A Moonless Night
I woke up, to see my room glowing from the red numbers on my alarm clock. 2:20 the numbers read, big and bold as if they were yelling at me. Only four hours till I have to get up, I thought to myself, since Edward left this is how I've been spending my nights. I sleep, then halfway through the night I'm up and I find myself counting the hours till I have to wake up and go to school, but I'm on a mid-winter break for the holidays, and it sucks because my days are now spent trying to make Christmas ornaments from popsicle sticks and trying to forget him. I have been unsuccessful on both attempts, I'm not crafty so the ornaments wind up looking like something Martha Stewart would laugh and I'm constantly haunted by the memory of him and the stinging in my chest whenever I think about us.
Charlie's even trying to cheer me up; he went and bought a Christmas tree. A very un-Charlie thing to do. He told me I had to find a way to keep my mind off him and suggested I make funky ornaments so we could decorate the tree. The other night, I could tell he didn't really want to get into it and neither did I, but he told me I could talk to him whenever I wanted. I smiled and told him thanks and then he left for work.
I got up and walked toward the window, it was covered in frost. I wiped it away with the sleeve of my shirt and saw that a thick layer of snow covered the driveway and the sidewalk; and it was still coming down. I was watching the snowfall as I pressed my face to the cold glass, and I was instantly reminded of Edward. Flashbacks of him danced in my head; and I quickly drew my face back as though his cold hand touched my neck.
I decided I needed something to do so the first thing that came to mind was to shovel the sidewalk and the driveway. I put on layers of thermals and socks and made my way downstairs. I wasn't worried about waking Charlie, he could sleep through an earthquake, and besides he would probably be happy to see me doing something that took my mind off of Edward. After stuffing my pant legs into my snow boots, zipping my jacket to the top of my nose, putting on my wool mittens and a cozy hat I grabbed a shovel and walked toward the door.
It was empty outside, with only the sound of my broken heart and empty thoughts to keep me company.
I decided to start at the walkway and worked my way to the driveway. It didn't feel like the snow was planning on stopping anytime soon. A half hour went by and the walkway was completed. I stopped to catch my breath and looked up toward the night sky, it was a moonless night.
I saw the lights go on in the house and saw that Charlie was awake, so I decided to go in; the driveway could wait till later. "Hey, Bells I got the water on for your hot cocoa." I told him thanks as I removed the wet gloves from my hands and shook off the loose snow from my coat. I could see that he was already dressed for work; so I could only assume he was getting ready to leave. "You're leaving already? it's only 4:30" (I was not thrilled about the thought of being alone all day.) "Yeah, early morning staff meeting. I told you yesterday. I have to go round up the troops." "I guess I forgot," I said in my most monotone voice, but it didn't disguise the sadness in it and Charlie caught on. "You know", he said in his most fatherly tone "You can call me all day, I even learned how to do the e-mail thing you guys do with the messages." He sounded so proud of himself so I didn't bother correcting him, and telling him what he meant was texting. "That's great Dad, I might take you up on that." "Alrighty then I'll see you later." He turned his back to leave; but he stopped at the door. "Hey, Bells". "Yeah?" I said walking back to the door. "I love you", "love you too dad".
Just like that I was alone again. The whistling of the teakettle pulled me out of my daze. I made my cocoa and walked back up the stairs to my bed. I sat on my bed and continued to watch the snowfall. I let my mind wander, but it kept going back to him. I began to wonder if I was ever going to be able to spend another birthday, Halloween, Christmas or even just a regular day without wondering what he was doing, and then I got to thinking if he was ever going to come back at all.