Perhaps Jake needed another friend. Perhaps he didn't.
•••
Six Days Before
"Really," Parker laughed. Jake let himself laugh, too. He didn't know why he went to Parker, a kid he barely knew. But there he sat, in Parker's room, talking about the time Jaylnn ripped his pants at school and had to run home in his boxers.
"Yeah. He ran so fast," Jake said, his shoulders shaking with laughter. Then Jake stopped laughing. His eyebrows furrowed, and Parker was silent.
"Dude." Jake ignored Parker's confusion. Instead he closed his eyes and voiced his thoughts.
"The party...you were there. I remember. I saw you upstairs. In the doorway of that bedroom. I saw you."
Parker's face was red, and he shook his head. "I was there. But I never went upstairs."
Jake nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry. I should go...."
"It's cool, man. You can stay if you want to."
"Nah. I'll come over when I can, though." Jake shook Parker's hand and left.
•••
His shoes were covered in dirt, and he stood, staring at the old gravestone. His mother's grave. He noticed that he never had a mother, and that he never would. Even Jaylnn's mom escaped from their father, leaving Jake and Jaylnn with a screw up of a father.
But that didn't change the way Jake felt. He felt as if he'd lost someone he barely met, but cared so much about. Or maybe that was the loss of Florence getting to him.
He didn't know.
And so he walked back home.
•••
Another day closer.
Yours Truly,
Quiet Observer.
YOU ARE READING
Can You Feel My Heart?
Teen FictionJake never knew he would turn into what he is now. He always thought he would be an inspiration to the next generation. He never knew that his name would be plastered over every single newspaper in Pennsylvania. He was not an inspiration, just anoth...
