Outer Space

Chapter 9 - Needing a Hug

    The two teens with a matching set of tears streaming down their faces had stopped fighting, they had stopped talking to each other altogether. Jemma had gone back to staring out the window and into the black abyss of the world outside. While Maddox couldn't take his eyes off of Jemma. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want to mess things up any further than he already had.

    The two were lost. They were confused. They had both made mistakes, and now that everything was out in the air neither of them knew how they felt, how they were supposed to feel. They were stuck, not knowing what to do next or where to go from here.

    Interrupting the eerie silence that surrounded Jemma and Maddox, the waitress that Jemma strongly disliked, Jaine, walked up to the two saying, "We're closing." The words were said in the annoying nasally voice, a voice that Jemma really did not want to be hearing. But taking the statement as her chance to escape the mess that she was stuck in, Jemma stood up and left without so much as a wave goodbye. All the while Maddox didn't take his eyes off of her, and once she was no longer visible all he did was stare off in the direction she went.

..........

    The fact that Jemma didn't want to go home, but she also didn't want to go back to Emmie's, left her in a bit of a dilemma. Jemma had no intention of being anywhere near her dad at this time of night, his drinking prime. She also had no intention of going back to the house where Mrs. Jacobs probably spilled all of her secrets to her entire family.

    Jemma would go to Charlie's but she still kind of felt bad for the night before, plus she had no intentions to talk things out... with anybody.... ever again. With all of her options unavailable, she decided that she would walk around for a while. In her mind, at the time, it seemed better than being suffocated by all of the questions and all of the talking.

    After walking through the city for who knows how long and getting cat called who knows how many times, Jemma still had nowhere to go. It was now well past midnight and it probably wasn't exactly safe for her to be walking around outside on her own. Jemma, who previously wasn't paying attention to where she was going began to recognize some of the things around her. Like the park that she used to sneak out to meet up with some of her old friends and the mini-mart that she may or may not have stolen a few candy bars from.

    Starting to remember that there were other people in her life that actually cared for her and loved her she began walking in an actual direction. With a destination in mind, Jemma sped up her pace. Wanting nothing more than to be held in the warm embrace of someone that wasn't going to leave her stranded.

    Knocking on the door, more and more memories began to fly around Jemma's mind. The tears that had already stained her face were joined by new ones. It seemed as though she couldn't turn the waterworks off standing on the doorstep of a woman that she hasn't seen in a long time. But for Jemma today seemed to be all about dredging up old memories so really this was probably the perfect place for her to be at the moment.

    She saw the lights begin to flicker on inside through the window of the door that she was standing in front of. Surprising her though, it was a man that pulled open the door. Holding back the sob that was threatening to explode out of her she stared at the man in front of her. She didn't even recognize him. "Sorry, I...I," that was all she was able to get out still staring at the stranger with the tears not slowing down.

    But then, through the corner of her eye, Jemma saw that dirty-blonde hair that she always envied. Walking up to the door and pushing herself in front of the man that had opened the door, the women that Jemma came here for was now in her sight.

    "Hannah." Jemma cried out begging for something, begging for some kind of help, some kind of comfort.

    Hannah wasted no time before pulling Jemma inside of her house and at the same time into a hug. A hug that Jemma has desperately needed. The cries coming out of Jemma got louder and she stopped trying to hold back the sobs. The man that had previously answered the door disappeared to what Jemma remembered to be Hannah's bedroom.

    Eventually, Hannah was able to pull Jemma down to the couch, not ever letting up on the hug that she held Jemma in. The women spoke comforting words in Jemma's ears. "You're okay," she said. "I'm here," she repeated in a calming voice.

    Jemma was grateful but the full day of talking and crying left a toll on her body. She had been wandering around for over an hour and by now she was beyond tired. So as her sobs began to soften and became fewer and far between. With her eyes already tightly closed shut, Jemma began to doze off in the arms of the one woman that has always been there for her, no matter what.

..........

    Hannah was able to loosen her embrace and pull herself off of Jemma's sleeping form. Lowering Jemma down so that the girl was lying across the couch, she grabbed a blanket and laid it across her. She then shut the lights off that her boyfriend had turned on when he got up to open the door.

    Hannah was confused. She hadn't seen Jemma in a long time and when the girl does finally show up to say hello, it's past midnight and she's crying like there's no tomorrow. Hannah had wanted to ask her questions but there was clearly no good time to do that and she also figured that if it was bad enough for Jemma to come to her then she probably didn't want somebody who was just going to ask her a million questions.

    "What was that about babe?" Hannah's aforementioned, door opening boyfriend, Zach, asked her from his spot laying down in bed. He looked tired and Hannah was glad that he waited up for her to finish with Jemma.

    "I'm not sure exactly," she answered honestly, flopping down on the bed next to him and adjusting the covers so that she was actually covered by them. Closing her eyes she continued so that she could give him somewhat of an explanation. "That was Jemma, the girl I told you about, the one I fostered. She stopped responding to my texts a while ago, so whatever happened had to have been pretty bad for her to end up here." That wasn't completely true, it's not just that Jemma stopped responding, it was more like both of them stopped trying to stay in contact with each other. Both of them gave up.

    "I'll leave early tomorrow," Zach said. "So that you can talk to her, or whatever." He really just didn't want to be around for anymore crying because he was not a fan.

    "Thanks." And with that, brought the end of a conversation and the couple was able to go back to sleep. While the girl that was sleeping in the living room was twisting and turning in her sleep, doing her best to survive the nightmares that wouldn't leave her alone.

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Thanks for reading!

I hope you enjoyed!

    -Claire