Day 3: Write a scene where your favorite song is playing in the background.
Song: Diana by One Direction <3
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Her Mom hadn't let him play her favorite song during her funeral--said it was too upbeat. What she failed to understand was that Jackie was upbeat. All she'd wanted was for love and music and happiness to spread around the globe and infect everyone's hearts. But the world didn't agree with her. And so she left to live in a different one.
He sat down cross-legged in front of her grave and laid the daisies he bought for her on the cold stone. He knew she'd still be listening from the other side, so he pressed play on his phone in a volume only the two of them could hear.
"Hey, Jackie," he said, smiling at her name as if it was her face. "Sorry it took me a week to come back. Things at school have been...busy."
He felt a warmth spread over him, similar to the kind he felt when she used to hug him. It genuinely felt like she was still there. Austin choked back tears before continuing, "The second semester's been really crazy. Three teachers have already given us projects. Can you believe it? We just got out of winter break and they're punishing us already." He chuckled and imagined her agreeing with him. They were always the same when it came to schoolwork--both slightly lazy but Jackie had definitely been smarter.
"But you know, Jackie? Everytime I'm studying I still imagine us staying up until midnight, eating pizza or chocolate or whatever else you wanted." A tear escaped from his eye and he quickly wiped it away. He knew she didn't want to see him cry, and he tried to stop himself all the time, even though he'd already done it in front of her everytime he'd find a new cut on her body, and especially when she was gone. He could still see her telling him that it would be alright.
It hadn't been alright.
"The worst part about school, isn't even school," he told her. "It's not the books or the lectures...it's all these people who used to bully you or blatantly ignore you come near me and tell me they're sorry. Mr. Heston, that teacher who called you stupid? Yeah, he told me it was such a shame because you were such a bright kid. They tell me you always seemed happy and okay, and that they didn't think their jokes had hit that hard. How could they still call them jokes even now?" Tears were streaming down his face like rainfall by now, and even though his vision had blurred her gravestone into a cloud of gray, he still managed to make out the beautiful quote under her name.
"Dive for dreams, and live by love."
"You were everything they weren't, Jackie. You were smart and kind and funny in the best way. I remember you lighting up rooms with your laugh and just your mere presence. I remember you telling Shelbey Hancock she didn't look fat in that skirt when the popular girls were picking on her for it. I remember you comforting Talia when she had a fight with Amanda, even though she was one of your biggest tormentors. And you...you were everything to me."
He cried harder and hid his face in his hands. "And I know you didn't see it...but you were beautiful. You were so, so beautiful. If I'd been there that night--the night you reached your limit--I would've saved you. You know that, right? Please tell me you know that."
He sat there and cried for close to an hour, drowning in his overwhelming emotions. Regret, sadness, grief, frustration--they all attacked him with gusto, making his heart clench tight and his mouth dry up like the Sahara. The tears wouldn't seem to stop; he was crying her a river. She was the first girl he loved, and he knew that no matter what happened, he was never going to forget her.
The song had looped about fifteen times. He looked up as the sun began to set, and figured he might as well watch this one with her.
Baby you'd be saving mine...
