Three Years

Just listening to Destiny talk, Zan couldn't help but feel bad for her. What a miserable way to grow up. Everyone had their sad stories, and nobody had a perfect childhood, but hers sounded downright rotten and unfair. This Agency place must have been absolutely awful to have had such power over her family. If he hadn't heard it from her directly, he would have thought she was exaggerating, if not flat out lying, but he could tell she was speaking the truth. "Well... if you'd gone to prom, you woulda dazzled them all." He had no idea, but he'd like to believe that anyway - more importantly, he hoped she believed it herself.

At Destiny's question of his own past, Zan's eyes snapped over to hers, and he visibly tensed. Looking back down at his plate, he tried to stamp down his feelings. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know any better, and it was an innocent question. He finally glanced back over at her and forced a laugh. "Isn't that the number one thing guys run from? Girls?"

He picked up his half-empty glass before standing. "I'm gonna go get some more pop. Be right back." Once inside, he wandered to the kitchen counter and just leaned on it for a moment, collecting his thoughts. He never talked about his past. Ever. Not even Jett knew the whole story. Thinking about it still made his stomach churn. He glanced over his shoulder to the patio door. In spite of his natural reaction to retreat... was it finally time to let go?

He heaved a sigh and filled his glass before returning to the small patio table. He picked up his fork, ready to take another bite, but he stopped. Leaning back in his chair, he looked out at the backyard. Destiny had shared her story... he owed her the same courtesy. "Her name was Isabella." His tone was void of his earlier humor, and his eyes finally swiveled in her direction. "We were... high school sweethearts. Well... I was three years older, so I was off doing my thing while she was still in school. Her parents didn't approve. I didn't have the greatest reputation, I wasn't good enough and I was too mature for her."

He shrugged. "We ignored them and kept seeing each other anyway. Got to the point where we were talking long-range plans. We weren't engaged but it was headed that way." He shook his head. "Her parents finally had enough, made her life miserable, and she crashed with me for a few weeks. It was all innocent but it just made her parents think all the more bad things about me. She got her own place and... things started looking up for us. Then..."

He swallowed hard as his eyes fell again, and he fiddled with his fork. He had to say it out loud. He had to let go. "We were... in a car accident. I was driving. I remember we were laughing about something... totally caught up in our fairytale. The light was green, so I didn't bother looking at the crossing traffic. But a guy in a truck ran the red light and t-boned my car on the passenger side."

He ran his fork through his half-eaten salad as his mind's eye took him back to that day. "I woke up in the hospital. Had a minor concussion and some cuts and bruises. But Isabella, she... she had more extensive injuries. She made it through surgery and was stable but... she'd fallen into a coma. The doctor said if she didn't wake up in the next three weeks, she never would. And... four weeks went by without any change."

Pausing again, he finally abandoned his fork and folded his arms, rocking back on the back legs of the chair. "Her parents refused to pull the plug, and took her home to care for her there. They blamed me, and wouldn't allow me back on the property. Another month went by and... I couldn't take it anymore. I felt like I was suffocating. So that's when I came here, and that was...about three years ago now." He shrugged again. "I contacted her brother off and on for a little while since he didn't hate me, but eventually I realized nothing was ever going to change. Last time I talked to him was about a year ago. Since then I've just... tried to put it all behind me." He gave a sorry kind of laugh. "Except for the locket. Just hadn't been able to get rid of that one yet."

After another long pause, he finally looked over at Destiny again. "You're the first person I've told all this to since moving out here. Not even Jett knows."