Our Sanctuary
"Chrys!" Jenn's voice came through my window. "Get your ass out here right now! And you better not be sleeping or I'm coming up!"
It takes me a minute to process what exactly she said. Slowly, I get up, walk over to my window and look down at the street. Standing there are Jenn and Vee, and I can see Brooke coming up the street.
"Uh," I say to myself, rolling my eyes. "Leave me to my sleep!" I shout to them, or at least I think I do as I might have mumbled being that I'm so tired. I shut and lock the window and pull down the blinds as well. I shuffle my feet across the floor and back into what looks like a very inviting bed, despite its messy appearance. Just as I was about to pull my covers over my head and shut out the world, my phone starts vibrating and blaring 'It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time' and someone starts pounding on my door at the same time.
"Chrystal Lynn!" I hear Jenn's voice through the door. "Open the door or we'll keep on calling and pounding on your door!" Choosing to deal with my phone first, I pick it up and see Jenn's name on the screen. I quickly open and close it, hanging up on her. Then I walk around all my books and clothing piles on my floor to get to the door.
Dramatically, I open the door and glare the person or persons on the other side. All I see are shirts on hangers. 'Oops, wrong door,' I think. Silently laughing at myself, I open the right door just in time for Jenn, Veronica, and Brooke to tackle me to the ground.
"Ah!" I yell in shock. "Get the fuck off of me you freaks!"
"Chrys! Don't yell in my ear!" yelled Brooke
"Well, that's what you get!"
Quickly shoving them off and standing up as best I could, I glare down at the three bodies hanging onto my feet. A few minutes and groans later, all of them are standing.
Still glaring at them, especially Jenn, I ask, "What in the world were you just trying to do? The door was unlocked the whole time!" I see Vee's jaw drop and Brooke and Jenn turn on her with angry expressions.
"And," I say before either of them could have a go at Vee. "Why are you guys even here at…" I trail off as I look around the room for a clock. "What time is it?"
"It's like 1 in the afternoon," says Brooke
"Oh, where was I? Right! Why are you here at 1PM when you know that I had a school game and a club practice last night? Minimum wake up is like 2PM and you're here a whole hour before that!"
"God, sorry Ms. 'I'm so busy, I'm so tired'," said Jenn. "Remember we are going for our hike in the park's forest today!"
A few seconds pass by and I stare at them with guilt. Looking over their clothing, I realize they are dressed for a hike.
"He he, oops," I say. "Guess I, uh, kind of forgot. Don't worry though. I'll be ready soon!" I shout the last sentence as I sprint out of my room with the clothes set on my desk. 'How did those get there?' I think.
"You know that her meaning of soon translates into like a half-hour." I hear Brooke's voice state before all sounds are drowned out by the water of my shower.
Fifty-five minutes later we are heading out of my house and towards the park.
"Sorry again," I said, pleading for their forgiveness. "I totally forgot with the game and then going straight to practice, and them my mom made me start my homework for some reason, so I didn't fall asleep until like 1:30ish"
"Ah," said Jenn, "The infamous 'ish', I just knew you could last too long without saying it. Anyways, I guess we could forgive you. But just to let you know, your mom made you start your homework because of us going on the hike today."
"Well that explains how my clothes were out and my bag already packed. Mom must have done it before she left for work," I say thinking out loud without realizing it.
"Oh, wow that's nice of her," said Vee.
"Yea, otherwise we would still be back at Chrys's house as she ran around trying to get ready," said Jenn laughing.
"Fine! Just talk about me as if I wasn't here!" I say and stomp ahead of them.
"Aw, come one Chrys. You know they are only kidding," said Brooke.
"Yea, I know," I say to her as I reach my hand up to play with the chain for my locket. "I just wanted one of you to apologize."
"Hey, what's that?" asked Jenn pointing to my locket.
"Um," I hesitate, not really ready to tell them yet. "It's just a locket. I was wearing it at out last summer sleepover, and I wear it almost everyday at school. Don't you remember?"
"I remember seeing something around your neck, but I didn't know that it was a locket," said Jenn.
"So, where did you get it?" asked Vee.
"No," said Brooke. "Who did you get it from?"
"Uh, um," I stutter. We have come to a stop at the entrance to the park. I look at all of their faces wondering if I could truly trust them with this. 'This was the one thing I had hoped they would never ask me,' I think.
"Well?" asked Brooke. "Are you going to tell us or not?"
"I-I, uh," I trail off again, still not being able to tell them.
"Come one!" said Vee. "It's not that hard of a question!"
"Well, it- it's from," For some reason, I just cannot tell them, not yet anyways. I close my eyes to block the tears and the looks of expectancy on Brooke's and Vee's faces.
"Chrys! Why aren't yo-," Brooke's voice begins
"Hey guys!" interrupts Jenn's' voice. "Can't you see that she can't tell us or something like that? Right Chrys?" I just nod my head, hoping that my eyes will be okay once I open them.
"What? Don't you trust us enough to tell us?" Brooke yells at me. I can feel the stinging in the back of my eyes. 'Please make this stop, please.' I think.
"Brooke! Stop it right now," said Jenn.
"Why should I? She should know that she can trust us enough to tell us anything!"
I just want to get away, away from them and the arguing over me.
"Please stop." I say quietly, so quietly that you could barely hear it. Somehow they all heard it.
"Oh Chrys," I hear Jenn say. The next moment I can feel her arms around me, at first I flinch, having not expected the contact. She felt me flinch but just grabbed onto me tighter. "It will be okay. You don't have to tell us anything," she whispers to me. Without knowing what came over me, I start to cry onto her shoulder and hug her back. Minutes pass by and I feel like a great pressure has been released from me. I can feel that my tears have stopped, so I slowly lift my head from Jenn's shoulder and let her go.
"Thank you," I say softly to her. Looking around I realize that Vee and Brooke are no longer there. "Where did they go?" I ask, my voice slightly accusing.
"I don't know Chrys," Jenn says. "I thought they were there they whole time. I guess they went home or something."
"Yea, I guess." Not really just wanting to stand around all day, I motion to Jenn to start walking back to my house. For most of the way we are silent, but about half way back, Jenn asks me a question.
"Hey Chrys, if you don't mind me asking, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to but, where did you get the locket?" I look over at her and see that she is staring nervously at me.
"Jenn," I start out. "I don't mind that you asked, but I'm just not ready to tell you yet. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. But if you ever need to talk about anything, you know by now that you can come to me."
"I know Jenn. Especially after today, I mean, you're the one that stayed."
"Okay, you know what, all of this talk is making me sad. I think that we need some cheering up and I've got just the thing." She stops and sits down on the sidewalk curb and digs through her bag. "Yes, I found it!" she shouts after a few minutes of digging. She pulls out her ipod from the front pocket of her bag.
"I should have guessed!" I say laughing at her.
"What?"
"It just that it took you how long to find your ipod when it was in the front pocket of you bag the whole time!"
"Well then fine! Be that way!" Jenn says as she sticks her tongue out at me. I just laugh at her. She stands up and goes to hand me one of the headphones. "Come on, get over here and listen to this!" Still laughing, I walk over to her and put the headphone in my ear. Jenn looks at me to make sure I put it in my ear, and only then did she hit play.
I immediately recognize the tune, to me the first part of the song is unforgettable. I look back at Jenn and see her wide smile.
"You actually downloaded it?" I ask her.
"Yes I did, and right now I'm glad I did because look at you, your so happy now," she replies to me. The first part of the song comes on, and we are silent as we listen to the music. In my head, I sing along to the lyrics.
In you and I there's a new land In you and I there's a new land
Angel's in flight
My sanctuary my sanctuary yeah
Where fears and lies melt away
Music will tie
What's left of me what's left of me now
I watch you fast asleep
All I fear means nothing
In you and I there's a new land
Angels in flight
My sanctuary my sanctuary yeah
Where fears and lies melt away
Music will tie
What's left of me what's left of me
My heart's a battleground
You show me how to see
That nothing is whole and nothing is broken
Angel's in flight
My sanctuary my sanctuary yeah
Where fears and lies melt away
Music will tie
What's left of me what's left of me now
My fears and lies
Melt away
For some reason, when ever I listen to this song, I'm filled with a calmness that I cannot explain. I think that Jenn might be starting to understand that now. At first the song was my sanctuary. Now I think that it's our sanctuary.