters in those books, but I never for a second fool myself into hoping it might happen. I'm almost literally beneath his notice; we can't stand shoulder to shoulder unless he's on his knees. Yes, I'm really short but I'm not the only person he towers over. Dammit, though, I wish I was taller. Maybe then he'd see me as more than his best friend who's always been the shortest of any group they've ever been in. Today, Luc and I—


Luciano Villarreal closed Azalea's diary. He dropped it back into the box from which he'd removed it and stared at it for a bit before pulling a shirt on and going out into the thunderstorm, slamming the door behind him. Once outside he looked up at the sky, lightning flashed and thunder soon drowned out the howling wind. The wind indignantly howled louder and the rain poured harder. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily before walking over to his new car. He sat in the driver's seat and turned on the ITouch he always left hooked up, almost daring someone to try and steal it. He dropped his head onto the steering wheel as Azalea's favorite song blared loudly, filling the car. Azalea…


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THREE MONTHS AGO

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"So, then, are you guys together?" Luciano looked up, realizing he'd been staring at Azalea's sleeping form again. He shot Chantal, Azalea's 26-year-old cousin, a grin across the campfire.


"Nah, we're just friends."


Chantal smiled, "But you like her."


Luciano shrugged and continued to stroke Azalea's curls away from her face. Chantal's boyfriend came back from his truck and handed her the bag he'd brought. She smiled up at him and went into their tent to change. "You want us to wake you guys up in the morning?" he asked Luciano.


Luciano shook his head, laughing, "We'll wake up when you turn your truck on. Z and I can pack up the tent quickly and she won't want to change. She can't go back to sleep once she does and she always sleeps in the car."


Chantal came back and sat back down, obviously thrilled to find her cousin still sleeping with her head on her arms and her arms in Luciano's lap. "What will you say if she wakes up?"


"She won't," Luciano said, just as Azalea lifted her head and turned big, sleepy, pale blue eyes with gray specks and thick black lashes on him, proving him wrong.


"What…?" she asked sleepily.


Luciano smiled down at her, "You fell asleep in the sand."


"Oh…" Azalea said, getting up to walk into their tent. "Night, Chantal. Night, Dante…"


Luc grabbed her arm, "Stay here," he said, pulling her back down. "I like holding you."


Azalea glared at him, though the effect was diminished by the fact that she was half-asleep, "I'm not a little girl," she said, letting him pull her into his arms and resting her head on his chest. "I'll kill you if you leave me out here," she mumbled.


Luciano smiled, "I love you, too."


"Who…said anything…about love?" Azalea asked him but was asleep before he answered.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"They're so far ahead," Azalea said, looking up at the enormous truck Dante and Chantal were in, through the sun roof. "We shouldn't have stopped at that gas station."


"Z," Luciano said. "We didn't stop that long," he glanced at the truck on the ledge above them, too.


Azalea dropped the subject and sipped the hot chocolate she'd bought. The car lurched and Azalea gasped. Luc asked, "What's wrong?" turning his head, concerned, and instantly averting his eyes.


"I spilled the hot chocolate all over my clothes!" Azalea said tearfully plucking at her shirt. "It's really hot. I regret wearing these; they're so thin."


"Change your clothes, Z, those are transparent," he replied, stopping the car and pocketing the keys.


"So I'll cover up with a towel," she said, looking around nervously. "I have a bad feeling; let's keep going."


Luciano shook his head, "Don't be superstitious, Z. I can't stay in here. If I look I'll be a perv and if I don't you'll get offended and think I'm implying that you're not worth looking at."


He slammed the door and walked away to give her time to change and so he wouldn't be tempted to look through the window. He looked over the edge of the ledge they were on and watched the solitary car on the ledge below. A loud blaring noise reminded Luc of Azalea's warning at the gas station that if they stopped for too long Dante would start "rushing" them. He turned around slowly, knowing Azalea would ignore Chantal's boyfriend.


Luc felt his eyes widen as he looked up and froze, shocked. Two ledges above them, Dante had swerved dangerously to avoid the car that was going straight towards them. Even now that Dante's massive truck hovered over the edge, the driver of the other car made no attempt to avoid them.


Horrified, Luciano watched as Chantal jumped from her side of the truck at the exact moment the other car hit the back of it. Chantal's scream was drowned out by the truck's roar and the sound of the collision. The truck fell, causing a landslide underneath Chantal's feet. "Holy--!" Luc muttered, running his hands through his hair and turning to run towards his car.


A door slammed and Luciano barely heard Azalea's scream as she saw what was happening, "Chantal! Dante!"


"Z, get back in the car, we gotta go help your cousin! We can't help Dante, yet!" he shouted at her.


Azalea hesitated and opened her mouth, "Come on!" he yelled, opening his door. Azalea went back into her seat and pulled on her seatbelt.


"My keys!" Luc muttered, searching his pockets. Azalea cursed and came over to him, eyes frantic. Luc opened his mouth to tell her to stay on her side, that he'd taken his keys with him, but instead of searching the driver's side for the keys she sat up on her knees and put her hands on him. "What…?"


She pushed him away so hard he stumbled, surprised. She started to step out. Luciano looked up and watched as Dante's truck fell onto their ledge and flipped over again, landing on top of his car before falling and finally stopping on the ledge below them. Luciano stayed frozen, Azalea's painful scream still echoing in his head.


Rocks were still falling and the car he'd seen below them screeched as it turned around but Luc forgot everything as he ran to his car, fell on his hands and knees, and shouted, "Z! Z, Azalea! Can you hear me?"


Luc thought the silence would drive him insane as he searched, panic-stricken, for some way to get her out of the almost completely flattened car. "Y-Yeah! Luc, I can't move though," came Azalea's soft, strained voice. "Think…my right side's broken. It's hard to breathe. Luc, help me, please." Her voice broke on the last word and Luc's heart tore at him.


"Z, hold on!" he called, relief and hope flickering beneath his fear. She's alive, he told himself, getting onto the hood and nearing the broken windshield. "I'll get you out." Luciano reached towards the driver's seat and felt around until he felt the warm blood on Azalea's forehead and heard her whimper. "I'm sorry," he felt her shake her head and, with both arms, found her shoulders and pulled her out. She screamed in pain as he pulled her out and then again going over the windshield's broken glass, breathing hard once Luc had her on the hood. He hugged her, trying carefully not to hurt her right side, then scooped her up in his arms, "You're okay, you're okay, Z," he told her.


She smiled weakly, "Who're you trying to convince?"


Luc laughed, "Thank God you're so small." He turned to jump off the car. She winced and more tears mixed with the blood running down her face.


He apologized and she whispered, "Luc, it hurts so bad. I almost feel like I want to die. Don't let me die, Luc."


"I won't, I promise. But you gotta promise to fight, too. Promise?" She nodded against his shoulder and he turned to jump off, but stopped when he heard a voice calling to him. He looked down to find the car he'd been watching earlier stopped near the upside down truck. "What?" he yelled back down to the woman who was standing near the car. A man was helping Dante and Luc hoped he wasn't dead. The woman yelled and gestured wildly. Luc looked behind him and sighed, exasperated. He jumped off the hood.


The car slid down, causing several rocks beneath his feet to fall even as the woman shook her head to tell him not to jump. The woman scurried out of the way and the man pulled himself and Dante away. Azalea's body tensed in his arms and she turned her head, hiding it in his shoulder.


"Luc…" she whispered. Pain shot through Luc's body as he landed and she fell out of his arms.


"Z!" he groaned and dragged himself to her still form, ignoring the pain. "Z," he repeated when he reached her. She turned her head towards and smiled sadly at him. He watched the light start to fade away even as the darkness devoured him.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Luc, we all thought since she always showed you her work first, you should have this." One of Azalea's friends had said handing him a huge box of Azalea's notebooks and sketchbooks. Unfortunately, her diaries had been mixed up in there and with them, the knowledge that he wasn't the only who felt the way he did. Azalea had returned his feelings and now it was too late.


He sighed and decided to go back and look through her art instead of hiding from her words in his car. Her computer was his now, too. He walked back to the apartment building.


Lightning flashed and illuminated the porch where a girl in a white dress with glossy, black curls and big pale blue eyes with soft gray specks framed by thick lashes stood waiting for him. Joy and fear conflicted inside him. The conflict was killed in the flood of disappointment that came over him as he stepped closer. Thunder rolled and he smiled at the girl, "Hey, Ariella."


Ariella smiled back with Azalea's same smile and stepped forward. "Hey, Luc," she hugged him, making the difference between Azalea and herself painfully obvious.


Luc removed her arms from around his neck so he could open the door and tried hard not to remember that with Azalea, he would have had to remove them from his waist. He stepped aside and let Ariella walk in past him.


Two months ago, when he'd awoken from his coma, he'd loathed Ariella. Having Azalea's taller twin sister around had been torture.


Ariella Valadez had returned from her boarding school in France two and a half months ago for Azalea's funeral. Looking at the pictures of her standing next to Azalea's small coffin made it hard to believe Azalea was as beautiful as the tall, weeping Ariella. Even before meeting her at the second memorial service they'd held when he'd woken up, he hadn't wanted to meet her.


Then he'd seen Chantal, who had scars on her face and a cast on her foot. He went up to her and she explained that the man who'd crashed into her and Dante had died of a heart attack while driving and that Dante was blind and would never be able to walk again. His heart and lungs were damaged, too, so the doctors didn't expect him to live much longer. He no longer remembered anything either.


Chantal had started crying and he hadn't known what to do. He was reminded of the first time he met Azalea when Ariella came to comfort Chantal. Just like her twin, Azalea had come to comfort a crying woman when he hadn't known what to do. Then, just like ten years before, Chantal introduced him to Ariella.


That was when he decided that Ariella and Azalea were so alike in looks as well as personality that Ariella would be the perfect person to make his memory of Azalea fade. He almost envied Dante's loss of memory; he'd never remember anyone before Chantal and if his affection had been as genuine as Luc had thought it, Dante would fall in love with her all over again. Luc, however, knew he'd never stop comparing Ariella or any other girl to Azalea.


A month later, three months since Azalea's death, life hadn't proved him wrong. He missed Azalea now more than ever and realizing she'd felt the same way had changed things. He let Ariella into his upstairs apartment and sat down on the couch. He looked at Ariella and waited for her to start talking.


She didn't smile. Instead, she sighed, "Luciano…I think you've been using me to forget my sister," she began. She swallowed and waited. When he didn't say or do anything to deny or confirm it, she continued, "And…if that's true, then…It's over between us."

She finally looked up at him.


After a few moments silence he sighed, "I'm sorry. That's what I was going to tell you, but I let you talk first because you looked like what you had to say was important. I can't contradict you."


Ariella's bottom lip quivered and her eyes shone with tears. If it were Azalea on the verge of tears, Luc knew, he would have pulled her into his arms. If it were Azalea he would hug her tight and tell her everything would be okay. If it were Azalea, he would have tried hard to cheer her up. Even though Ariella was practically a taller Azalea, Luc knew now that there were so many differences between the two. The most important one being, of course, that Ariella was here.


The door slammed shut.


If it had been Azalea, he wouldn't have made her cry, wouldn't have sat, indifferent to her tears, and he wouldn't have let her leave. He'd done so many things with Ariella and, before the accident, other girls, which he wouldn't have done with Azalea.


At least, not willingly. Azalea was dead and it was his fault. He'd broken his promise.