She wasn't supposed to fall in love, really. Love was something that had this shiny finish but once you looked past it, it was nothing but a sham. People got angry and hearts fell to pieces. Her father had loved her mother, and a fight had led her mother to a car and the car had led her mother to her death. Love ripped things to shreds with no regards to anything else in the world. Feelings were a negative. She had long since learnt to turn them off, and then Chloe Beale walked into her life.
Chloe loved like a summer thunderstorm. She was violent and fast, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing just as fast. Their almost weekly encounters left Aubrey's head spinning and her heart pounding. There was no label for them, and Aubrey didn't need a label. Labels meant feelings. She could drown herself in law books and essays and the copious amounts of alcohol afforded through frat parties, but when the sun broke through the window, she found herself at the same conclusion; love.
It was easy to learn that love from Chloe was different from the original love that destroyed everything. The love from Chloe didn't come in the form of hushed whispers as their bodies pressed together on late nights. It didn't come in the form of flowers and candy. It came in the form of the words "keep breathing" scribbled onto the top of every single legal pad she owned. It came in the form of a paper slipped under her door, "love doesn't make the world go 'round, it makes the trip worthwhile" in Chloe's hurried handwriting scrawled across the page.
Chloe was so unafraid of life, and it showed in the way she would run to Aubrey in the middle of the quad, wrap her arms around her neck, and hold her there. She didn't think, she just did, and it was the one thing Aubrey knew she would admire for the rest of their lives. She wasn't supposed to fall in love, but Chloe didn't like rules and Chloe didn't follow those rules. She crashed into Aubrey's life and twisted it and turned it until Aubrey didn't recognize anything, and she found that it was her favorite feeling in the world. The unknown - the unexpected - was a freedom that years of a strict upbringing had kept hidden from her, and Chloe gave her the strength to release it.
Despites years of classes that involved words, Aubrey was horrible at writing her own thoughts onto paper when it came to Chloe. Nothing fell easily, except the moment when she finished putting herself back together. It had been simple. Find the perfect ring. Greet Chloe at the front door to their apartment in Connecticut. She had seen so many movies where the man had the elegant speech before the words, but she didn't want to be a movie cliché. She didn't want words, because she knew Chloe didn't need words. The box in her hand, open, and the smile on Chloe's face were the stars of this movie.
It was minutes later, sliding the ring onto Chloe's finger before pressing their foreheads together,that the words slipped out. "Love me, that's all I ask, for you are the most important thing in my life."