All The Lonely People

Chapter Three

Thank goodness it was Saturday. Any other day would have killed me. Knowing I would have to see Noah in the next two days alone gave me chills. He texted me a million times begging for forgiveness, but I didn't know what to say back to:

I know you can't ever forgive me. I miss you. I'm still your best friend. I promise it was just the fact that it was 1 AM. I love you but not in that way. Please respond.

There wasn't much to say back. I didn't know why he wanted me to respond so bad.

There was another problem. Alex. His note. What did it all mean?

Will you understand that I still love you and you are in danger. I'm writing the words off a sermon that no one will hear, no one comes near. Hometown of the Beatles in New York. I hope to be there.

-A

I walked over to my computer and checked the time. 9 AM. I cried myself to sleep and woke up at noon only getting 6 hours of sleep. I looked in the mirror. My eyes were puffy from all the crying and my hair looked insane. It was knotted everywhere. I had mascara stains down my face. I laughed at my appearance, in my short shorts and old tee.

I woke up my computer and went straight to Google. I simply searched <Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear, no one comes near>. It was the only strange thing about his note. About a million results come up. The first result was about Eleanor Rigby. A song, by the Beatles. Of course it was a reference to the Beatles but why would he put that in the note if it wasn't that important. I knew one person in the world who knew anything about '60's music. And his name was Noah.

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"Bears are very smart and sneaky. They make minimal noise, but when they do it sounds like they are crying." Noah said in a knowing voice as we presented to the class.

"And that is the end of our presentation." I finished as there was a scattering applause through the class.

"Thank you both!" Said Mrs. Wachowiak, "That was really good. Now class, we have recess. Line up next to the door please!"

I ran over to find Kristine. She found me and grabbed my hand. We giggled and ran outside together. We ran over to the swings. We always had the swings, people stopped trying to take them from us at recess. She sat down on the swing left of mine and we started to swing. We always started very slowly but eventually became faster.

"Your report wasn't too bad!" Kristine said, swinging high in the air. "It could have been worse, since you were with that boy." I frowned. Noah wasn't just any boy, he was my friend.

"I don't know, Noahs kinda cool..." I said, trying to swing higher than her. Kristine's sandals flew off her foot. She got off the swing after slowing down to retrieve it. I kept on swinging while she talked.

"Really?" Kristine was surprised. "I think he's really annoying."

"You should meet him!" I said.

"No way!! I don't want to go anywhere near him! He's the worst." She yells. How couldn't she like Noah? He was nice and funny. And I wanted to be his friend. I couldn't understand why she said she wouldn't talk to him.

I was so mad. "Well if you can't like him, I can't like you. I don't want to be friends with someone who is mean." I ran away from her and found Noah sitting under the playset alone. I picked up his hand and smiled.

"Do you want to be best friends?" I said

He looked up and smiled right back.

"Ok, bear."

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I got out of bed and walked downstairs. My dad was in the kitchen eating pancakes with warm syrup. The smell made me weak with hunger. I walked over to the stove and got some of my own pancakes cooking. The whafts of sugary goodness coming off of it made me want to faint. My dad had a pot of coffee brewing so grabbed my own mug and filled it to the brim.

"Hey, hey that's my coffee make your own." I rolled my eyes and drank it. "How was last night?" He said in between bites of pancakes.

"It was good." I said concisely. He looked confused and slightly worried.

"It was just good? It's usually something like 'amazing' or 'tubular' knowing you." And he had a point. I was always so happy to have hung out with Noah, but this time it was different. I knew my dad's emotions well. I knew when he was having a bad day and today was like that.

"Yeah, good." I answered without making eye contact with him. He just stared at me. I could feel it on my neck as I turned to flip my pancake.

"What happened squirt?" He asked. He sounded really concerned.

"Nothing. The question is what's wrong with you. Your lips are turned slightly downwards and you are extremely tired."

"Nothing." He responded.

"Ha, fess up, you."

"Only if you do." He smiled.

"Fine, Noah kissed me." I said with nonchalants.

"Wow." was all my dad could say.

"Now you." I said.

"Well. my problems are nothing compared to yours but your mother called me."

I spun on my heel. "What?" I said, a little bit too loudly. My dad winced and then went on.

"She wants to see you." He said with a lower voice. He obviously didn't want me to see my mom, but he wanted me to make that decision. That was another thing I loved about my dad. He never stopped me from doing something, even if it was most likely stupid. The last time I saw my mom, I was thirteen years old and she was in rehab. I had felt like I needed to meet her but It was not a good experience. She had spent the time complaining about how my dad was bad at raising me and I wasn't nearly as pretty as her.

"Oh." That was all I could say.

"Darcy, you don't have to see her at all. She was never a part of your life and she doesn't ever have to be." I knew that my dad didn't want me hurt again. I was broken for weeks after I first saw my mom. My dad hated seeing me like that.

"I don't really want to see her daddy."

"I respect that, but she wanted me to tell you that she has changed a lot." I loved my dad.

"Right. Well, I'm just going over to Noah's if that's ok" I said. I didn't want to go, but I needed to.

"Are you sure you want to see him?" He asked.

"Yes, I need him to explain what he did."

"Okay. Are you sure you're alright Darcy? You just aren't yourself. And I feel bad for putting more weight on your shoulders." He said as I finished making my pancake, smothered it in syrup and shoved it into my mouth

"I'm fine." I said with a full mouth and at that moment, I was glad my dad didn't have the same ability I did to tell if someone was lying.

"Okay. We should talk more about this later though." I nodded my head in agreement. I swallowed my last bite of pancake.

"I better get going." I said.

"Stay safe, don't die, I'll see you later." He said. This was what he always said before I left or hung up the phone on him. I stood to wash off my dish. Once it was in the dishwasher, I grabbed my keys and opened the front door, sliding into my tennis shoes.

"Bye daddy! Love ya!" I said from the porch. I hopped in my car, turned on the engine, and drove away.