Never Stop Counting

Julia

--- May 2023 ---

Three weeks have passed and I can't believe how hectic my life has been, I am almost driven to psycological problems. My dad did not come back from his trip. According to his collegues he got into a boating accident, got knocked unconsious and drowned.
I decided that I won't be continuing with my career of science. I just lost the connection and the passion after my dad... after he left us.

Thank goodness I still have Julia. The first time I made acquaintance with her was in 2018 in Biology. She's been my best friend for four years and she's helped me past a lot of rough patches in my life and put up with my kind of crazy.

She's the strongest person I know, because she's also been through her share of hellish days. Her parents got divorced after her dad abused her mom and almost killed Julia. After her parents got divorced she wished he had killed her because the thought of having one parent left and no love circulating in the house terrified her and she didn't know how she's going to live.

Luckily her mom showed her that it is not worth taking your own life about something like that. She sat her down and had a deep discussion with her, asked her to talk to her, to tell her what was the matter. At that moment, Julia was too young to realize, but she didn't need both parents. All she needed was her mother's unconditional love.

We became friends that following day when I saw her sitting alone at a table during lunch time.

--- Past, August 2018 ---

I noticed her red, puffy eyes and the tissues in her pocket, so I sat diagonally accross from her. Five minutes later, when she still didn't realize my presence, I reached across the table and softly touched her shoulder and gently whispered her name.

When she saw me she burst out in tears and I immediately ran around the table to sit by her side and hold her in my arms. I guess she must have felt the safety or the comfort of a hug, but thereafter she buried her face in my chest and folded her arms around my stomach.

I remembered that I still had a spare tissue in my jacket's pocket after our experiment in science (the teacher showed us how sulphate works, that was really fun at that time) and I pulled it out of my pocket and offered the tissue to her by holding it between our hands.

She looked up with those bright emerald eyes of hers and quickly blinked the tears away, using the tissue I offered. I guess she realized what she was doing, and jumped - it seemed more like teleported - a foot away from me.

She sat hunched over her arms, fiddling with the tissue. "I... I, uhh... heh... I'm..."

"You're Julia, from my Biology class in 2018. You sat next to Jean and you answered most of the questions Miss asked us." I offered a smile and got a snotty chuckle back.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what happened there.", she tried to apologize.

"That's no need." Why am I not bothered by all this? "Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet. I am Tyler." I reached out to shake her hand.

"I, I know...", she looked down.

"Sorry? I couldn't hear you clearly. You spoke into your lap." I moved closer to hear what she's saying.

"Oh, okay, sorry. I said it's nice meeting you again." She gave a faint smile that made me smile.

"Do you want to come to my home after school and talk about it?" I asked her. I saw she was teethering on the edge and my gut told me that I should help her. This was the very first time my gut ever 'told' me something. Usually it's my brain telling me what to do, but this time, it is different.

"Wh... ahem, umm yeah, yes that'll be nice, thank you.", she said shyly.

"Alright, I'll get you at our old Biology class then you can walk home with me. Will that be okay with you?" I asked.

"Yes, yeah thank you, I'll meet you there."

--- Back to present, May 2023 ---

Since then I persued her to follow her dream of being a Biologist. I even helped where I could and, to be honest, to spend time with her.

Oh no. Oh no no no no nooo. It cannot possibly be. This never happened before, but it's the only logical explanation for all my strange acts and that 'gut feeling' I never had until I met her.

I think I may be falling in love.

(Author's Note:

Hey guys, I thought that the previous way I told the time is very vague since it shows the month and the year only. I will now put it, for your convenience, in a diary entry form.

If you don't like it, feel free to comment me via pm or just comment on the paragraph. ;)

Thank you and sorry for interrupting! Enjoy!)

-- 20 September 2023, 15:28 --

Can this day get any more boring? All of our work has been handled with us, we wrote exams about it and now we are just sitting in the class preparing for our finals.

At least Biology was interesting, I talked to Julia.