Well hello there.
One
She was much too young before he left to commit a full, clear image of him to memory. But sometimes she'll slide into the passenger seat of the junker her mother drives and catch a whiff of something dirty, old, and distinctly male or she'll walk by the bathroom while her brother is trying in vain to tame the wild mop of scruffy brown hair on his head, and she won't be in the family car or the hallway anymore. She won't even be herself. She'll be three years old and unable to reach the cooled plate of cookies Mom finally said she could dig into after a full two hours of begging and pleading. A large hand, worn and warm will come to her rescue. It will hand her a cookie and then bop her on the nose, the long dark hairs jutting out from the knuckles tickling her skin in the process. Then the hand will be gone and replaced with a pair of eyes that look like a smile even though she was well-aware by that age that only mouths could actually smile, not eyeballs. A voice that's completely nondescript but hauntingly familiar croons in an affectionate whisper the three words that every human longs to hear whether they acknowledge it or not.
"I love you."
He calls her Sweetheart, ruffles her hair, and then the whole picture fades away.
Two
Her Mom tells it to her every day. Most of the time, she says it right back without even thinking, and then they're both off to do whatever it was they set out to do - separately.
Three
Ted's usually not her favorite person in the world. He's grown up to flawlessly mold himself into the stereotypical snickering, scheming little brother that every good story centered around the life and times of an angsty teenage girl isn't complete without. But he's also one of the only people in the world that she loves unconditionally, which is probably why she agreed to let him submit some video he took of her making a fool of herself in one way or another in some national contest he was too young to enter a video featuring him into. When she's declared a "winner of the contest" and "new reality show contestant" in the same sentence, he takes off running down the block screaming it amid peals of uncontrollable laughter.
Four
No matter how much Cody reminds her of Ted, he's not actually related to her, which makes him the first person to ever say it to her barring family members. The circumstances surrounding the whole event are fuzzy, but some near death-experience Chris cooked up definitely had something to do with it. She could feel his slender fingers clinging to her form for dear life while he screams it at the top of his lungs, believing it to be the last thing he'll ever be able to say. It's the only reason that she allows him to hold onto her for a good ten seconds after the immediate danger was out of the way before forcibly prying him off her and flouncing off the opposite direction.
Five
Trent only ever said it once to her throughout the course of their relationship, and he didn't even know that she could hear him. They were lying on a cool patch of ground somewhere secluded with their eyes focused on the sky and their limbs outstretched so that his left hand barely grazed her right. It was evening and she was tired. Her eyes gradually fell shut and her breathing slowed, but she could still hear the slaps of waves against a distant shore and her boyfriend's heart beating steadily nearby. Suddenly he sighed and she could hear the rustling of his clothes as he turned to face her. One of his fingers traced the side of her face a single time before he mumbled that he loved her through a loud exhale, brushed some stray hairs out of her face and rolled back over to where he previously lay. Something inside of her jumped for reasons that she had little time to ponder before she fell asleep. The moment in time was forgotten for months, and when she finally recalled it again it was much too late to hope it still meant something to either of them.
The One Time She Said It Back
Duncan barges into her house angrier than she's ever seen a person before in her entire life. She doesn't even get to ask him how the hell he knew where she lived before he's going off on a tangent that she only catches bits and pieces of along with the tail end of a nasty swear every other word, but by the time he's finally calmed down and slouching against her couch, shoulders sagging in a defeated kind of way and his every feature relaying hurt that's deeper than physical she's got the basic idea: he and Courtney got into a(nother) fight and broke up. He looks so pathetic that it makes something in her chest ache. She's quick to suggest they have a gory martian movie marathon right then and there, because it always cheers her up and they both love a great maritan movie gore-fest. He agrees and three hours later her bare feet are lying comfortably in his lap. They're both laughing at nothing for no reason at all, really. He says it as if it were as simple as saying hello.
"Dude, this movie is incredibly awesome. I can't believe you have it." She thinks he may have laughed again. "I totally love you.."
She rolls her eyes and smiles, thoroughly resolving to ignore the sudden feeling that she swallowed a supernova.
"I love you, too."