The crunching of leaves surrounded her as Gemma ran through the woods with tears in her eyes. She was sick of fighting with him, and sick of being made to feel worthless.
Finally, she reached her destination. The creek was where she came to unwind when she was stressed or upset. She sat down on a large rock and stared into the murky water.
"Just like my life." She said as she picked up a pebble and tossed it into the creek. The ripples calmed her. One by one she skipped stones across the surface of the water. Then she came across something unusual --- A stone shaped like a perfect heart. It was warm to the touch, unlike all the others, which had been stone cold. She contemplated the rock, but she was interrupted by the buzzing of her phone in her pocket.
"I'm at your house. Where are you?" Jedediah was at her house? Was her there to apologize, or to pick another argument?
"I'm down at the creek, I'll be up in a minute." Without another thought, Gemma stuffed the stone in her pocket and headed away from the creek, towards her house.
----
At the house, she saw Jedediah sitting at the dining room table. He looked like he had been waiting a while, so Gemma prepared herself to get yelled at.
"Hey," Gemma mumbled from the doorway, "have you been waiting for very long?"
"Oh, you know, just twenty minutes or so." Jedediah replied, his arms crossed.
"Sorry, if I had known you were coming..." Gemma trailed off.
"No, no. It's fine you're right I should have called first or something." Maybe it was just her paranoia, but he didn't sound fine.
"Oh okay, well, did you need something? Did you leave something here?" Gemma was getting nervous, and she was afraid it could be heard in her voice.
"Nah, just came to see my favorite girl. How about we go for a little walk..." Jedediah lightly grasped her arm, leading her to the door.
"Okay... I guess." Gemma knew better than to argue with him when he wanted something.
"Good, keep that attitude up and we'll have no problems."
---
YOU ARE READING
The Love Stone
RomanceDeath. Love. A strange stone. All these things run hand in hand for the most unexpected twist of life to ever hit Jacksonburg. For one person, this can prove to be the crazy pick me up to a distraught life that they'd been needing.
