See You Soon - A Novella | ✓

Tessaira

Tess sat there after she spoke her last sentence, "Please come with me," with her eyes closed, hoping against hope she had finally gotten through to this stubborn guy.

When she heard rocks and trees moving, she looked up, and Jimmy was heading back down the hill.

"Jimmy, wait! Please, wait!" She got up from her sitting position, realizing too late her leg was asleep from sitting on it. She limped after him, yelling for him to come back, but he was too far ahead to catch up to him.

After a few more yards, she stopped following him. She watched him finish the descent back to town, his golden hair shining in the fading sun. She turned around to hike back to their spot on the top of the hill.

She sat back down on one of the rocks that made a perfect seat, this time not sitting on her foot. She watched the town begin to light up as night approached, thinking only of Jimmy.

Growing up right across the street from such an amazing person, she couldn't help but have a special place in her heart for the blond hair, green eyed boy. As the years had passed and they both started to reach adulthood, that boy turned into a man, rippled with muscles, and patches of peach fuzz on his face. His voice grew deeper and him taller, but he was the same Jimmy she has always known, only now with muscles.

"I lied, too, Jimmy," she whispered to herself. "I am going to miss this place. Not for what is here, but because you are still here."

A cold chill blew through the air; fall was ready to push through. She brought her legs up to her body and hugged them to her chest.

"Jimmy, we have been friends so long. New York is going to be so scary without you."

Tess understood why he was staying. His family needed him, but she needed him, too. Why couldn't he see that? If she were to tell him any of this, any of the thoughts that ran through her head, he would just tell her to hush and that she was suffering from only child syndrome.

So what, she was an only child. She didn't think she acted any different because of it. Sure, when she wanted something, she usually got it, but that wasn't because she threw tantrums for it. She just went for it, wanted it so badly she'd do anything for it.

"If only I could do that with Jimmy," she said to herself.

With the air cooling faster and the light almost gone, she got up from her rock and headed back to town. As she walked down the hill, she thought about her new job, what it was going to be like to be an article writer in New York of all places. She was excited to be leaving this tiny town, but it was her home, had been her home since she was born. The same house, the same neighbors, the same small town.

She walked into her house, warmth and the usual smell of cooked food hit her immediately. Home. But not for long.

"Hey, hon. Where's Jimmy?" Tess' mother asked from the kitchen where she was kneading dough. Jimmy always came over for a while after a hike, just before dinner.

"Went home. Had to check on Cara," Tess replied, fudging the truth. Just don't look at me mom.

Tess was a horrible liar, or so Jimmy told her. He said it was always all over her face, like a tattoo on her forehead, LIAR.

"I'm going to head up to my room," Tess told her mother.

"OK, hon, I'll call you down in a few for dinner when your father gets home," her mother replied as Tess climbed the creaky stairs to her bedroom.

She closed the door quickly behind her to shut the world out of her neon pink and green room and lay across her bed. She closed her eyes for a minute taking all the events from the day in.