Waves

Chapter Twelve: Only a Mistake

Chapter Twelve: Only a Mistake:

“Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life.” –Angelina Jolie

People often make mistakes—big or small. Sometimes making the smallest of mistakes can result in something bigger than expected. Sometimes saying too much can get you into trouble, but saying nothing can screw things up too.

            Mistakes are unavoidable. Nobody is perfect. If there is anyone who is “perfect,” they must not be human. And if there are people who claim to be perfect, they must be losing it.

            The only thing you can do in life is to try to be the best person you can be. When you make mistakes, you learn from them. And if you don’t learn, you’ll keep making the same mistakes, over and over again until you do learn—even if it takes a lifetime. Enjoy life. Make mistakes. Learn from them.

Things were going to take a turn. I knew that the moment my father saw the bloody gauze and scars that ran up and down my arms. I knew it when I learned that Lucas used to cut, too. I knew it when Cory made his confessions. And I knew it when he kissed me. Things were going to change, for better or for worse.

            My father decided that he’d take Hailey to school now, saying that it was on the way to work anyway. So now, I only had to pick up Lucas in the mornings.

            I stopped the car in front of his house, where I spotted him looking out of the window. He smiled when he saw me and closed the curtain. He came out of the house, shutting and locking the door behind him. Lucas quickly hurried to the car, getting wet from the rain that had just begun to fall.

            “Morning,” I said as he got in and slammed the door shut.

            “Hey,” he said, putting on his seatbelt. “How are you?”

            I took the car out of park and began to drive toward school. “I’m okay, I think,” I answered.

            “This isn’t going to be awkward, is it?”

            I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the road. “No. You’re my friend. This doesn’t change anything.”

            “Thank you,” he said, “for not abandoning me. If any of my other friends knew . . . I’m not so sure they’d want to be friends anymore. They’d be scared of me.”

            “Then maybe they’re not very good friends,” I said.

            I looked over at him and noticed that he was frowning. “When I was in Vancouver, my best friend found out. After that, he avoided me. He didn’t even come to say good-bye when I left.”

            “I’m sorry,” I said.

            “Don’t be. Friends come and go, I guess. Maybe it happened for a reason.”

            I stopped at a red light and took the opportunity to ask him something I had been dying to ask him. “Do your parents know why you did it?”

            He nodded. “Now they do. They didn’t know for a long time. The therapist at the hospital said that I should tell them, but I couldn’t. So she told them for me.”

            I wondered momentarily if he was going to tell me more, but I figured that he wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have wanted to tell either. At least, not yet.