A for Anxiety (On Hold)

9- Meeting Him

She nodded, "Yes I am Josh, have you seen her around by any chance?"

"Aye, not since the weekend lass. She went away with some family members I think," Josh sighed, "Lucky going away for a while to the seaside. How's school?"

Fizz felt herself tremble again with Anxiety, "Not too bad, just the thought of approaching exams is pretty scary."

"Well dearie, you'll be fine. Exams and school don't last forever." replied Josh with a smile, "See you around!"

"Thank you Josh, bye!" waved Fizz as she left the block and walked towards the play park, her mind in a daze from what she had just heard from him. Her Auntie, gone to seaside in the middle of the school term? That didn't happen often at all. Another thought crossed her mind, had her mum used this as an excuse to get Fizz out of the house so that she could snoop through all of Fizz's notebooks? Her stomach growled as a response to that thought.

At the play park, the surrounding area by the swings and climbing frame was deserted. A cool breeze had slowly started to pick up in the fading daylight and the puddles from the heavy rain earlier still lingered on the concrete ground. Slowly, Fizz made her way towards the climbing frame and pulled herself up to the top. She would be safe here away from her family for now. Digging into her pocket, she grabbed her phone and logged into her blog. Straight away, she noticed the one new notification but chose not to open it. Her writing motivation had now somewhat hit her out of nowhere and sure enough, her fingers tapped across the screen as another blog post came to light.

"Going Away... But Without Me..."

It's still the school term and right now, I was hit with some shocking news. My Auntie who lives close to me and I won't mention her name here has decided to trek off from the flat she lives in close to a park and visit the seaside with friends. I love the seaside but I just wish that as a member of the family that she told me how, why and when she was going to be away. I guess trying to visit her was a wasted journey. Not anymore.

The thing is blog readers, I had an older cousin. His name was Stephan and me and him were inspirable. Brother and sister more like but in reality, I am an only child. He smiled and held me close as I passed all of my pre-GCSE exams a few years ago. He had high hopes of working in London at one of those top business firms, I can't remember the name of it. That was until August two years ago when the worst happened.

I was in my bed when the doorbell rang at just after 4am. Mum had rushed down to see who it was. At that time, there were a group of really tall naughty boys living a few houses down from us. It could have been a prank or something more sinister. Who knew. Standing at the door was my Auntie in floods of tears. On opening my bedroom door, she noticed the cold lonely figure. Me. Standing and looking on with fear. I then heard three words, "Lorry", "Alcohol", "Stephan". I then learnt that horrific truth. My cousin Stephan had been killed by a drink driver driving a stolen lorry in the next town around forty minutes away from where I live. The driver was found to be three times over the limit and he died in hospital from his injuries just a few hours after my cousin.

It was then my Aunt went into a huge decline. You see readers, Stephan was her only child and my Uncle had run off to marry another woman just before Stephan turned ten. Sometimes, I still dream about him, waving down to me up from the clouds of heaven. On waking up, I see my bedroom pillow in a tearstained mess. It honestly feels like yesterday since the day of his death.

I shouldn't be so selfish, my Aunt is entitled to go away on a break with her closet friends to wherever she wants to go. But to do it at such short notice without telling anyone... It makes me think that at this moment in time, she is incredibly depressed. Just like I'm feeling anxious and depressed.

Signing off for now,

The Girl."

Slowly, Fizz felt something wet on her face and on closer inspection with her fingers, learnt that she was in actual fact crying and looked to have been crying for some time. But she had been so transfixed with writing her blog post that she hadn't even noticed.

"Hey, are you OK?" spoke a male voice from next to her.

Fizz screamed as her eyes met a pair of eyes belonging to a boy looking around the same age as her. He wasn't wearing a school uniform and his hair had that curly mess on the top just like Harry from 1D.

"Um... I'm fine thanks, just tired. I better be heading off now." she replied as she swung her legs over the side of the climbing frame to start to climb down.

"Were you texting someone?" asked the boy back.

Fizz looked up at him, "I don't want to discuss it thanks. Just a blog post, that's all you need to know."

The boy took out his mobile phone and held the screen first up towards his face and then out towards Fizz who by now had climbed down, "Do you write blog posts under the name The Girl?"

Fizz froze in horror, trying to process exactly what the boy had just said. Her face felt flushed as she struggled to open her mouth and talk.

"Because you, The Girl, I'm The Boy. The user who has been replying to your posts. I saw your blog header design and immediately recognized it from my phone," said the boy with a smile, "You're a really good writer."

Suddenly, Fizz felt a loud scream coming out of her throat. If she didn't get out of this park and into the safety of her own home soon, she would end up having a massive panic attack and very recently, she had suffered from a lot of them.

She turned and ran out of the park, not even stopping to ask the name of the boy who had been questioning her. She heard him yell something but she didn't turn to look back or yell something in response towards him. On running, she charged across pavements, past houses full of bemused residents looking on. Fizz suspected that they would all be thinking why this young looking girl would be running at top speed away from the park.

Finally, she saw the front door to her house and on letting herself in, she knew deep down in her heart of hearts that she was safe at home with the cats and her parents. For now that is.

Guys, first and foremost, I'm really really really sorry for not updating this for a very long time. The explanation that I do have is quite a strange one. I lost all of my story notes for this novel and then, because of that, I lost the inspiration to write any chapters for it. The good news is that whilst cleaning out my bedroom, I found my notes tucked down behind the back of a drawer and that means this story is back on. I have exams coming up soon but because I've left my College, I do have more time to update now. I will be revising my story notes and making some additions to it.

Now, onto the thoughts for this chapter. So... Fizz has met The Boy *cues dramatic music* but who exactly is this boy and could he pose a huge threat to Fizz's life and her blog? You will find out in the next chapter which should be posted within the next few days or so.

Thanks so much everyone for putting up with my absences, I'm excited to be writing again. This will be a 24 chapter novel and this chapter was number 9 so we are more than a third of the way done! Leave your thoughts on the chapter down below!

Love, Scarlett xx