See You Soon - A Novella | ✓

Jimmy (One Week Later)

He sat in his room for what would be his last day as a careless twenty year old. He started work at the mine tomorrow, and to say he dreaded it would be an understatement. He was scared out of his mind.

Yes, his father died in the same veins of coal he would be working in, but it was the only way to get the kind of money his family needed, not to mention the only place hiring with decent pay.

Jimmy was good with his hands, guitar playing, wood working, painting, so the mines should be a breeze. The only thing he wasn't good with was words.

Sure he could write a song about whatever he was thinking or doing, but just talking. HA!

He picked up his iPhone for Lord knew the umpteenth time to text or call Tess, but he had no clue what he would say to her.

It's just out of habit, he told himself. You'll get over wanting to talk to her as soon as she leaves for New York.

Not talking to Tess had been the hardest thing he had ever done, second to only saying goodbye to his father. Maybe it was a tie. He didn't know, but he did know for twenty years she had been there for him, always there for him.

God, he missed her. He missed her bright blue eyes that caught his breath when she would hold him in her stare, the gorgeous roundness of her face, her pale fair skin and beautiful button nose. Most of all, he missed her lips. Soft pink, full lips. And when she said his name, the slow way her lips would meet and part on the last –my.

He kept catching himself thinking of her sitting on their rocks, the wind blowing her long jet black hair onto her lips, and her trying to tame it back and out of her mouth.

"Whatever," he said to himself. He strummed a few cords on his old guitar his parents had given to him for Christmas when he turned sixteen. "She was just a friend. She'll leave and I'll never see her again. Done."

He put down his guitar and crossed to the now shaded window. He pulled down one of the shades to see if Tess was home. Her car was there, so she hadn't left yet for New York.

Today was the day she would leave. She was probably still packing, but he didn't see any movement in her bedroom window. Hers was un-shaded like it had been for twenty years. Still not a peeping-tom.

When he closed his the night he said goodbye to her, he wished he could take it back instantly. It was like closing a door on her that would never reopen. Even if he could peek through, he would never be able to resurrect it. What's done is done. She can't take back what she said, and he can't take back his final gesture.

Suddenly, he felt trapped in his room, claustrophobic even. He had to get outside. He grabbed his guitar and notebook and walked downstairs.

He checked on his mother before he left the house. She was still sleeping on the couch, a picture of his father hugged to her chest. He'd leave her there. No point in waking her up to the pain she constantly felt. Thank goodness, Cara was at their aunt's house for the weekend.

He still felt the pain of losing his father every day, but he had to think of Cara. She couldn't be left to fend for herself at her age, without both her parents. He had to be strong for her. He had to take care of her since his mother was in no position to do so.

He walked out the door and down the sidewalk. His feet automatically took him on the all too familiar route to the hill.

His mind reeled of what he was going to do the next day at the mines that he hadn't even realized he was only ten feet away from his and Tess' spot that overlooked the town. He broke through the last bit of trees to their rocks when he stopped dead in his tracks.