Miley's POV:
Everything just seemed to freeze and his words echoed in my mind. Sure they weren't the...maturest words...but he just told me he loved me. Oh God, what do I do? Do I love him? I like him I know that...but love...??? He was just staring at me, a defiant expression on his face. I sat up slowly and said,
"...Jake...I-I...um..." I couldn't continue. I loved him. I knew it. But I couldn't get my tongue to form around the beautiful words. He just looked down briefly and looked back up at me.
"...No Miley—Stop. Its okay..." He quietly. No it wasn't. I loved him and he deserved to know. I licked my lips, determined to tell him this time.
"Jake I...I..." Once again, the words wouldn't come out. He gazed sadly down at me and said,
"Its okay Miley...I understand." He stood up slowly and made his way to the door. I grabbed his hand and said,
"No it is not okay! I'm trying to tell you that...I...love you too." Finally. The words came out. He froze and turned around and looked at me. I met his gaze with a confident look. He smiled slightly and said,
"Really..?" I nodded my head and said,
"Yes really." He leaned down and hugged me before whispering,
"...Now about this BIG secret of yours..." I sighed and pulled myself out of his arms.
"Way to ruin a moment Jake!" I exclaimed. He just shrugged and said,
"We gave each other perfectly good reasons to be honest." He softened his voice before continuing, "I'm leaving for four months Miley. Four months. Lets make the rest of this week as good as possible, and I couldn't dream of a better way to spend my time than to get to know you better." Oh man he was good with the words. What a smooth talker. I folded my arms across my chest and said,
"I just don't know Jake...Its just...big." He sighed and said,
"Okay how about I tell you my deepest darkest secret and you tell me yours? An eye for an eye. Deal?" I took a deep breath. I knew this could end up being the biggest mistake of my life, but for now I'm just going to trust him.
"Fine. We can tell each others deepest darkest secrets." I said stiffly. He grinned and said, "Awesome." Then suddenly he jumped up and turned off all the lights. I screamed as the darkness engulfed me.
"W-Why are the lights out?" I asked. That was one of my secrets. The fear of the dark.
"Well, since we are telling our deepest DARKEST secrets, I figured it would easier if we weren't looking at each other. And what better way to not look at someone than not being able to see them?" I took a deep breath and tried to steady my hastily beating heart with no success. I felt him take my hand and that made my heart beat faster.
"I'm going to go first." He whispered. It was strangely cold and quiet in the darkness. I moved closer to him out of fear and said, "Ok." He took a deep breath and started nervously fidgeting with my bedspread.
"Okay...well...you know the other day when we were on the phone and...um...you mentioned L-Lindsay?" I nodded and he coughed awkwardly.
"Well...She is...I mean...she w-was my sister." I froze. The way he said 'was' just caught me off guard. I could tell this was hurting him, talking about it.
"Was...?" I whispered. He gripped my hand harder and I heard his shaky voice take on anger and rage.
"She was Lana's twin. She died Miles. Last year." my heart stopped beating I didn't know what to say but I didn't have to say anything because he continued, in a mad voice.
"She was six. Only six. She was alive for six years...It happened suddenly. And...And I never really got a change to say g-goodbye." I felt tears prick my eyes and I moved closer to him before whispering,
"W-What happen to her?" He looked relieved to get this off his chest but I knew how painful it was to talk of someone ceased in a past form.
"She...drowned." he took a deep breath and said, "Last year...she wanted to go to Panama City with her best friend, Amanda. My Mom and Dad weren't going to let her go...but I c-convinced them to let her go. It was Amanda's parents damn fault. She couldn't swim that well, she was only six after all. But Mrs. Smith promised us..." He stopped and took another breath before continuing in a shaky, but furious voice... "She promised us she would watch them the whole time. She SWORE. One afternoon, on July 12, she brought them down to the ocean. Shortly after she got a call on her cell phone from her sister, telling her that there was a great party that she was invited too. Naturally, she declined and said she couldn't leave Amanda and Lindsay at the ocean by themselves. So Mrs. Smith's sister said she would just meet them down at the beach so they could t-talk. Well, they came down and got to talking, ignoring Amanda and Lindsay. Amanda says that Lindsay decided to play a game, Who Could Swim out the Farthest. Normally, it would have been okay because they knew they couldn't go past their necks, but Mrs. Smith never bothered to look and see the red flag was out. As you probably know, the red flag means there is going to be extremely large waves. But stupid freakin' Mrs. Smith was too busy talking to her sister to know and tell the two six year olds to get out of the water. Well, as soon as Amanda saw the waves, she tried to yell at Lindsay to swim away. Lindsay was swimming with her back turned to the wave, looking at Amanda taunting her because she was winning. She couldn't hear what Amanda was saying because the roar of the wave. She just thought Amanda was trying to distract her. So she kept swimming, unaware she was actually farther away than she was suppose to be. Then Amanda turned and swam away to shore with a scared look in her eyes, as Lindsay turned around to see what it was, the w-wave came over her. It dragged her under and she never came back up again..." Jake had to stop the story for a second and get a hold of himself and the tears that had been steadily coming down his face since he mentioned Mrs. Smiths sister calling her. He took another deep breath and said,
"They never found her body. Amanda and her mom and dad came back down to Malibu without my sister. When my parents found out, my mom tried to sue Amanda's family for everything they were worth. Lana cried and cried. My Dad didn't do anything...Just sat there with a dazed look on his face. I didn't cry. I just shrugged it o-off." He stopped again and then said, "The funeral was nice and private. Only my family. The newspapers didn't report it. CNN didn't cover it. No one knew except my family, Amanda's and those few people at the beach, including the police and rescue crew. And the people didn't know it was Jake Ryan's sister...Ryan is a common last name. At the funeral everything was really upbeat and they celebrated her life, opposed to crying over her death. But to me that was worse. It was like everyone there didn't care. Like the fact that a six year old lost her life wasn't enough to make them cry."
He stopped again and then whispered, "You know what I hate so much about people dying..?" I shook my head numbly.
"They aren't with you anymore...they are gone...I mean, you can never touch them again..." he touched my cheeked gently as if to make his point, "You can never hug them again...never push them on the swing. Never teach them how to swim or ride a bike...You can never tell them how much you..." He took another breath and said, "You can never tell them how much you miss them and how much you realized you love them. You can never apologize for all the things you said to them. I told her I hated her so many times. But I didn't. I just hope she died knowing I loved her."
And he stopped telling his story there. I let out a sob and it was silent except for the sounds of us crying. I wrapped my arms around his middle and laid my head on his chest, trying to comfort him. We sat their for a while and he slowly stood up, bringing me with him, and said,
"Maybe I should go now..." I shook my head and said,
"No I want you to stay...don't leave me here." I flipped on the light, and said,
"Lets just...lets just play Life for a while." I went to my closet and pulled out my favorite board game. He nodded and we sat down beside each other and opened the board game.
Nothing much happened after that. When I landed on that space about getting a baby, he insisted I name it Fluffy McFluffers as a joke.
He never asked for my secret the whole night.
So I never told him.
A/n: SO there is Lindsay. 'Finally' as I'm sure you are all saying. And My Love, Never Forget Me is not forgotten (haha 'Never Forget Me' 'Forgotten'...(cough) sry random), I am currently working out the story line and plot, and writing chapters 3 and 4. Hahahaha anyways, thanks sooooooooooooo super much for the reviews!! Keep them coming! Hope you like this chapter!