gabi-bryant:
“Oh.” Was Gabi’s initial reaction to the question, she hadn’t been expecting it. However, as the word left her lips, she realized how rude it sounded. “No– no, it’s not a rude question.” She assured, shaking her head quickly. “I go to college sort of a good distance from here, so I left really for that.” It was the easy answer to give him, the one she had given most people for the last few years. “…but I guess I have some haunted memories here, so I’ve avoided coming back.” Gabrielle admitted, giving the male a small shrug.
“Yeah, I uh...” Luca let out a small laugh, but it was humorless. “I know what you mean.” Over time, he’d definitely considered leaving town on more than one occasion, but he just couldn’t do it. Leaving would mean getting away from the tiny bit of Jeremy he had left - the places where they’d made memories together - and he wasn’t sure he could do that, even if it probably would be better for him. He was still attached to a relationship left unfinished, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever get over it. Especially since those memories were the only ‘proof’ he had that they’d even been together, except for a few, coded text messages, and a stack of sticky notes.
Whenever Jeremy had slipped out while Luca was asleep, he’d leave a scribbled note on the pillow, accompanied by a small, often crude, stick figure drawing of them. Luca had always found them to be a pretty smart move on Jeremy’s part - he couldn’t get mad at the guy for leaving without saying goodbye if he’d made him smile, right? - and he’d saved all of them in a small box, buried deep in his closet. He hadn’t let himself open it since he’d heard the news of Jeremy’s death, but that didn’t matter. He’d looked at them enough times over their relationship to know exactly what each one said.
“So... did something change? Wait, let me guess-” Luca held up his hand in mock concentration, before giving his prediction. “You heard that a handsome, sharp dressed-” he gestured to his t-shirt, shorts, and sneaker combo, “-and incredibly witty young man moved to town, and you just had to meet him for yourself?” He laughed again, but this time it was real, even if it was at his own dumb joke. “You’ve been wandering the streets with the excuse of looking for a new study spot, but it was really to find me, I see, I get it now.” Teasing her, Luca held out his arm, nodding back in the direction he’d come from. “Come on, let me treat you to lunch. We can sit and try to avoid our haunted memories, together.”













