The Best Friend's Contract
Chapter 68

Without me realising, I've already leaned closer towards her face, eyeing down at her lips for a few seconds before placing my lips onto her forehead, closing my eyes. Just like that, I start to lean back-standing up straight, away from her. "I guess I will never know," I mutter.

I walk out of the room and straight down the hallway, seeing Mia staring out of the window with her hand gripping tightly onto her phone. My legs make their way towards her, immediately catching her attention as she wipes away her fallen tears. "Hey," She says. "Hey," I reply before taking a seat.

"You okay?" I ask, looking at her features and how her brown eyes move to look at me; it appears dull and somehow sad but aren't we all, today? Question of the day.

"Yeah... I guess. Just a lot on my mind. Where's Kenna?" She replies as she tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear, pulling her knees up to her chin-her eyes are slightly swollen and she seems to be out of place, somewhat her body is here but not her soul. "Asleep." I frown, "Are you sure you're okay, Mia? You can tell me anything. Problems in school or problems with Tony? Did he hurt you?" Tony-Mia's boyfriend of two years, they've been together since they first started university and things have been fine. I assume. When she first fell in love with some kid back in high school... or more like a crush thing, she was miserable when things didn't turn out great but Tony made her realise how he was her first love, all along.

She chuckles, "Tony wouldn't hurt me, Aidan. He's not like that," She replies as she turns to look out at the sky through the window. "I'm just going through a hard time. Every college student go through that... don't they? I'm sure you were as miserable as me," She smirks.

I smile, "I was miserable. Not fucking miserable but things were hard. Just don't worry too much, okay? Shitty things like this will pass and you won't even have to turn back and see how it went because fuck it, right?" I stand up to mess with her hair in which she groans before pushing my hand away, laughing.

"Great advice, bro. Great damn advice,"

--

That night,

After changing into a plain shirt with shorts, I glance at Kenna to see her still sleeping soundly since earlier-causing me to smile, realising how she's going to feel slightly better when she wakes up after all of the crying and heart aching moments she went through a couple of days ago.

I step out of the room and walk down the stairs, surprised to see Julia sitting all by herself in the living room, staring onto a stack of albums.

"Oh... Aidan, I didn't see you there." She says after realising that I'm currently standing in the middle before gesturing for me to take a seat, "I thought you were already asleep. Where's Kenna?" She asks, wiping away the tears on her cheeks.

I take a seat, "Kenna's still sleeping. She was tired,"

Julia nods before pointing at the albums, "His favourite songs. I still remember how we used to sing each one, all the time, in the car. He never gets bored of it even though he listens to them, every single day." She clears her throat, "I was just playing some."

I look down at her phone, seeing her putting it beside her before tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry... Julia. I'm really sorry," I mutter as the room falls silent, not a single sound is heard-only the sound of our breaths, "He deserves so much more. I swear,"

"It's just... unexpected, Aidan. Yes, he deserves to die differently. John was a good man, a great father and a loving husband-he was everything to me and I'm sure he was everything to Kenna, too. He gave us everything we needed, he gave us all the love he had and he had never once disappoint me or his daughter. I'm sure he deserves so much more," She replies.

I keep quiet, listening to her.

She breathes out, "You will take good care of Kenna, won't you?"

"I will for as long as I can," I reply with a small smile creeping up my face as a sudden pain hits my chest, making me realise that this lie is only getting deeper and deeper. There's no way out of it if we keep on making the wrong choices such as lying about this marriage, lying about our undying love.

"I'm sure you're a great husband, Aidan. You were a good friend to Kenna. John admitted that, too. We were worried if Kenna was going to marry someone odd or different but when we were told about the engagement, we were more than happy. We were thankful. We know there's no one better out there for her than you," She smiles, sighing.

"One day... when you both are ready, you'll be a great father, too. I'm sure of it," The way her words sinked deeply into my heart-somehow causing me to look down at my own hand, not sure of what to say or how to respond to something like that; something that won't ever happen for us unless we're with different people.

That kind of future will be dragging

us in a different direction. One of us will be unprepared for that kind of change of course and I'm sure the person prepared would be me. It's hard to admit and it's hard to even tell anyone because Dimitri was right... I've started to fall for her. I don't know if it's an adrenaline rush or something worse but every time I'm close to her, there's just something flickering in me.

There's a possibility.

There's just not much hope.

My mind wanders off to imagine what kind of life it would be: being able to hold her whenever I want to, kiss her lips, admire her features and even travel the world with her. Something that seems too real to be true but we're somehow halfway there, we're here and we're married... it's just that our marriage isn't something that would last for a lifetime.

We both lied. Lied to the person who died and we're both going to regret it for the rest of our lives. No matter how this ends, we will be reminded of this day and we will always think back of how we could've made different choices.

It's insane how I have to admit. Dimitri was right all along. He knew things like this could happen and he warned me-he told me not to continue this foolish plan because this will all be something Kenna and I will regret. He was right... unfortunately, it's just me who began to realise it a bit earlier than her.

Maybe because of his experience

with his ex-wife or with different women lately I was probably too naive to even notice. There's no

such thing as avoiding ours met

not fall in love with someone

Rovel.

especially with someone as

attractive, as nice as Kenna Look at her... anyone would see that she's the perfect package-the kind of woman you want to take home to

your parents instead of out to party.

"I'm going to get some rest. You should, too." She starts to stand up before patting onto my shoulder, "Don't stay up for long." She adds, walking up the stairs. "Goodnight," I reply.

I'm way too deep to drag myself out

of this but what if I end up hurting myself? What if she won't see the way I see things? What if she's determined to just end this the. it should be? What if we can't even

have a future other than staying as

friends? What if we're

stuck in

between and all we want is a better

life? A better someone? What if I'm

just overthinking?

If I'm in a storytelling contest, I know this would be one hell of a story and it might even have an unexpected ending.

Well... it all started with a girl named Kenna and she was the death of me.