Let It Be Me

Let It Be Me- Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight.

The bell rings, and Taylor approaches me as I’m walking out the door.

“I hope you know….” He says, “I meant every word, Jess. I’ll always be there to help you… I’ll always be waiting for the day you stop being so proud and are ready to accept some damn help.”

He lingers for a moment, his eyes searching mine, before slipping something into my hands, then turning and walking away. As he walks out of sight, I open my hand to find a folded piece of paper. I unfold it, and inside is a phone number and under that, a single handwritten word—“Always.” I stare at it for a moment before carefully tucking it away into my pocket and heading to class.

•••••••••••••••

It’s Friday evening and I find myself pacing around my bedroom, trying not to cry. This past week has been awful; my mom has been crazy as ever, screaming and yelling at me for the littlest things, then retreating to her room, to cry for hours. I cannot stand her constant sobbing anymore. It’s not that I’m cold-hearted, I try to comfort her, I really do. But nothing I do can help. She’s not being rational--Her reasons for being upset aren’t valid, and she’s not even formulating proper sentences…. I know grief can do some crazy things to people, but this is insane. It’s stressing me out, to say the least.

Too afraid to approach Taylor about any of this, I’ve just kept silent. I don’t know what it is about that boy that makes me so unsure of myself… I want to talk to him…but I just don’t know where to start.

As tears begin to escape the corners of my eyes, I make the decision to finally end this silence. I pick up my cell phone and dial his number. I start panicking as I hear the ringing on the other line, however I don’t have much time to debate hanging up before his voice fills my ears.

“Hello?” He answers, uncertain of who’s on the other line.

“Hey Taylor….” I reply “It’s Jess.”

“Hey!” His voice brightens up at the mention of my name “What’s up?”

“Uhm… not much…” I reply shakily as I sniffle in my tears.

He sees right through my façade. “Uh-oh. What’s wrong?” He says sounding concerned.

I take a deep breath before I can finally get myself to speak.

“It’s just…my mom, again.”

“What’s going on?”

“She’s just… ugh. I don’t know how to explain it…you probably wouldn’t understand anyway…” I say, mumbling the last part.

“You don’t know that, Jess. Try me.”

I sigh. “I honestly don’t know how.”

The line is silent for a moment as Taylor thinks.

“Listen, there’s this party I was gonna go to tonight” He starts off “Why don’t you come with me? It’ll be fun, and it sure sounds like you could use some time out of the house.”

“You sure?”

“Of course! I’ll pick you up in 40 minutes?”

“Yeah. That sounds….great, actually.” I smile to myself.

“Alright, see you soon. Bye Jess!”

“Bye Taylor.”

As I start getting ready to go, I notice how weird it feels to have something to look forward to. I can’t remember the last time I went out and had fun… maybe Taylor is right. Maybe this will be good for me.