The New Chapter: Love Wins

Chapter 14: Alyssa's thought!

As soon as Denn comes out of the bathroom I stare at her. "Wow." I state. "You look...colorful."
Denn rolls her eyes. "You know that you secretly like neon."
I shake my head. "Nope. That is definitely not the case."
Denn shrugs. "I guess neon clashes with the mysterious image you like to give off."
I laugh. "Mysterious image?"

"Yeah!" Denn says while grabbing the bag of cookies. "You don't do relationships because of something bad that happened in your past. That's pretty mysterious."
I shrug. "I mean, I guess..."

Denn smiles and hops right next to me on my bed. "Oh come on! You didn't know?"
I shake my head, "That I'm mysterious? No."
Denn laughs. "Ah, come on! But that's the greatest appeal."

"Oh really? You find my mysteriousness appealing." I say while grinning..
Denn laughs. "Heck no."
"Oh," I say, a little hurt.

"But I bet the other girls do. They do 'the deed' with you because they want to change you."
I laugh at the idea but Denn's face looks dead serious. "You're kidding." I say.
Denn shakes her head.

"You're totally wrong. I get girls because I'm hot and everybody likes hot people."
Denn shrugs. "People like me and I'm not hot."
"Yeah, but you're cute. People like cute people too. It really depends on your type."
Denn laughs. "Maybe people just like other people," she suggests.
I shake my head. "Definitely not." Denn gives me a doubtful look. "What?" I ask. "I mean, let's be honest here. People first judge by physical appearance, right?"
Denn sighs. "Right." She says, reluctantly playing along.

"So, all of the hot people and cute people get asked out first because, well, they're hot or cute."
Denn laughs. "Whatever you say, ya loser."

"I would like to inform you that I am not a loser. In fact, I am very cool."
Denn laughs and moves back to her bed. "You know, this is the most fun I've had in a while," she says.
"Even more fun than your date with Jake?"
Denn throws a cookie at me while yelling, "Be quiet!"
I smile before looking at her and saying, "Me too.

_______________________________

I wake up to find Denn staring at me. "What's wrong?" I ask. "Is something on my face?"
Denn smiles and shakes her head. "You...you didn't scream."
What. "I didn't-"
Denn cuts me off. "In your sleep. You usually scream 'Sky'."

"Oh. Well, uh, yay, I guess."
Denn smiles and starts to walk towards me. Oh my God. She's going to kiss you. Be prepared for this. Does your breath smell good? Ah, who cares? I pucker up only for Denn to grab my arm and take the band aid she placed off. She looks up at me and instantly takes a step back. "What are you doing?" She asks.

Crap! That wasn't supposed to be a kiss. Abort mission. Abort! "I, uh, was trying to see how weird fish must feel all the time."

Denn giggles. "Maybe I should replace my old puppy poster with a poster of a fish."
"Please don't."
Denn laughs. "I'm just kidding." She smiles at me and I catch that her stare lingers a little longer than usual before she turns around and says, "I have something for you."

She opens her wardrobe and takes out the little sister's gorgeous jacket. She hands it to me and says, "Here."

I rub my hand across the material. "Won't your little sister be pissed at you for giving it away?"
Denn shrugs and looks down. "Nah, this is what she would've wanted."
What she would've wanted? "Denn, is your sister-?"
Denn nods. "Yeah." Tears start to run from her eyes as she just stands there.

"Hey," I say while pulling her in for a hug. "Denn, it's alright. I'm here." We stand like that for a little while before Denn pulls away and starts to wipe her tears.

"I'm sorry," she says. "You probably think that I'm pathetic."
I shake my head. "Not at all." Denn sniffles. "Denn, do you mind if I ask what happened?" Denn looks down. "Hey, if you feel uncomfortable, it's totally cool. We can just go and get some milkshakes or something and forget about this whole thing."

Denn shakes her head. She lifts her head up and her lip trembles as she says, "She committed suicide."
I feel my heart crush as Denn says this. I could only imagine how much pain she must've felt. I want to hug her and whisper its okay as I kiss her. But I don't do that. Instead, I just say, "I'm so sorry."
Denn looks down and shrugs. "She left a note." She points at the jacket pocket. "She apologized to me. She apologized!"

Some more tears start to fall and Denn turns away from me. I head to the other side of the room and grab a tissue. I tap her with it and she says, "Thanks," as she blows her nose. She looks up at me and says, "I just, I didn't even notice all of the signs. I...I thought that it was just puberty. If I had only been a better-"

I cut her off by pulling her in for a hug. "It is not your fault, okay? None of this is your fault."
"But it is!" Denny screams. "Why did she think she had to apologize? Why? Why was I the only one who got a note?"
Denn clings onto me with quite a forceful grip as I whisper, "Because she knew that you loved her.