The exchange

Beautiful

I wake up again at about 3am, Jessica was in a deep sleep next to me, shuffling out from beneath the duvet to make sure I let no cold air in I get up and silently walk into Jessica’s room. I knew what she is feeling and it hurt me even though we just met for the first time it didn’t stop me from wanting to help her in any way I could. On the far side of her bed I found a blood spotted tissue wrapped around a thin blade, with both now in the bin I pull up the covers of Jessica’s bed and shut down her laptop and head back to bed.

“Luce? are you up?” Jessica’s whisper wakes me up from my light sleep, “I’m sorry about last night, Can I just ask for one favour?” her breath still quietly blending into the fading shadows. “Yeah? sure what is it?” I open my eyes and look up at the high ceiling, knowing what she was about to ask. “Can you not say anything to my parents, it’s not going to happen again but I just don’t want them knowing what I have done.” I sit up and look at her, “sure, you won’t do it again will you?” She just simply shook her head, stood up and walked out of my room back into hers. It’s 5am and tiredness still clouded my head I laid back down and fell back into a deep sleep.

*Knock knock* “Good morning sweetheart!” Rose’s cheerful voice filled my ears on her entrance into my room. “Time to get up, I’ve prepared breakfast for you downstairs we have to go out and get you your school stuff and I was hoping to show you round today” I sat up and smiled. I pull myself out of bed and open my newly organised closet, the neatness of it made me happy. I was totally indecisive of what to wear so I opened up one of the curtains to see the weather outside, sunny but cold. I pull out my jeans in the bottom drawer and put them on pairing them up with my baggy GEEK jumper. I open my door and see Jessica’s door still closed, I go to knock on it to see if she was ready for breakfast and I raise my hand she opens the door causing both her and I to get a small fright, she smiles and giggles. “Breakfast?” she questioned I motioned at the stairs and I follow her down them. “Good Morning girls!” Stephen greeted us as we walked into the dining room and we all sat down at the table. Jessica and I were washing up, with her parents out of the room I took the opportunity to check up on her. “Jessica? are you okay?” she turned her head to me still keeping her wet hands over the sink to prevent more cleaning “I’m good. Thanks.” her smile proved to me that she was a bit better than last night, her eyes lit up, colour filled them and it just caused me to smile.

The morning rolled over to the afternoon and we were still out it had been a nice day, we had gone to the bank to get my money changed over and we had gone to get me supplies for school and a uniform. “Okay, Lucy we’re heading out to a big hill where you can see the whole town, it’s a nice sight” Stephen flicked his eyes into the rearview mirror and I smile and nodded in my head.

The sights were beautiful, it wasn’t really the town that excited me it was just the whole idea of this, everything was so different. I had walked to the top and was standing looking at the vastness when someone's footsteps became audible behind me on the gravel. I swiftly turn around, not wanting to take any chances with an unknown behind me. “Woah Luce it’s just me Jess? remember me?” she giggled. it made me happy to see some personality that I had gotten to know over the past couple of months. “Sorry Jessica, just new here don’t know what to trust” I laughed and turned around to look at the rooftops lined up together. “Hey, I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t ever want someone to see me like that.” she sits up on the low brick wall and looks out the opposite way as me. “Jessica, it’s fine. I understand and I won’t tell anyone as long as you don’t do it again. Please promise?” I look up at her and make eye contact. “I promise.” she smiled and thrusted herself off the wall. “Lucy, thanks you” she placed her hand on my shoulder and smiled again, I just smiled back. “Come with me, I know a nice place we can sit and relax. Mum and dad have gone into town to get some afternoon tea so we can have a picnic out here.” she took hold of my hand and pulled me through some trees and into a clearing. It was beautiful this small amount of field grew lawn daisies, the sun filtered through the trees and it was just so peaceful. we laid down, away from each other, head to head. “this is beautiful” I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath of fresh air. “I know”. we laid there for what seemed like hours but in reality was about 20 minutes until Rose and Stephen came back.