The sun was just starting to set along the horizon, silhouetting the outlines of two figures sitting side-by-side on a rickety park bench, beneath a tall oak tree. One, the tall, thin boy had his arm around the other, while the slightly shorter, auburn-haired girl rested her head on his shoulder.
“I wish we could stay like this forever.” Abigail said, sighing.
“Me too.” Jake murmured, sweeping a strand of loose hair out of her face.
“We’ve barely got any time to spend together recently, what with homework and clubs and your....” She trailed off, not wanting to bring up the subject. “I’m so glad we had today, and we’ll have tomorrow too.” She added in a much happier, but slightly forced tone.
“Well, actually....” Jake muttered, not making eye-contact with her.
“What, really? You’re going for more treatment? This is the third time this week, Jake! Is there something not working?”
“Abby, I told you, it’s fine. They just er-....are....it’s fine.” He replied with the air of someone trying to think of a good excuse.
He obviously hadn’t done a good job, and Abigail picked up on his uneasiness. “Jake, you would tell me if there was something I need to know, right?”
He hesitated for a heartbeat before answering. “Of course.” He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly as he spoke.
“Good. You know I only ask because I care so much about you.” She murmured, entwining her fingers with his.
She looked up into the face that she loved so. But what greeted her was a shadow of the boy she once knew. His face was rather pale, his eyes more dim, his mop of shaggy, dirty-blond hair seemed much less full, and though she wouldn’t have believed it possible, the already naturally thin boy had grown even slimmer. Overall, he seemed to emanate tiredness, but if he told her nothing was wrong, even if she doubted it, what else could she do but pretend to believe everything was okay?
~§~
A week might not seem like a substantial amount of time to most people, but to Abigail, it felt like an eternity; an eternity simply because she didn’t have Jake. Didn’t have him, didn’t see him, didn’t talk to him, didn’t even know where he was.
It was Tuesday of the second week without Jake, and Abigail was trying (yet again) to get in touch with him. Every day after school, she would rush home and phone him. When no answer came, she would turn to her laptop in the hopes that he had replied to one of the many e-mails she had sent him, but as always, she came up short. She was just about to compose another e-mail which she was going to send him, when she was interrupted by a feeble knock on the door. With her mother still at work, the house was virtually silent, but the knock had been so weak that she had barely heard it regardless, and Abigail did not rule out the fact that she had simply imagined it. It came again however, and she was forced to surrender to the fact that it had been real. She really didn’t feel like dealing with anybody right now, she only wanted Jake, but even if he was going to visit her, he wasn’t one to knock lightly. She smiled as she walked down the stairs towards the door, remembering one night when he came over to pick her up for dinner, and knocked so loudly he scared her mother into thinking someone was breaking in.
It was with a heavy heart, therefore, that Abigail opened the door, anticipating turning down a door-to-door salesman or trying to settle a dispute of neighborly fashion. Because of this, when she finally twisted the lock to the side and opened the door, listening to the hinges creak as it did, it was to her complete and utter surprise to indeed find Jake standing on the other side. He looked even worse than he had the last time she had seen him, just over a week ago. Paler, thinner, his hair, it seemed, was the only thing that had gone the opposite way, but it had lost all of its lust and looked almost fake. But none of that mattered now, Abigail was just so overjoyed to see him; her Jake.
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(You are Never) ALONE
Teen Fiction"Sometimes, when you're trying to find yourself, it takes more than just yourself to do it." It's a story about love, about hardships, about hope, but most of all about finding yourself especially when you never thought it was possible. Because ever...
