A few hours later, Henry had stopped the car, and was on his way to her side of the car. He opened the door, unbuckled her seatbelt, and helped Casey out of the car.
"Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them," he commanded, untying the bandana. Casey could feel that the bandana was off, but kept her eyes closed as Henry has told her to. She could hear something, a powerful sound, but couldn't quite identify it. "Ok," he whispered gently. "Open your eyes."
When Casey's eyes opened, she let out a deep gasp. Before her was Niagara Falls just as the water was about to plummet to the bottom. She turned to Henry, completely awestruck, with a goofy grin slapped upon her face.
"It's beautiful," she whispered to him. He smiled back at her then turned his gaze back towards the falls.
"I just thought that I might want to give you a little piece of home," Henry commented. "Granted, this isn't exactly Canada, but it's close enough. You can see it from here." Casey laughed softly.
"This is the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me…But I have to be honest with you."
"I don't like where this is going…" Henry looked at her quizzically, but Casey just took his hand and led him to the bench. As they sat down, Casey let out a deep sigh.
"I didn't almost cry because I missed home," Casey admitted. "It's because it reminded me of someone…An ex boyfriend."
"Oh crap!" Henry exclaimed, smacking himself in the forehead. "You're not over your ex and here I am taking you to the falls-"
"No," Casey interrupted. "It's nothing like that. His name was Max. We went out for…a long time, and then we broke up…And then three months later he killed himself and then I moved to New York to get away from it, but he only seems to continue haunting me." Henry didn't speak for a moment, just stared at the ground.
"Oh," he managed to spit out. "He must've really loved you." Casey nodded.
"He did," she stated. "He really did."
"Then what made the two of you break up?" Casey thought about lying to Henry for a moment, but realized but he was the first person who she actually wanted to know the truth.
"My stepbrother." Henry looked up at her for a moment, questions racing through his head. "He's just a year older. Derek…" Henry took her hand reassuringly. "Derek told me that he loved me. I told Max, and Max was furious that I couldn't tell my mom that my stepbrother was seeing me in that way. All Derek did was make it worse. Every chance he got, he'd put his arm around me or peck me on the cheek claiming that it was "brotherly." One time he went as far as to actually kiss me. It drove Max to his wits end, because there was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing that I would do about it."
"Why didn't you tell your mom?" Henry questioned. Casey shook her head.
"Because Derek is just like Aaron," Casey stated. "He'll do whatever he wants to people."
"Aaron from our school?" She nodded. "What did Aaron do to you? I know he's a womanizer but-"
"It was a long time ago," Casey insisted. "Derek's a now problem."
"But you're here now," Henry comforted. "And Derek can't get you here. All you have to worry about is getting over Max."
"How do you getting over someone killing themselves because of you?" Casey questioned, she'd been wondering that from the very beginning.
"You don't," Henry answered. "There are some things that you're never supposed to get over."
"I wish that this wasn't one of them." Henry wrapped his arm around Casey, letting her head rest against his shoulder as she tried not to cry.
