Waiting For Us [COMPLETED]

chapter 29 - don't bet on us

Grayson:

Jessica called me while I was at work, her voice cracked out a weak hello. I yelled out to the diner's manager there was a family emergency the moment I heard "Talia" and "crying" in the same sentence. He didn't question it, but I knew he was close to doing so when I grabbed a stack of pancakes and made a pistachio milkshake.

My driving was not the safest. I may or may not have ran through two stop signs, one red light, and nearly hit a deer. I made it to her house in ten minutes, so was there any real harm done?

Jess opened the door when I knocked, her eyes slightly red. You would never be able to notice from just looks, but they care for each other—Talia and Jessica. She told me to see if I could get Talia to stop crying or take a break or whatever. Her words were choppy. She said she hasn't stopped for two hours. I wondered how long Jess had been crying.

My hand shook when I reached to knock at her door. My heart stopped when I heard her voice yell out, mistaking me for Jess. I didn't care that she was telling me to go away, all I wanted to do was see her. Her and the messy bed littered with tons of books, papers, and binders. In the center of all of the destruction sat Talia, the sun to a solar system of stress. That wasn't the kind of star I imagined her to be.

"I said to go away," she yelled, her voice breaking off when she made eye contact with me. I hated how red her eyes were. How puffy the lids were around her green irises. I hated that I had already seen her cry two times before. I hated the way stress carved its path into her mind constantly.

I felt paralyzed as I moved towards her desk to place down the food. Other things were more important than the food. I saw her lips moving, but the ringing in my ears was too loud for me to comprehend them. I might have said her name. She might have said something back, I can't remember. The only thing I cared about was the reason for her crying. I wanted to pull her out of that dark place.

"What happened?" I asked. It didn't even sound like my voice when I spoke.

"I'm doing homework," she said, practically laughing out the words. "Just like any normal student would."

This is not normal, I wanted to say; but I knew that wasn't what she wanted to hear. I had some idea of what happened. I needed to make sure before I made any kind of accusation. "You know that's not what I meant."

Talia got angry. She slammed her pen down on her notebook, and despite her mad facade, I knew there was a sadness deep inside. The tears proved it. She shouted a brief explanation involving her mom's strange obsession with her being perfect. At least, that's what interpreted it all as.

Talia was visibly shaking at that point, so I did the one thing that my instincts were screaming at me to do. I scooped her into my lap, hugged her, and kissed her forehead while she sobbed into my chest.