The Student

Chapter the 3rd

Other signs of the apocalypse were still showing up. I guess, at this point it turns out not to be important, because we're all dying anyways. I gave up. I stopped doing my homework, started skipping school. At least, until Andie told me that she would stop dating me if I didn't keep my grades up. People were in the streets with signs, going to churches as the Heavens rained down. We got an earthquake in Iowa. How weird is that?

A bunch of scientists gave up trying. A lot of them vanished. The army ordered soldiers to come home to their families, because they had nothing to fight. The scariest thing for me was the day that I went to school, and Andie wasn't there. I looked everywhere. Andie never missed a day. Even when she was sick.

The door to her house was open when I got there. The trunk of the van was open, and suitcases were packed in, some of them still on the side of the road. I could hear fighting inside.

"You're going to hell, Patricia!"

Whenever you hear someone saying something like that, you know you shouldn't enter. I did the opposite and burst through the door.

"Andie!" I yelled. Andie's parents, Jane and Joshua, stared at me. Andie was in tears, her black hair pulled back sharply into a bun, wearing a grey dress.

"Patricia, get that white fa-"

"STOP!" Andie screamed, her hands over her ears. "Please... stop."

I felt angry, roaring in my gut to attack Joshua and Jane, but I knew I could get in jail for that. Joshua pulled a gun from his shelf.

"Joshua." Jane whispered, backing away from him.

"It's the damn apocalypse, woman." He yelled. "God is gonna divide the sinners from the saints, and I'm gonna be on his right side, okay? That means all of you matter. And I can't have my daughter ____ing a white girl." 

"Then I'm not your daughter." Andie said. She wiped a tear from her eye and ran past me out the door. I realized that I was alone with her parents and quickly followed her. 

"Wait!" I yelled. Andie turned around, facing me. 

"It's the end of the world and I'm dying on bad terms." She said, then finally broke down. She fell to the ground, screaming. I knelt down and held her until she was reduced to raspy sobs. "It's just-" She had a hard time talking, trying to breathe. "I just-"

"It's okay."

"It feels like everything's just falling apart." She gasped, between sobs. I understood the feeling, like your throat is closing up. "I- I want- I want to be happy and I can't- I-"

"It's okay."

"It's not- cause- we're all going to die- oh- I can't. I don't want to die." Andie said. All bravery was lost, and she was just there in front of me, clearer than she had ever seen before. 

"Andie." I said, breathing in and out, trying not to cry. "Andie, it doesn't matter. None of this matters. The end of the world, nothing is going to stop it. Who knows? Maybe it's not actually happening. Maybe the weathers just crazy and the moon is red and the seas are bloody but who knows if there is a Heaven or a Hell. I- I can see now- what matters is- is how- is how we are. It doesn't matter if those people in there are telling you at you're going to Hell. I- I love you- as much as I can- and we only have a few days left, so I'm going to go and- I'm going to-"

"It- doesn't- doesn't matter."

"Yes it does, it does matter. Clare. Died. And we have to say goodbye and be happy. We don't have a choice, so let's do that. Let's go make the most of this." 

I grabbed Andie's hand and we stood up. I led her to my car, and we started driving. For miles, until she fell asleep in the passenger seat. The radio flickered on. My fingers flew to turn it off, but the words that came across it echoed in my head. 

"It's over. Everything is better. Tell that to the folks at home. Suddenly, the war has ceasefire, the storms and earthquakes have stopped. Everything is better. I think- we survived, Jim."

"I agree with you, John. It appears that everyone is okay. We're all fine."

"What about the Rapture?"

"No... Pope's still here. So what do we call this?"

"I have no idea."

"People are going home now. We're getting reports in that HORUS has decided to stand down. More news, it turns out that the people in the ship accident have been found, all three hundred, alive. They've been missing at sea for weeks now, but they all survived, and will be coming home to their families soon."

"That's great news, Jim. Now, on other news, a celebrity you knew from your childhood died of cancer early this morning."

"Really John?"

I laughed, then looked over at Andie. She wouldn't be going home anytime soon. Then I remembered the last-minute Christmas presents. Oops. 

They can wait. 

Snow fell lightly as I drove, the sunrise waking up on Christmas Day.