Nick sat upstairs in the room Aimee's parents had given him so that he could be with her. He placed his head in his hands- palm to temple- and sighed heavily. He pulled his head back sharply, his black fringe falling over one eye as it usually did. He could hear only the TV downstairs but that was all you could ever hear- whether Aimee was asleep or awake. He had tried to be strong through this but the past month had been hard. Aimee was usually an excitable, energetic girl with delicate features. Her eyes glittered when she got into something and she was always cheerful and radiant- but the last month had seen a grey-skinned, dull-eyed, tired, uncaring Aimee that didn't have the energy to even get up on her own. It'd happened so quickly it had left Nick with barely any room to feel. He tried to stay strong around Aimee- more for his sake than hers, it'd didn't seem to make any difference to her- but behind closed doors he let it all out. The tears started to roll as he thought of her downstairs and everything they'd been through together.
She'd been there for him since they were born. They were only a few days apart- Nick was older by 3 days- and they'd done everything together since. Nursery school, primary school, middle school, high school, college. Everything. They were in a band together, they'd taken pretty much all the same classes- only Nick had taken art when Aimee had taken biology and astronomy. He wanted the old Aimee back- the one who called him at 3am, the one that danced around with him at lunchtimes when all the other girls glared. That was just it- Aimee was the only girl unaffected by Nick's undeniable charms. It worked on every other girl in school and always had- a quick glance, maybe a wink, leaning against a locker, talking up close. But the one person he wanted it to work on didn't notice it. He caught a sob in his throat and swallowed hard- he had to say sorry now.