Run, Girl (If You Can)

Violet spent the rest of the weekend watching all of the home videos she could involving her mother's family. It helped distract her from thoughts of her impending surgery. There were years and years of footage to go through.

Most of the time Robert wasn't in the footage since he was busy filming his wife and daughter. Once Kaleb came along and got a bit older they switched off being the one holding the camera more often.

The Halls seemed like such a happy family. The parents loved each other, the siblings were close, and they all had a lot of fun together. It was no wonder her mother made sure her own family was the same way when she grew up.

A newfound appreciation popped up in Violet's heart for her mother. After watching all of these videos…Keeley must have been absolutely devastated losing two of the most important people in her life at the same time. Yet she was still probably the happiest person Violet knew, except for possibly her father.

Both of her parents had difficult lives before they met each other. Maybe that was why they worked together so well.

The last of the home videos was filmed on Independence Day in 2001, a few short weeks before their family broke apart. Keeley and Kaleb were wearing American flag shirts and waving sparklers around next to a picnic table full of traditional barbecue food.

Monica was messily eating a hot dog at the table, facing outwards to supervise her children playing with fire. She noticed the camera was on her and glared at her husband.

"Rob, do you have to film me when I have mustard on my face?"

"Why not? Mustard doesn't make you any less beautiful," he replied cheekily off-screen.

A soft expression appeared on her face as she rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"Yeah but you love me anyway!"

"Yeah. I do." She smiled brightly at the man behind the camera and the focus resumed on the playing children before the video cut off.

That was it. There wasn't anything else to see because the smiling woman and laughing little boy had died. Violet felt a horrific sense of loss for people she had never even met. She had gotten so attached looking through those pictures and watching those videos.

She used to think it was so romantic that her grandpa never got over her grandma but now…it was absolutely heartbreaking. That was his best friend. His lifelong best friend. The person he had grown up with.

Robert didn't only lose his wife and child that day. He lost his oldest and closest friend. Violet couldn't even imagine how horrible it must have been for him. No wonder he had never moved on! How could he when he had suffered such a huge loss?

Honestly, it was a miracle he even managed to be the relatively cheerful person he had been when she was a child. How had he ever recovered enough to keep living when Monica was gone? How could someone even survive losing their best friend like that?

"Hey, Nathan's making something fancy I can't even pronounce for dinner. You want any?" Kaleb asked, appearing in the doorway.

He saw the tears streaming down her face and was instantly alarmed. "Whoa, what happened?"

"Grandpa loved Grandma so much and he lived without her almost as long as he lived with her," Violet sobbed. She barely managed to get the words out.

Her twin didn't seem to understand why she was so distressed. "Well they're together now. Why did you watch all of this stuff if it was going to upset you this much?"

It wasn't like she knew beforehand that it would upset her! She only wanted to know whether or not it was truly possible to fall in love with someone you grew up with. The answer she had gotten was a resounding yes.

"Grandma was his Noah," she murmured. "Didn't you know? They grew up together."

Kaleb eyed the disaster of photo albums and home videos spread out all over the entertainment room floor. "You went through all of his junk because they were childhood friends?"

Ah, she couldn't explain herself to him! He wouldn't get it. Her twin was about as unromantic as they come. Violet went through all of those old memories because she needed answers and she had gotten them, if not in the way she expected.

Robert lost his best friend of thirty-two years and never recovered. Was she really about to let her best friend of twenty-four years walk away because she cared about something and stupid and insignificant as a storybook romance?

Noah understood her better than anyone in this world and vice versa. Their relationship had always been easy, comfortable, and fun.

Violet loved him. Undeniably. She wasn't in love with him yet but at the very least she could try, couldn't she? Who would be better to spend her life with than her best friend? She had been blinded by her own stupidity.

He was the one who was always there for her. He cheered her up when she was down. He had been complimenting her the way a boyfriend would for over a decade and she had dismissed it because he was 'just Noah.'

She was an idiot. She wanted to talk to him more than anything but this was something that needed to be said in person. It would have to wait until her surgery was over and done with and she had some mobility back.

At the very least, Violet needed to tell him she broke up with Jeremy. But she couldn't find the right words. She was afraid he of what he would say. That might have to wait until she could see him in person too.

If only she wasn't stuck on the couch with this stupid busted up knee. She would march right over to Noah's place right now, throw her arms around him, and tell him how much he meant to her. He had already waited this long…he could wait a little bit longer for her, right?

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