Hello guys, here´s the next chapter!

Many thanks to my Beta VladdieChica, what would I do without you?

WMHSCheerioBrittany: Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, I miss old Jake, too. We will see if he´ll be okay.

Writer´s Solo: Thanks for reviewing so much! It´s good to hear what you think ybout the story and that you thing my english skills are good. That makes me happy, but of cause I´ve got a Beta no, too.

Islanda: No problem! I understand it when somean is busy, take me, for example, school tarted this week and now I´m busy. This chapter was written last week.

strawberry-sunset194: Ah! Evil. Writing a review in which stood that I can update now, because you reviewed. Perhaps next time you´ll tell me what you think? Even if you think I wrote sh**.

This anonymous reviewer: Here you see what´s going on with Sarah!

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter 24 : The disaster of distance Sarah

When we still lived in Midland, I had to share a room with Jessica and Kim.

Now that we moved, I was happy to have a room on my own. I couldn't stand being around other people now, after arguing with Elliott. Not seeing eachother was killing our relationship.

But I had had the solution. And then, everything went wrong.

He was on the phone, and for the first time in a month we could talk each other for longer than five minutes. That meant I had the chance to tell him from my plans of visiting him next weekend.

"I'm tired of only talking on phone or reading e-mails. I want to see you" I told him. His responds had been short and useless. "I know, Sarah."

"But?"

"I can´t, I'm at a boarding school, Sarah!"

"But you told me you go home for the weekends."

"Which I share with my family- alone."

That really hit me. He didn't want to see me.

"You don´t want to see me?"

"No, Sarah. It´s more complicated than that."

It always was more complicated. It was never easy. This entire relationship was only complicated.

"Do you want to see me?" I asked.

"Of course."

"Then come here."

He did not respond for a long while. Finally, he answered slowly, weighing each word "My dad wants me to be with the family. I can´t just leave."

"Your´re sixteen."

"And?"

"You´re old enough. Come here." He was, he really was. I was, too. Last time I met him, he sang me this song from the musical "The sound of music". You know it, the boy's singing it for the oldest girl, Liesel, because she´s sixteen, going on seventeen, a lot like me.

"I have...obligations when it comes to family", he explained.

"You have obligations when it comes to me."

He didn't really answer. He said something that sounded like "yeah"but then he had to go, because his tutor wanted to meet him.

Like I said: This whole thing was killing our relationship. And I was the only one who noticed. Even though I wanted to be strong, and crying always had been out of question when it came to Sarah Baker, I started to cry, putting my cell phone back in my pocket and bursting through the door, running upstairs to my room. Who would care anyway?

I didn't notice the soft knock at my door until it opened with me sitting in front of it.

"What?" I screamed. "Leave me alone."

A sigh was heard. "What the hell is wrong with this family so that everybody has to scream?"

It was Henry. It was always Henry and it calmed me down a bit, because Henry could fix anything.

So I stepped aside and let him in.

"So, what´s wrong?" He didn't even react when he saw my wet face. As if he already knew.

"It´s just...it sucks" I said lamely.

He sat down on my bed and watched me walking over to my desk to look out of the window.

"I tried to talk to him, you know."

"I thought you broke up?"

I nodded.

"I think I´m still not over it." It was hard to admit, but it was true. "We were to..distanced. A relationship, no matter what kind, can´t survive this. Look at this family! We´re all distanced, too. And what happened? Didn´t even notice one of us tried to kill himself. First we thought it was an accident!"

"It´s not your fault."

"It´s our everybody´s fault, Henry!"

He did not answer. He just sighed.

Suddenly, I was next to him, looking him in the eyes.

"Maybe if I hadn't been so focused on myself and Elliott, I would have noticed what happened to Jake."

"Sarah..."

"We were so close back then, but I ruined it."

"No..."

"Shut up – I haven´t even visited him."

Suddenly, Henry bit on his lips. "Me neither."

After some while sitting in silence, he continued, almost whispering the words. "I want to fix this family, but I can't. Everybody thinks I'm the strong one, the guy who could hold everything together, but it´s not true. I can't manage shit. And visiting Jake, that would mean I would have to face one of my biggest weaknesses. That´s not possible. I can´t even visit Owen´s grave."

Within seconds he had started to cry. I never saw him crying before and it made me realize that Henry, Big Man Henry, wasn´t Superman or someone like that. He was an eighteen year old boy. A boy who had a big brother lying motionless in a white hospital bed, unable to comfort him when he was reminded of his dead best friend. He had a little brother whom he almost lost, too.

I hugged him and whispered: "I love you, Henry."

After a while, we both had calmed down and sat in silence. Suddenly I had to smile.

"What?" my big brother asked.

"I don´t need Elliott. If I want someone who understands me, I am looking for someone who understands me, someone who can make me laugh. And who is available all the time."

He looked at me like I had gone crazy, and I think he was right.

The next day was a Tuesday. First lesson was History.

"So, Sarah Baker, what are you doing tonight?" Bobby Urban, the jerk who was Batman, watched me, chewing bubble gum again.

"I don´t know, kick your ass?" I answered without even looking at him.

"Hmm...I´d like that."

"Sure" I said.

"What about seeing a movie with me?"

I turned my head to face him.

"In your dreams."

"And what if they were to come true tonight?"

I frowned, then raised my eyebrows and focused the blackboard again. "Then mankind would end."

"Oh come on, Baker, I know you broke up with your boyfriend."

My head whipped around again. "How?" I whispered angrily.

"Everybody does." He made a bubble with the chewing gum and looked at my surprised face with an amused expression.

"How?"

"Stood on the wall on the boys' toilet, right next to the place where it says you have a nice ass."

I didn't reply. I didn't know if he said the truth about the toilette, but somehow, he must have learned that I was a single again.

"So it´s true, huh? You going out with me, then?"

"No."

"But I'm hot, and I'm Batman."

"The lady said no."

Both our heads jerked around to my other side. Joe Jefferson faced us, no Bobby, with an impressive expression of "You Might Wanna Run Now, Kid" on his face.

Bobby needed time to think for an answer. Suddenly the bell rang, he jumped up, grabbed his books and went away. "You´re dead man, Jefferson" he whispered.

I watched him almost running out of the room. For a moment, I noticed that he too had a really nice ass, but then I shook my head. What was I thinking?

Then I noticed that Joe Jefferson was still watching me.

"Thanks for the help, but I could´ve handled it myself" I told him none-too-gratefully.

"Sure."

He put his book into his bag and was about to go, when I suddenly grabbed his arm.

"I´m sorry, didn´t meant it."

"It´s okay, Sarah."

"You called me Sarah..." I said, shocked. Nobody really called me Sarah. My last name was available for everyone, and everyone used it. I was Baker, and when it was too complicated because there were so many of us, I was Baker Girl or Sarah Baker, but never just Sarah.

"It´s your name, isn´t it?"

We went silent and he was about to go when I hold him back once again.

"Hey, do you want to go to Cappi´s with me after school?"

For a moment, his face lighted up, but then he looked sad.

"I´m sorry, I can´t. I have to go home."

"What about tomorrow?"

"We´ll see." He walked away, but tomorrow we didn't have any classes together, and that meant we wouldn´t meet.

So today, I went to Cappi´s on my own.

I watched Duncan Stevenson and his friends joking around in front of a crowd of girls. He made me think of Henry and yesterday evening, so I tried to focus on my milkshake and the history homework.

"Hey" a soft voice greeted shyly.

I looked up and saw Bobby Urban sitting in front of me. I rolled my eyes and shut the book.

"What do you want?"

"To have a nice day with you."

"Eat shit, Urban."

"Why do you hate me?"

"Because of the same reason everybody else does. You´re a jerk."

And suddenly something in his eyes changed and I wished I never said those words. Not calling him a jerk, but saying "everybody else". I reminded him that he had no real friends.

He turned his head around and watched Duncan and one of his friends flirting with a girl. There was an awkward silence.

"I´m sorry, I didn't mean that." I tried to help the situation.

"Yes, you did." He looked me in the eyes, and I felt terrible

Then he sighed and spoke again: "I wasn´t thinking of going out with you or having sex or any of that. I just wanted to spend a nice day with you. I think you can be nice, that´s all."

I went silent and then I smiled. "So, what did you have in mind?"

As I promised: It was a loooong chapter. What about a review? Tell me what you think and you get an imaginary cookie.