Unwanted (Editing)

Letting Him Go

A/N - OMG I am such a bad person. 1) for uploading so late, it's been like four months now and you guys probably hate me now and 2) for uploading such a rubbish chapter. I am sorry for this, truly I am. But I felt I was diappointing y'all by not uploading so here it is! Another chapter. Please comment and Vote and let me know what you think. I would really appreciate it and change anything if need be. Thanks guys for your patience. Happy reading ~Zana

Chapter Sixteen

Five days passed and the reason for many sleepless nights finally approached: Ashley’s funeral. The tears never fail to roll down my cheeks every time Ashley comes to mind. If it was up to me I wouldn’t go to the funeral. I’ve always had a fear of funerals, but Ashley’s parents had personally come over and invited me four days ago.

Avoiding Jay was surprisingly very easy for the past five days; he spent most days with Jessica at her house, but on one of those rare days that he was back home I’d be out with Jasper. I’d only find out he was back when Mum would say something, hoping to encourage me to patch things up with him. I told her everything that day when I returned home after spending time with Jasper at the park. Jasper and I spent a lot more time together and I’d learnt more about him in those five days than I had over the years that our friendship expanded over. Hannah continued to ignore my many calls and text messages to her while I continued to ignore Serenity’s many attempts of apologising.

 I sat, nervously, in the living room going through various breathing techniques. The doorbell rang and I gulped; it was time. I smoothed out the creases from the dress I wore as I stood up, and then made my way to the door. I opened the door to an equally uneasy Jasper.

“Hey.” His black suit twinkled in places the sun hit. He matched a white fitted shirt underneath and shiny shoes. “I know this isn’t the right time to point it out but you look hot!” I laughed as his eyes travelled down, eyeing the short sleeved black dress that went down to my knees I wore. With this I wore one of my Mum’s high heels.

“You sound like Jay,” I laughed in memory of all the compliments Jay showered me with.

“And why is that?” We both snapped our heads to view Jay hopping over the fence over to the porch of my house. “Oh you look hot in that.”

“I…Err…that’s what he said.” I pointed to Jasper who was smiling at Jay’s comment.

“Look Taz, today is about Ashley. Let’s forget about what happen before.” His eyes displayed the utmost sincere and a light smile played across his face. He stretched his arms out and I walked into his embrace. I’m grateful for Jay putting our problem aside for Ashley’s sake.

“C’mon guys, we better get going. We need to take two buses and it starts in half an hour.” Jasper sounded quite annoyed. “Your Mum should’ve just driven us there.”

“It’s not my fault my mother has a job! She’s at work,” I replied as we made our way to the bus stop.

Two buses later we arrived at the church where the ceremony was taking place. There were quite a few people standing outside the church and as we approached the entrance the priest greeted us with a smile. We ambled into the church to perceive Hannah, Jessica and Serenity already seated in the second row. Jessica beckoned us over and we realised Hannah was balling her eyes out. Serenity was comforting her and they were both sat in the corner. Next to Serenity was Jessica and so Jay slid into a seat next to her, Jasper slipped in after him followed by me. Soon after that many people began taking their seats just as Ashley’s favourite song commenced. This brought many joyful as well as tearful memories to mind. My eyes blurred as a light brown coffin was brought into the church followed by Ashley’s parents and grandparents. Ashley’s Mum was in tears, her husband was gripping onto her to support her. It was evident he was holding back the tears for her sake, someone had to be the strong one right? They took a seat on the row in front of us as the priest began his opening speech.

“Now we have Helena Poynter saying a few words, please come up,” the priest called Mrs Poynter up. We waited a few minutes but she didn’t go up, however, unlike the others we knew why. She was too broken, too fragile, to walk up. Somehow though, Mr Poynter managed to walk her to the front and he stood beside her, his hands firmly on her shoulder, as she stared at all of us with eyes ringed with red and hands shaken with sadness.

“My boy…” she began but stopped to take a deep wavy  breath. “Was like every other teenager; relying on their parents to fulfil their needs, but one thing he…” she let out a loud wail.

“It’s okay, you’ll be fine. Continue darling,” Mr Poynter encouraged her, rubbing her arms with comfort. She turned to him and he nodded with a weak smile.

“B-but one thing he never did was complain. He never complained and always did a task with a smile on his face. He was the one who kept me going; he continued to see the brighter side of every day even with his struggles. I’d like to thank his friends.” Her eyes wondered over to us and she looked at each one of us. “Taz, Jasper, Jay, Jessica, Serenity and Hannah. They have all support my boy with all his dreams, especially Taz. Thank you guys.”

“Ha! She only used him, why does she always get the credit? Taz is so this, Taz I so that, blah blah blah,” Hannah mumbled to herself in frustration. “Does no one remember I was his girlfriend?” I clenched my fists at that but Jasper noticed this and placed a comforting hand on my hand, squeezing it with reassurance. He’s right, I shouldn’t let something so little anger me.

“Ashley was always polite, although we did get into a lot of arguments…” Mr Poynter took over, letting out deep breaths in between. His speech went on for another five minutes before they both returned to their seats.

Soon, the same song began playing again and the coffin was taken to his place of burial. We all followed it and gathered around as the priest said a prayer. This is where I couldn’t hold it in, neither could the others by the looks of it; mascara ran down Hannah’s cheeks from the tears, Serenity buried her head in Hannah’s shoulder as they hugged each other, there were tears rolling down Jasper’s and Jay’s eyes and Jessica just stood with her head in her hands. I could hear sniffs of crying coming from her.

Just as the coffin was lowered into the grave I couldn’t help but let out a loud cry. I could feel eyes on me as I let more and more cries out. My cries almost drained out the voice of the priest. I closed my eyes as Mr Poynter dropped a rose on the coffin and threw some soil onto it. It was time to let him go. Strong arms pulled me into a hug and I cried into their shoulder. I thought it was Jasper since he was the one stood next to me during the whole service but when I released him I saw that it was Jay. He was smiling down at me.

“I’ve always been the one to hold you when you cried, apart from your Mum of course, and that’s not going to change now. Ashley would want us to stick together.” His smile was warm that all I could do was smile down at him (the heels made me a few inches taller than him).

The ceremony came to an end and everyone dispersed, heading for their car. As the six of us were walking away Mr and Mrs Poynter approached us and invited us to their house. We all hopped into their car, Jessica taking Jay’s lap and Serenity on Jasper’s lap since not all of would fit. We were lucky there were no police cars going by.