Any Other World
Chapter Two
Say Goodbye to the World You Thought You Lived In
Cause it's all in the hands of a bitter, bitter man... say goodbye to the world you thought you lived in...
Zack had decided that when London calmed down, he would sneak her up to the roof. If it was anything like the roof of the Tipron at night, it would be a peaceful place for London to get everything into perspective.
They stood at the very edge of the roof, protected by a ledge that was about chest height. London stood completely still with her elbows on the ledge, her hands cupping her face. She had been silent for a long time, at least twenty minutes, when Zack finally spoke up.
"Feeling better?" her asked. She shook her head. He pasued for a moment. "Do you want to talk about it?" London turned to him, with a look on her face that screamed 'what the hell?'.
"Since when have I ever wanted to talk about my father?" she retorted.
"No need to get snippy or anything," Zack replied, slightly shocked at her sudden attitude. "But I think you should talk to someone about it. It doesn't have to be me. It could be anyone." London sniffed a little, starting to feel the tears coming back.
"Whoever I talk about it to, even if they did care about daddy, they're just going to pretend that nothing happened. Like he never existed. How can I talked to them if they don't care?"
"They do care, London. It's just that, you know... these things happen in life and you have to move on. You can't give up just because you've lost someone you cared about." Zack looked at London, hoping that he had somehow gotten through to her. "You can't keep things bottled up forever or it'll destroy you." There was a short silence before London answered.
"It feels like I'll never be happy again. That alone will destroy me." She started crying a bit again, leaning into Zack as he put his arm around her.
"It won't. I promise." he said back to her softly. "But London... if you aren't going to talk for yourself, then do it for your dad. Cause I really don't believe that he would want to see you ending up in some horrible state beacuse you couldn't let him go." Zack said softly. London sighed, thinking about his words. There was a long silence.
"Do you know how he died?" she asked him completely choked up.
"No." he answered. London sighed, wondering if she should tell him or not.
"He... he was Bipolar. One minute he would be really happy and decide to try to buy a company, the next something would go wrong and he would get depressed." She sniffed again and let more tears flow down her cheeks. "That's why he was always making plans with me and not showing up. He'd make the plans when he was happy and let me down when he was depressed." At this point she burst into tears, crying on Zack's shoulder.
Mr Tipton was Bipolar? he thought to himself. But how could that kill him? And then it hit him.
"You mean he..." he began, trailing off as London gave him a heartbroken look. She took a deep breath and nodded.
"He killed himself..." she couldn't bare to speak of it anymore. Zack pulled her into a hug, but they both turned as they heard someone fling the door open a few metres behind them. Zack let out a quiet, exasperated sigh as he discovered it was Cody.
"Found 'em!" He shouted through the door. Zack sighed again, but just a bit louder as Bailey came running after him.
Cody and Bailey both came up to London and took turns hugging her. "God, London, I'm so sorry about what happened."
"If there's anything you need, anything at all, just call us, okay?" Bailey said softly with her arm around London.
London sighed, the tears still falling, and without even looking up she said "It's fine. I just... I think I should just go home now. Is Mosbey still downstairs?"
"Yeah, he's been looking everywhere for you. I'll give him a call." Cody replied.
It was 3am, and London just couldn't get to sleep. So many thoughts, incessant, hurtful, heart breaking thoughts of regret plauged her mind. She kept playing over the few happy memories they had together over and over again. She kept telling herself the same things...
You never took that trip to Italy with him like you always said you would
You never got to have that father daughter day he always promised you
You never told him how much you loved him
London couldn't take it. She had to do something. Her daddy was dead, and she wasn't sure if he was up or down, but either way she was going to reach him somehow. So she got out of bed, kneeled down at the edge of it, put her hands together and closed her eyes.
"Daddy..." she started, barely making a sound as she did. "I don't know if you're up there or not, but... but I hope you can hear me." She took a deep breath, wondering how she could put all those thoughts into words. She thought for a while, but she knew it would take more than just 10 minutes to work this out. So she had an idea...