Take me Home

Chapter 50

When Jade broke the kiss to breathe Marcus wiped away her tears gently with his thumb as he rested his forehead against hers.

"Be strong for me Jade and I will see you soon. I promise." He placed his lips on her forehead and she savoured the warm feeling and smiled softly through her tears. Marcus pulled away, stood up and picked up his bag. He wanted to linger around, but last night they promised each other not too because it would make it all the harder to say goodbye. Marcus smiled at Jade one last time, blew her a kiss before he turned his back and didn't look back.

Jade watched Marcus until he was out of site and let out a huge breath. Goodbyes were always hard, but she never remembered them being this hard. She wrapped her arms around herself as a sinking feeling set into the pit of her stomach. She tried to breathe through this sinking feeling and she almost yelled out for Marcus to come back.

She let out another breath as she reassured herself that he would be fine and he would come home. She sniffled and wiped her eyes willing herself to stop crying. She inhaled and exhaled deeply as she finally pushed the sinking feeling out of her mind. She knew short goodbyes were always best but being on the opposite side was different. She wanted a long goodbye to hold on as long as possible and for the first time; she realised what it was like to watch the person you love leave.

It made her heart feel heavy, and she felt like Marcus took a part of her with him when he left. Sighing, she grabbed the sides of her chair with shaky hands and turned herself around and saw Sophia watching her with a soft smile on her face. She pushed herself over to the other women and smiled when she got there.

"You okay Jade?" Sophia asked, and Jade nodded.

"I will be. It will take some adjusting, but I will be fine." Sophia smiled at Jade as they both went to the car and left the airport back to Jade.

***

The first week was the hardest. Jade tried to stay strong, but she broke a little. Every night she cried herself to sleep and woke up always tired. Her days felt lonely and she would often call Marcus just to hear his voice through voice mail. Sophia and Noah tried to keep her busy, but every moment made her miss Marcus more. She missed curling up in his arms at night and missed having someone to talk to.

"Jade, you okay?" Andrea asked her, and she was sick of people asking her that. Would you be okay if the person you loved went away to fight for the country and you did not understand where, when or what they were doing? If you did not understand when they would come home and had no way to contact them. No, you wouldn't be.

"Not really but I will be." Andrea smiled at Jade and gave her more exercise to do during the week. She went home afterwards and found herself in bed clutching Marcus shirt to her chest. She struggled to get out of bed each day and when she got up she soon found herself back in bed.

***

It was during Jade's 2nd month without Marcus she decided she wanted to go back to school. She was searching through the different TAFE courses with Noah to see if there was anything she would like.

"What do you think about me becoming a personal trainer for people like me?" Noah looked up from the computer to Jade with a smile on his face.

"I can see you doing that Jade." She smiled at Noah and looked at what she needed to do.

"Going back to the gym has helped me a lot and I want to help other people a well." She felt herself become excited at the thought of helping other people. For the first time since Marcus had left she felt lighter and excited.

"So, let have a lot at what you need to do." They spent the next hour looking into the course and found out to become a certified personal trainer she had to do her cert 3 and 4. They found out it would take 8-10 weeks to complete the course. Jade knew she had a lot of time on her hands so she could complete the course in about 8 weeks. Jade signed up to the course an hour later and soon they had enrolled her in her new course.