Vitality

Chapter 21

The door slowly opened and it was an old man. I'm guessing Keaton's grandfather.

"Hi, is Keaton here?" I asked

"Yeah, but he doesn't want to talk to anyone so I suggest you go home young lady" he pointed his hand outside

"No, Mr. You don't understand. I must speak to him" I begged to see Keaton.

"I'll be right back" he shut the door and I heard little footsteps.

This is going to actually take forever. I walked around the house and saw a couple legs hanging off the house. Those were definitely Keaton's. Conveniently there was a ladder lying on the grass. I picked that up and started climbing onto the roof. I was so close to making it to the top but then some animal ran into the ladder and I almost fell but I caught myself on the siding. I pulled myself up and there he was, sitting on the roof. He looked lifeless. I walked over to him and sat next to him. We didn't speak for about 3 minutes.

"It's two years today" he softly said looking up at the sky.

"Two years today what?" I asked looking at him.

He sighed, shook his head and then looked out into the distance. "Two years ago that I tried to kill myself" I could feel the pain in his voice as he said those words.

I honestly had no idea what to say. That line actually broke my heart. Why would he ever want to do that to himself?

"What? Why?" I questioned.

"I hated my parents and then I ended up hating myself. It all became bad. I easily got frustrated and it seemed like a good decision at the time. I took pills and then my parents found me in my bathroom unconscious. They rushed me to the hospital and saved me in time. Sometimes I wish they didn't find me" he brushed his hands in his hair.

"No, Keaton. I would never want you to hurt yourself. You're too valuable to go like that. I don't think I could live with myself if you did that" I admitted

"But you dumped me. Remember?" He made my heart pound. I felt the feeling in my stomach starting to churn.

"Listen Keaton, I'm sorry I shut you out. I should've let you tell me the truth but all I was thinking was the worst. I've been cheated on before so I didn't want to get hurt as badly as I did before but this time it's worse. I lost you all because of me." I kept my eye contact facing his direction. He looked at me.

"Did you even read my texts or listen to my voicemails?" He asked making me cry.

"No, and I'm sorry" I started sobbing. Gosh why am I so fucking weak.

"It's okay" he rubbed my back. It felt good feeling his warm hand.

"Please Keaton just come home. I need you, the football team needs you. The championship is tomorrow" I wiped my tears away.

He let go of me and then took a minute to think.

"Alright, I'll come home. But I think it's best if we don't get back together" he boggled my mind by saying that. Why can't we get back together?

"Okay" I agreed. My mission was to get him home and I was fulfilling it.

Since Keaton brought his own car here, we took separate cars back to West Canal. I followed him back so I didn't have to use the GPS. The sun was nearly rising when we were on the highway. I heard his car blasting Fall Out Boy and I turned my radio off so I could listen. The whole ride home he kept Dance, Dance on repeat. That's four hours of the same song, our song. I still can't figure out why he doesn't want to get back together. I mean maybe he wants to focus on other things for a while which is fine but he never gave me a reason. And I know that he felt something for me, like more than a liking. I think we both felt real love together but no one ever said it. I think it might even be too late to say anything about love.