Heather Phillips

“I’m coming! I’m coming,” Ayden huffed brightly, his voice seeming more distant than it truly was for his words would ricochet to the neighboring mountain tops before it returned to him and to Heather. “How do you move so fast?” He asked in an inquisitive mumble that was barely audible against the crunching of the rocks under Ayden’s shoes. After another step, Heather was in his line of vision. Then so was their surroundings. Though one hand held his camera, he bunched the sleeve of his windbreaker in the other when he walked to stand beside her, his breath escaping him for a moment. “Woah,” he marveled, looking out at their view.

“Well, for starters I don’t eat that many nutella sandwiches,” she reparteed at his mumble without turning around, even when Heather knew perfectly well she ate as much (or more) as he did. “Also, I fuel myself with the wrath of my enemies.” Heather stopped to catch her breath as she reached the mountain top, allowing her eyes to soak in the scenery. “How eloquent,” she complimented with a smile, looking up to his expression. Throughout their trip she had seen countless beautiful places, but even the ones she had seen before were better when she allowed herself to enjoy them as much as Ayden enjoyed everything he did. 

“Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“No, you are not getting this Alma. This is not an idea, it’s a fact. Stupid NASA took a hundred years to find out but the Earth has a second tiny moon.”

Ronnie put her shoulders back in preparation to drink her anti-hangover beverage. She grimaced before starting to down it, drinking just under half. She scoffed at Heather’s reference, smiling at her best friend’s wit. She looked down at her green juice after she saw the way Heather’s stress lined her familiar features. “I hope you know that when you get married, I’m not doing anything to help you,” Ronnie sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. “I won’t help with the dress or the flowers, place cards, nothing,” by the end of her sentence Ronnie’s smile had defeated her teasing, bringing some affection to her post-drunken eyes. 

“And what makes you think you’d be my maid of honor, you self absorbed child?” She teased back, but her eyes too were affectionate. “I mean, just think about how fabulous Matthew would look in a maid of honor dress.” She appreciated Ronnie’s smart change of subject, and felt the stress leaving her shoulders as she took another sip of coke. “Lucky for you, if I was ever to get married again it would be with Tylka. And I’m pretty sure he’d love to take care of everything.”

Ayden turned to catch her kiss and realized then how much he had missed her. He knew he would follow her anywhere. Ayden rested his forehead against Heather’s and smiled gently. He took her hand when they began towards their cabin. “Since you’ve been away,” he started after a moment, “would you like a recap?” Ayden didn’t wait for her answer, smiling wider as he swung their hands between them. “Lindsay graduated from law school and I saved all of the Time’s crosswords for us to do together though their absence may have lowered my IQ because I accidentally killed that plant I was trying to grow in the kitchen, but I bought a new one. I’ll be much more attentive this time.” He laughed adjusting his grip on her suitcase. “And Ronnie stopped by and borrowed at least six of your tshirts. I like her. She’s cool.” 

Things felt awfully better once he kissed her, in those moments Heather thought she could actually get through anything life threw her way, so she smiled against his lips and allowed him to pull her towards their cabin. He didn’t even give her time to say that yes, she’d love a recap, before he started talking. “Yeah, I spoke to Lindsay on the phone the other day. She was feeling miserable about not being in Helios and so was I, we bonded, it was beautiful,” she teased. Heather beamed at the idea of a whole weekend in her pajamas, ordering Chinese and doing crosswords with Ayden. “Oh no, Petunia!” she mock protested, she had a hobby of giving awful names to indoor plants. “What’s the new plant like? Boy or girl?” She let out a loud laugh at the thought of Hurricane Veronica sweeping by their cabin and stealing her clothes, but the laughter died off as she registered Ayden’s last words. He liked her. Her favorite person in the world liked her other favorite person in the world. Heather’s smile grew more sincere and she looked down, squeezing Ayden’s hand with hers. 

Ayden’s knitted eyebrows laid flatter when Heather finished speaking, her word ‘poisonous’ rounding each corner of his mind. He raised his hand again to tuck some brown hair behind her ear and noticed how it was easier to look at her beautiful eyes than to see the defeat pooling inside of them. He nodded after a moment. “Then I’ll be there,” Ayden swore, his voice warmer than tropical sun. He glanced at her suitcase and his fingers moved to cradle the back of his neck, his other hand grabbing her bag. “Let’s get you back to the cabin, alright?” 

Heather sighed in relief, she knew she was being selfish, that the right thing to do would be to ask Ayden to stay at Helios and wait for her. But the thought of returning to her parent’s manor, enduring long exhausting days just to come back to an empty bed she hated... she couldn’t do that. Ayden removed his hand from her face and she nodded, wanting more than anything to go home. “But first,” she murmured, leaning in slowly to press her lips to his lovingly. 

“Ew,” Ronnie spat, rolling her eyes under her hand tent. “How’d that go over?” She quizzed, looking up just enough to see their waiter deliver their drinks. 

Heather dismissed the waiter as he offered them straws, pushing the green juice towards Ronnie and grabbing her own coke, using it as an excuse to spend a moment ordering her thoughts. “I am the less involved maid of honor in history, my duties include sitting on my ass while my mom and future Mrs. Dr. Drake Ramoray discuss wedding details for hours.”

The fluorescents of the diner prompted Ronnie to fidget with her sunglasses, pushing them closer to her eyes. “I swear to god restaurants are not this bright in New York.” She made a makeshift visor with hands cupping her forehead. “Why couldn’t you have partied with me last night?” She whined. “I like it when we’re miserable together.” 

Heather chuckled, when Ronnie had walked in everyone had turned around to see the sunglasses wearing goddess, but after she threatened to bite off the heads of those staring, the two were given privacy. “Trust me, I’d take the hangover over my night. I had to skype with the blushing bride.”

“I mean, if there is no chance that you will stay here – stay here and not go to the wedding,” Ayden prodded, half pleading, already knowing her answer. The spider web of high rises and Prada that Heather knew as home was still something Ayden knew he would never comprehend. He understood most things, but never her family – how they treated her, how they pawned her. He lifted a hand to her cheek, his thumb running gently across her temple when he continued to speak. “Then I want to be there, Heather. That is, if you want me to be, I mean,” he corrected quickly, his hand slipping back to his lap. 

Heather wished to be stronger, to be able to say NO and stand her ground. But even when she didn’t particularly cared about being cut off, even when she did her best to remember that she shouldn’t care about her father’s approval, she didn’t want to be in their black list. It was dangerous, and it was dangerous for Ayden too. “I don’t want you to be there,” she said honestly. “I don’t want to go, but there is no way out of it, I’m sorry. And even when I would much rather to have you as far away from my poisonous family... I don’t think I could make it if you aren’t there.”

“Look, if you could just start over quieter and slower, the odds of me hearing you this time around would increase by like one thousand.” 

Heather rolled her eyes at Ronnie when the waiter repeated the day’s special for the millionth time. “We’ll both have waffles, bring me a coke and Miss Hangover here, you bring her a green juice, thanks.” She handed the menus back and dismissed the waiter. “Done.”

Ayden felt his body relax just enough when Heather leaned against him. His arm was outstretched ready to hold her when she erased their distance. His eyes still rested on his knee. He tried to think of Heather’s trip or coffee shops or trees in the tropical forest, but all that insisted on covering each recess of Ayden’s mind was Kevin. Still incensed by the idea of him getting to see Heather ever again, let alone so soon, Ayden was surprised by the almost undetectable smile that curved his lips at her admission, how it only took Heather a few words to make him feel more at ease. He moved his hand up and down against her jacket. “I missed you too,” he replied earnestly. After Heather spoke again, Ayden’s posture changed, his hand moving to rest on her thigh when he tilted his head. “Wait. I can come?” 

Heather closed her eyes, she would much rather be at their cabin, where she could really fall asleep against Ayden and not think about anything. She was tired from flying, sitting, walking and thinking, mostly she was tired of over thinking. In her mind every single bad moment she had spent with Kevin was played on repeat, only stopping when Ayden tightened his hold on her. Reluctantly, she peeled off him when his posture changed, blinking away both her exhaustion and confusion. “Well, yes. If you want to, that is. Lindsay is going, and I assume Evan will too. Ronnie, most probably... even Garrett. I marked ‘plus one’, so if you wanted to come, you could.”

Ayden followed Heather to the bench, feeling the weight of the way she blamed herself pull him down to sit beside her. There was space between them, but he carefully placed his hand on her knee nonetheless. He knew she was right. Ayden didn’t know what they were like. “They’re your family, Heather,” he stated after a moment. “I don’t ever want you to chose between them and me.” He couldn’t bring his eyes to hers as they rested on his hand when he moved it from her knee to her back. He copied her, covering his face with his other palm. He looked at her finally, running his hand down her back. “You must be exhausted from your flight.” 

His words made Heather look up, her heart aching as she tried to tell him that there was no choice to make, that if it came to it she would always choose him over her family. But she knew the consequences of disobeying her father, of making her sister unhappy. Tiredly, she sank into his comfort, closing the distance between them so that she could wrap a weak arm around Ayden and nodded at his comment. “I mostly just missed you a lot,” she confessed with a sigh, closing her eyes. “You don’t have to come to the wedding if you don’t want to.”

“Anytime,” Evan returned politely. Looking at Heather’s car again, he smirked, processing her words. “What does ‘repercute’ mean?” He asked, playing into the empty minded football player Heather used to know. 

“It’s French for ‘have an effect on’ or, the way I’d put it, ‘fuck the shit up’.” She beamed at his question, feeling a little of the old Heather resurface, not that she would ever thank Evan out loud for that. She couldn’t help but laugh and roll her eyes at his boasting, but simply agreed with him silently. 

The bridge in her voice sent shivers down his own spine, but he couldn’t bring himself to take his hand from her arm. “No! Jesus Christ, Heather, of course not, but there has got to be another option,” he persisted, his empty arm raised fingers to his disheveled hair. “I won’t let you be around Kevin. No chance in hell.” 

“There’s no other way, alright?!” Heather bursted out, removing his hand from her arm and immediately regretting. Her lip quivered and she felt the tears threaten to come out, so she did the only thing she could think of and sat on a bench nearby, burying her face in her hands. “You don’t know what they are like, Ayden. You have no idea. And this is all my fault, because I did know and still I chose to play by their rules and married him instead of- of coming back to you.”