The Dumped Club

23- See You Again

Time doesn't stop for us to mourn and grieve.

It was one of the most important lessons I'd had to learn throughout the past year after the car accident, the heartbreak, and Janelle and Ivy's deaths. Time didn't stop for me to get over my pain, time didn't stop for me to remember, time didn't stop for any of us to feel alright again. Time didn't stop for Faith to overcome betrayal and family problems, it didn't stop for Grace to step in her skin and be herself, it didn't stop for Love to get over being the side chick and friendship problems nor did it stop for Prudence to find the confidence in herself to stand up to people.

We were all absolutely shattered to the point where we all felt as if we were going out of our minds. I'd had to go back to therapy to keep my panic attacks under control and socialising with acquaintances and anyone outside of our friendship group became difficult. Hell, even socialising with family I wouldn't see on a daily basis became a powerhouse of stress and I normally shut myself off to the world when we had someone coming over.

I didn't know how closely knit our friendship group had become since Prudence returned back to school. We didn't have to talk to spend time with each other and to feel as if we were part of something, in fact several afternoons were spent having study parties at someone's house in preparation for the end of school year exams. And after the exams we started preparing for the Arts&Creativity Night at the afterschool club. And after that I wrote even more. For some miraculous reason, I won second place for the Creative Writing competition with the short extract that I had sent in and although I wasn't the winner, I still had a secret cry of happiness because it was some step of progress. I hadn't received feedback about my work for quite some time because I was so scared and getting a positive response for something so challenging made me feel good.

We all need time to heal after things get rough. We're so broken that it's as if we could never get better again and several months and years are spent at home, thinking that it's the cure for the problematic past. I was like that for a bit; I only went from home to school and vise-versa, I said no to anything that had to do with social gatherings or meeting up with people because I had no motivation whatsoever to live.

It only all changed when Faith dragged all five of us to the beach front one afternoon. It was pretty cold and the tide was coming in when she handed us pebbles and told us to throw them as far into the sea as we could. Every fibre of anger, sadness and negativity was pent up in each of my throws and I found myself agreeing to come back down the next day. Our walks continued until we felt the need to go to the beach every single day because it was the breath of fresh air we all desperately needed.

Today was no different. We went there after school but something in my brain was telling me to go again. It was Sports Day tomorrow and I needed the energy of the sea to gift me with more motivation to be able to deal with all the people at school and the heavy stress of the sporting activities.

"Hope come on! I need you to help me and Jessica get prepared for prom and I'm supposed to be at their house in ten minutes!" Amy shrieked.

"Do I have to come?" my tone was laced with boredom as I typed replies for the newspaper.

"Yes! Now will you please help me carry my stuff to the car?"

I changed out of my pyjamas into a tank top and knee-length shorts before running out of the bedroom and grabbed Amy's heels before rushing to the car. Mum sped past our street and I glanced at Amy to see her looking at the clock on her phone and running her hands through her hair. Dreaming and looking forward to this one day in her life didn't help her be more organised and as usual, she was stressed to the point of shutting down. Amy sagged with relief when we pulled up at the Darwin family's house and ran out to embrace Jess.