Jocelynn's Story

The locket

I awoke to Kylie standing over me and a smile planted across her face.

"Hey, are you ready to go sweetie?" She asked, "The doctors said you can leave whenever you'd like so, no rush."

I sat up in the bed and looked around, the sun was shining now and wondered how long I'd slept.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked rubbing my eyes.

"Just a few hours, it's only 9am. Oh and Happy Birthday Kiddo." She wrapped her arms around me, instinctively I jolted back, surprised that she was hugging me. She pulled back with a concerned expression. I smiled at her to reassure her I was fine.

"I'm ready to go." I stated. She called a nurse into my room to take out my IV, we quickly got back into Paul's car and drove off. I was glad to be leaving the hospital, but not glad to be going home. I'd figured Kylie had just put on a charade in front of the people in the hospital.

"Here you go." Kylie said, turning around and handing me a small box, I looked at her confused, but opened it, in the box lay a gold heart-shaped locket. I opened it to see a picture of Kylie and I standing outside the orphanage, wearing our best dresses for Easter her arm was draped casually around my shoulders and we were smiling brightly. I smiled and felt the tears well up in my eyes at reliving the good memory of that day

It was Spring time in 2005 it was Easter day and I excitedly woke up to go put on the only good dress I owned so Kylie and I would look presentable for the day's activities. This day was my favourite because, since the orphanage was based on Christianity the owners just let us have a good fun day with food and games and no punishments.

I watched Kylie slowly make her way out of bed and go to her closet to retrieve her dress. Once she had it on she took me into the bathroom to do my hair, she brushed it thoroughly and pulled it back into a high pony tail I smiled and shook my head, feeling it sway back and forth, in turn Kylie pulled her hair back into a pony tail just like mine. We looked like twins this day except Kylie was much taller. Our dresses were both a lavender colour with spaghetti straps and the hem ended right above our knee's.

Kylie rushed me outside so that we could go play with the other kids, we smiled, laughed, and ate treats throughout the whole day. The orphanage owners had hired a professional photographer to take all of our individual pictures, but Kylie and I convinced them to let us get our picture taken together.

We stood on a grassy hill with a big Oak tree behind us. Our pony tails swayed in the cool spring wind, the sun shone down on us illuminating our smiles. It was the best day of my life at the Orphanage.

I closed the locket and let the tears roll down my face as I remembered that day. Oh how I wished I could go back to that day, and relive it over and over again.

"Like it?" Kylie said, interrupting my thoughts, I looked up to her smiling face and wiped away my tears.

"Yes, I love it, thank you." I said, reaching over the seat to give her a hug. I didn't know what had changed in Kylie but I was glad she was becoming herself again. Though I would probably never trust her again, I was glad she was a part of my life again, and I felt a little bit stronger.

We soon arrived at the house and Paul dropped us off, saying he had to get back to work. We walked through the door of our house and Kylie walked into the kitchen, I followed her because I wanted to ask her why she's all of a sudden changed. I mean, curiosity doesn't always kill the cat, does it?

"What's going on with you?" I asked sitting at the table watching her pull out a pan.

"What do you mean?" She asked cocking her head to the side.

"I mean, why are all of a sudden you being nice to me?"

She sighed deeply before answering. "Jocie, I have a drinking problem. When I drank I became a violent person, and I relied on the alcohol, so numb my sadness from the suppressed memories of the orphanage. I never meant to hurt you, it was the alcohol. I was taking therapy sessions a couple weeks before you tried to.. you know. That's when I decided to stop cold turkey. I couldn't fathom the thought of losing you and I'm so sorry.. It was wrong of me and I will be sorry for the rest of my life.. I would never harm you intentionally and it kills me everytime I see you because I know I put you through hell and you don't realize how much I hate myself. I understand if you don't forgive me because I wouldn't either.." at this point she was sobbing. I got up and walked over to her. Her words touched me and I did feel bad for her, but after everything she'd done to be it was hard for me to feel sorry for her. I hugged her tightly and told her I forgave her, but I wouldn't trust her for a very long time. She nodded her head. I was glad she understood.

"Want to have a pizza night..?" She asked, I smiled and nodded at her.

When our pizza arrived, we sat in the living room, eating, drinking soda, and eating candy and other sweets. I was so proud of myself for eating and I didn't even feel the need to purge! Just then the doorbell rang and Kylie got up to answer it.

"Jocie, someones here to see you!" She chirped. I was confused at first until I remembered who was coming to see me tonight.

Aiden.