Till The End

Chapter 16

Jake

"STOP!" I hear Dylan shout. When I stop and turn around, I find him bent down, hands on his knees, panting. "I- I need a break."

"If we go fast, we'll get to the hill in less than ten minutes. Let's go."

"Are you kidding me? I can barely stand up!"

"Stop being dramatic. Let's go. We'll take a break there."

We've been running for over an hour now. I run when I'm stressed, and today there's a lot going on, so I need a lot of running.

It takes us more than ten minutes to get to the hill; Dylan refused to run. I can't convince him to climb it with me either, so we stay at the foot. After some stretching, we sit down at our usual spot. I love to come here. The view is better from the top of the hill, but here it is still high enough to give us a beautiful view of the forest on one side and the town on the other side. It is peaceful out here; there are no cars and only a few people running. We sit for a minute, taking in the fresh air. Dylan looks like he's dying; he is still panting. His shirt is soaked with sweat, and his face is red. Maybe we should have taken more pause. We never ran all the way here. We always take the car and leave it where the road stops a few miles down, but today we were not planning to come all the way here; we just did.

"Are you okay?" he asks after settling his breathing.

"Yeah, I still have enough energy to climb up there."

"You know damn well what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, I'm all good." I really am. I'm not that terrorized kid anymore. I just don't want him to hurt them. Austin seems okay with it, and Mia does whatever she wants. But my mother...

"You want me to call Mr. Jones?" He asks, concerned. Mr. Jones is my therapist. I haven't seen him in over a year. I have been doing great since I started to date Aelia, so I just stopped going to our sessions.

"No, I'm okay. I won't let him get to me, not this time. Not anymore."

"You are not going to..."

I had a problem a few years ago. My mother's health was going down, we were behind on all our bills, and I was exhausted from working so much to get enough money. All of our savings went to my mom's hospital fees. I could barely sleep, and I was always stressed. I was already seeing Mr. Jones at that time. Dylan's parents were paying for it and the medication until we got more financially stable and I paid them back. His prescription was not working, or at least I thought it wasn't, so I started to take more than prescribed. Then someone told me that it would work better if I took it with alcohol, so I did. It did feel better. That same person then told me that he had something better. Something that would give me more energy and make me feel better, so I took it. I was young, tired, depressed, and desperate. Easy prey. It did make everything better. I felt happy, full of energy. But then the effect would be gone, and I would feel worse than before, so I would take more and more. I got addicted to these shits, and if Dylan had not seen the change in me, I don't know where I would be today. Maybe I wouldn't even be here today. He kicked my ass and took me to a rehab center that he paid for using the money he got from the first robot he built and sold. We were only sixteen at the time, and no one knows about this. I told Aelia about some of my past last night, but I kept that part out. Dylan saved me. He always does. He has always been by my side, helping me get up every time I fall. I owe him everything.

"No. I won't. I swear." I will never touch these again. I can't do that to Dylan. Out of everything, seeing how disappointed he was in me was the worst. He still stood by me after that. He did not let me down. I can't do that to him.