Just Jack

Part Two: Chapter Seventeen: Just Looking Back

     I knew it was going to take time for Emily to get back to being Emily, the girl who believed me, the girl who understood me and that things would eventually get back to normal. What I didn't know at the time however, was that maybe things were never going to be the same. Maybe Emily would never really be the person she once was.

     Dave, her father, had burst through the door moments later. He was just as shocked as I was, if not even more. He stood there, at the door, holding his face in his hands as he cried. It must have been hard on him. Not only had he lost his wife in a tragic car accident, he was almost about to lose his daughter and he would have been the one to pull the plug. When he finally stopped crying he had rushed to her side. He was standing directly in front of me. We both held onto one of her hands and we both looked upon her, almost in wonder. It was like she had just been reborn. For a moment, it was magical. I thought that me and Dave could somehow get along through our mutual love for his daughter. But I was wrong.

     It was exactly a week after she woke up when I arrived at the hospital with a bunch of flowers for Emily, that my life was changed forever. I hadn't been to visit her since she woke up, mainly because her father had practically banned me from seeing her – which looking back now, I do not blame him. But that day she had texted me, asking me to come meet her and I had quickly left my house, gotten her some flowers and dashed to the hospital. For some reason, that I seem to find embarrassingly funny when I think about it now, I thought that day was going to be the day we became us again. And for the second time since she woke up, I was wrong.

     When I entered her room, it was nothing like how I had left it. For one, it was bright. The windows were open, air was flowing. The machines that used to beep musically, were silent and hid away in a corner. All of the get-well-soon cards had been taken away along with all of her flowers and belongings from home. It had gone from being her second home, to a typical hospital room. Her bag was laid open on her bed, and she was packing it with stuff from around the room. The last thing she put in it, before zipping it shut, was the teddy I bought her. She sighed and started pacing the room, running her hands through her hair.

     I placed the flowers I bought her on the counter beside her bed and then I sat down on the chair beside it. Deep down, I knew what was going on. I knew that somehow, this was the end. We had reached our climax. I leaned back, and cleared my throat. When I spoke, it was calm and collected, yet my speech faltered once, showing just how sad I was. “You're going home?” She took in the question before replying.

“Not exactly,” she said. She stopped pacing and looked right at me. She bit her bottom lip and shook her head. Back then I had thought she was being forced to leave. It never occurred to me that maybe she had came to the conclusion herself.

“You're leaving Bridge Bay?” I asked, afraid to look her in the eye, yet using every bit of will power I had. I couldn't help but let my bottom lip quiver with emotion.

     She sat down beside her bag and sighed once more, letting her shoulders slouch. I had just noticed then that she was wearing her own clothes and none of the hospital supplied fashion. “There is just too much history and pain here. I have nothing to keep me here, no happy memories, no joy.” She swallowed a lump.

“You have me,” I said.

“You're not enough anymore,” she replied, almost instantly. The room fell silent. There was no tension, just an atmosphere of sadness.

“If this is because I kissed Skylar, you should know that she is nothing but a friend to me!”

“This has nothing to do with Skylar, or even you for that matter. I physical cannot live in this town anymore. Don't you see, Jack,” she turned on the bed so we were looking at each other once more. “This place holds nothing but tragedy. Your dad, my mom and now me. God knows what else this place is going to throw up on us.”