Better on our own - English

Early Awakening

Attention: This chapter mentions a little more intimate get-together. Nothing detailed or suggestive. But I want to at least have warned so that no one can complain later ;-)

We had both been pretty silent the whole trip, just worrying about if Penny had been seriously injured. Neither Sarah nor I had seen what had happened to her, thanks to our hasty escape, but neither had we seen any blood on her as we watched Mr. Jones carry her out. Should that reassure us? It didn't mean that she was okay - especially since our kissing tactics meant we couldn't really keep a close eye on her to be sure that she wasn't more seriously injured than we thought.

As we arrived at the house and got out, a car was coming from the direction of Pontypandy and I looked up hopefully, but it was just a van from Bella's Pizzeria and I watched it pass by a little thoughtfully until Sarah put her hand on my shoulder and literally pushed me towards the door.

"Stop thinking about it, Niall. Penny will be fine. There's nothing you could have done to prevent this," she then argued and I looked at her confused.

"How do you know that I'm wondering if I could have done something?" I asked her surprised as she took the key ring from my hand and unlocked it for me. I was so caught up in my guilty conscience that I didn't function properly and everything took a while to get implemented. Well, Sarah took care of that for me.

"Call it a hunch," she replied with a smile and opened the door. I let her go in first and followed her in before closing the door behind us. "She's in best hands with my uncle and Ellie is with her too. They're her oldest and best friends. They'll do the right thing, to help her," she said as she entered my living room and headed straight for the kitchen to fill two glasses with juice from the small refrigerator.

"I don't doubt that, Sarah. It's just that I might have been able to intervene if we had stayed seated. She was lying in the corner where we were sitting before. I might have been able to catch her, or..." , I began to think out loud as I collapsed onto the couch and ran both hands through my hair.

"Or you could have been lying there yourself," she interrupted as she handed me one of the two glasses and I gave a quick nod of thanks before taking a sip as she sat down next to me. "You never know what fate has in store for you, so you shouldn't try to change what was preordained. But above all, you shouldn't rack your brain about how you could have changed a situation. It's over and just because you rack your cute head, you can't turn back time either."

"Are you joining the amateur esotericists now?" I asked her with a smile and put my glass on the table when I thought of something and looked at her with wide eyes. "Did you just imply that I'm cute?" I asked her surprised and felt a tell-tale warmth rise in my cheeks again, but also saw that she felt the same as she looked embarrassed into her glass.

"My mother is...let's say a little alternative and also esoteric interested. So I couldn't avoid getting a little something out of it I guess," she said with a smile and raised her glass to her lips."And yes, you are," she murmured quietly before drinking and placing her glass on the table next to mine.

"What does that mean, she's alternative?" I then asked her confused, after I had wiped the probably stupid grin off my face and saw with joy that she looked up at me again and apparently relaxed enough to turn towards me and let the herself sink back to the backrest and laid her arm on it to rest her cheek in her hand.

"As I said, she also believes in fate and that certain things are predetermined. She thinks that nothing happens without a reason and that everything has a deeper meaning. Likewise, she believes in higher powers and that we can achieve a deeper consciousness, if we would listen more to our bodies, as well as to the world around us - especially to nature. There are miracles and the supernatural in everything. We just have to learn to understand it," she then explained to me.