hi everyone, sorry that i haven't been able to update recently. but my school's musical is this week, and i've been nonstop busy preparing for it and just haven't had the time to write. but i promise that soon there will be an update!

^ OKAY.

i just read the whole thing, i love it.
bump (:

so finally, here is an update!
once again, i am so sorry for the long wait!

and Julia, thanks for reading this so late into it . i wasn't expecting a new reader, so it was a nice surprise.


Chapter 20

After I bolted from the emergency room, somehow escaping from the mob of reporters and bystanders waiting outside, my feet guided me to a peculiar place: Kelsey’s house. After I ran out on her when she advised me to rethink my relationship with Jake, we hadn’t spoken. Yes, there was the one time where she met Ben and gave him my phone number, but that didn’t count. Kelsey and I weren’t technically friends, but in another sense she was the only friend I had. She had always been a place of comfort for me, and even if certain areas in life alter, some things never change.

I debated whether to ring the doorbell and attempt to talk to her, but I then remembered that she was at Yale and had only come back home to console me. Me. How stupid was I to walk out on the one person who would leave their college to help me? Being in denial is a delicate place; you do crazy things you never thought you would. I wondered if Kelsey would be proud of me for breaking up with Jake in order to analyze my feelings. I wondered if she even cared about me at all anymore.

Instead of leaving, I simply sat in the middle of her lawn. I didn’t care if her parents came out and yelled at me or if strangers stared. There was nowhere else for me to go.

I jumped when I suddenly heard footsteps on the street in front of me. I squinted, trying to decipher who was slowly walking toward me. Once the figure got closer, I couldn’t miss that it was Aaron. Rather than saying anything, I just sat there. There wasn’t much to say in the first place.

Surprisingly, Aaron sat down next to me without question. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” I replied, not even able to look at him.

“That was crazy, huh?” His attempt at small talk was pathetic.

“What do you want?” I asked Aaron, forcing him to get to the point.

“I guess you’d be surprised if I told you I was here to see you, right?”

I blinked a few times. “I would, yeah.”

“Well, that’s the truth.” Aaron clasped his hands together as I finally looked at him, puzzled. “I don’t know,” he went on. “You’ve been through more trauma than anyone should have to go through in their lifetime. And I’m still allowed to worry about you, right? Because you’re my sister and everything. You’ve never been through this kind of horrific stuff. Well, you’ve dealt with it once before this, but I’m sure it doesn’t get easier. And today was even scary for me, and I’m a pretty tough guy. So-”

“You can stop rambling now,” I advised, cracking a smile.

“Oh,” he said, embarrassed. “It’s just... I don’t really know what to say to you. We left off really bad.”

“You made it that way, you know,” I told him.

“Yeah, I know,” Aaron admitted. “But I sort of realize now that maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. You know, ditching you or whatever.”

“Sort of? Maybe?”

“Okay, it was completely the wrong thing to do. But doesn’t it count that I’m trying to make it better now?”

“Sort of. Maybe.”

“Hey!” he objected, which made us both laugh. It was the first time that we had laughed together in a long time. It felt good, like we were actually brother and sister again.

“It does,” I retorted sincerely. “It was weird not having a brother to talk to, even though I’ve despised you most of the time you did speak to me. I...” My voice trailed off. “I missed you.”

Aaron was about to say something, but paused. “I missed you, too.”

We shyly looked at one another, waiting for the opposite to do the honors. But both of us were born impatient, and we finally hugged each other at the same time. Sure, we annoyed each other half to death. But what mattered is that through all of our quarrels, we always missed each other in the end. Maybe this one lasted a little longer than the rest, but it didn’t mean that the same resolution couldn’t be made. I was happy to have my brother back again.

“How did you know to find me here?” I asked him once we pulled apart.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Kelsey’s is like your second home. Once I heard that you were MIA, I didn’t know anywhere else you would go.” He hesitated for a few seconds. “Have you worked things out with Kelsey? Even though I don’t like her too much, I’ve always respected her because she’s your friend and she’s always stuck by you.”

‘I haven’t talked to her,” I answered. “Maybe I should though.”

“Most definitely.”

“I was pretty unfair. She was only trying to help me, and she ended up being right the whole time. I was so dumb not to listen to her.”

“Hey,” Aaron protested, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s not a bad thing to want to hold on to true love.”

“But it wasn’t true love. That’s the thing.”

“You thought it was.”

I sighed, turning toward Aaron. “She was trying to help me see that it wasn’t, and I didn’t even take the time to listen to what she had to say. I blocked her out, like an idiot. You were trying to do the same thing, and what did I do to you as well? I completely shut you out.”

“By staying away from Jake and Ben, aren’t you shutting them out, too?”

I stared at him. “How do you know about that?”

He shrugged once again. “How do you think I found out that you vanished?”

I nodded, then sighed. “Aaron, what do I do?”

He smiled. “To be honest, I think you know exactly what to do, but you’re just hiding the solution out of fear. Dig a little deeper inside yourself. You’ll be surprised at what you find.” He got up, brushing his pant legs.

“Where are you going?” I questioned, hoping that wasn’t all the advice he was planning on giving me.

“It’s up to you from here,” he said, then jogged down the grass. It seemed like everyone kept giving me that tidbit of advice, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted the answers given to me instead of having to figure them out all alone. But like a quote from Charlie Brown, “In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.”

So there I was, left on Kelsey’s lawn, not knowing what to do. But Aaron was right. I did know, but it would just take me a little time sitting there to figure it out.

Good update Rachael!

Great update, Rachael!

rach, you're an amazing writer!
and i mean that.
your story feels so real. i feel like im actually part of it when im reading the story. its really believable.



update soon, yeah?

WOW!

So why have I missed reading this for so long?

Damn, Rach

so, an update. it's due.
and for a warning, only the epilogue is left! then it's done. aw, bittersweet.

ah, Jess! welcome! you've kind of caught on late, lol, but i don't mind .
and Lily, you give me the best compliments and i appreciate it so much! i thought i would let you know.

okay, enough babbling.


Chapter 21

After about fifteen minutes, it became way too cold to sit outside without a jacket. So I reluctantly ran back to the emergency room, it being not very far from Kelsey’s house, to retrieve my car. I had forgotten about the reporters wanting a story though, and I was completely mobbed after simply stepping into the parking lot. This time I knew I wasn’t going to be as lucky as before; these reporters were fierce and wanted information.

How they even knew my name, I wasn’t sure, but all I heard from every direction was “Whitney!” I guess it was sort of flattering; you know, everyone wanting my attention. But the bottom line was that I was freezing and just wanted to go home. The mob of reporters had set up a place for me to stand and answer all questions, so I was stuck. I stood in front of the emergency room’s entrance, my arms wrapped around my shivering body, and said, “Okay, I’ll answer any questions you may have.”

“Whitney, you’ve been in this same situation only a mere few weeks ago. How does this compare to when Fa