badowensummers:
New Year’s Day / Amelia + Owen
It was obvious that he shouldn’t be here. It wasn’t wise to return to the place of the crime, but the only crime here for him now was that Amelia had picked up his lighter on New Year’s Day and felt compelled to pick it up. And so started their story. If he believed in fate or magic or whatever this clearly was, then he would have said they were meant to be.
He had actually tried to text and call her, but he wasn’t surprised with what had happened last time that she didn’t answer him. He knew he should give her space, but after his talk with Charlie, he knew he didn’t want to be like her. She was shut off from the world so completely and he thought that was what he was going to do, but he had this person who made him want to feel things. If he left it too long then she might not want him anymore. It was selfish and that was the thing that stopped him coming to the place he knew she would be jogging at, but still he was here.
She started to appear around the corner and he felt the tensing of his chest and the beating of his heart that he wasn’t used to. It made him want to run away, but he stood to his spot. He put out his cigarette and braced himself for her indifference. “You didn’t answer my call last night,” He couldn’t believe that was what he was choosing as his opening statement to her, but he couldn’t take it back now. “I wanted to see how you were doing and… uh, to talk.”
The last two years of Amelia’s life, it was like she had been a frog in a heated pot - unaware of how close she really was to imminent danger. Yet now that it was over, she could see that she’d been slowly drowning all along. The immediate relief she felt in being free of Nate was like taking her first gulp of air in over a year, and things had only gotten better since that moment. Her bruises were fading, her confidence was returning, and she was overwhelmed with relief. She could feel herself healing.
Running had quickly become less about the necessity of clearing Amelia’s thoughts now, and more so just something she did because it made her happy, like an old friend she hadn’t been able to fully dedicate time to in too long. So, when she rounded the corner of her usual path, the one behind the Fitzpatrick’s farm, where Matt Banks had been found, and saw the outline of a figure - she was taken aback for a moment. She already knew who it was, of course, as she saw Owen nearly everyday now in passing, and although she hadn’t spoken to him since their kiss and his rejection, she felt like she could pick him out of a crowd blindfolded.
Amelia felt the same flutter in her chest that she’d felt all week at seeing Owen at school - whether across campus green or walking ahead of her whilst she was on her way to class. She slowed her pace to a walk as she got closer, and removed her earbuds once she reached him. Amelia smiled at Owen yet remained silent, not knowing what to say - she’d made an open ended promise of friendship the last time she spoke to him, one that they both knew wouldn’t actually happen. How could it when so many deeper feelings had been laid out between them and sealed with a kiss, only to be dismissed as a terrible idea. She could ask him why he was here, so obviously waiting for her, but she knew why. She’d seen his text and his call the night before and blatantly ignored them.
“No, I didn’t.” She answered as frankly as possible. “I’ve been spending less time on my phone, away from social media and everything. Until the gossip died down.” It was true, she’d deleted her apps from her phone once the rumours started swirling, and she couldn’t deny the relief in losing the compulsion to check her phone every few minutes for a text or call from Nate. Amelia nodded softly with a smile. “I’m better, everything has been really good. How’s your hand?” She looked at Owen with a slight shake of her head. “To talk? Is there really anything left to talk about?”












