Chapter 10: Restless Night
"You can say that again," Meg said finally gathering herself to be able to speak.
They sat there in silence with their thoughts trying to take in all of the content from Jimmy's letter. Before they were ready to discuss it between them they unfortunately were interrupted from their thoughts.
"Roxanne, Jack's waiting for you downstairs to take you home," Helen spoke softly at Meg's door.
"Okay," Roxanne said like a robot rising and obeying with no question or protest.
"Bye Rox," Meg said in quite the same tone.
"See ya," said Roxanne before leaving the room.
Helen was giving each of them quizzical looks during all of this. Instead of following Roxanne downstairs she walked over to Meg.
"Meg did you read your letter?" she asked knowing full well that she had. When Meg's response was only a blank stare, Helen asked, "Meg is everything okay? Nothing happened to Jimmy did it? Do you want to talk about it?"
Meg broke away from her stare off into nothingness and turned to her mother now sitting next to her with her hand on Meg's forearm. Instantly feeling the touch of her mother's soft, cool hand after being so numb, Meg looked down at the gesture then back up into her mother's concerned eyes.
"I'm okay," Meg said with no emotion in her voice. "I'd just like to go to bed."
"Okay if you're sure," Helen said getting up after her daughter rose to lay her letter on her nightstand. Backing out of the room slowly, Helen eyed her daughter wondering what could have been in that letter to make her daughter act so spacey. She finally disappeared, but popping her head back in to say, "'Night Meg," to the lump under the covers.
Meg lay in bed with her eyes wide open. She didn't even blink when her mother turned out the lights. There were so many thoughts swirling around in her head she couldn't sort through them all.
This is serious, she thought. Even Rox was speechless. It takes a lot to get Rox speechless. Jimmy loves me! Jimmy loves me? How could he love me? What am I going to do?
I'm with Luke. I'm happy with Luke. But…we do have our tendencies to fight a lot. What am I talking about? Jimmy isn't even here! I can't break things off with Luke just because Jimmy says he loves me and he's not even here.
But he says he loves me. Does he really love me or is he just saying that? Augh! I'm so confused! I need to talk to Rox. I need to get this straightened out before I see Luke.
Luke! Oh no! Tomorrow's Friday! My date with Luke! Meg slapped her forehead with the palms of her hands. What am I gonna do?
Meg continued her back and forth banter until exhaustion at long last set in and she fell asleep. She awoke with a jerk when she heard her mother's voice calling her to wake up. She sat up rubbing her temple with the tips of her fingers. Her mind was a jumble of questions, visions of Jimmy and Luke, and bits and pieces of songs. Two songs in particular: one going, "Rain, won't you tell her that I love her so/ Please ask the sun to set her heart aglow/ Rain in her heart and let the love we know start to grow," and the other, "It doesn't matter what they say/ I'm gonna love you any old way/ What can I do when it's true/ Don't want nobody/ 'Cause baby it's you."
She lay back down wanting everything to go away, hoping the letter had just been a wild, crazy dream.
"Meg?" came a voice causing Meg to rise up on her elbows. The voice turned out to be a stern looking Helen Pryor. "Meg, you need to get up. Oh, and be sure to wear something warm. It's cold and rainy outside."
Helen left when she saw her daughter get up and start to gather her clothes to wear for the day.
In her hustle and bustle to get around Meg noticed the letter sitting atop of her nightstand. Well there goes the theory of it being a dream, she thought. Looking out the window she saw the steady pour of rain.
"Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain/ Pitter patter, pitter patter/ Whoa-whoa-oh listen," she thought watching a raindrop trickle and roll down making its track along the length of the window.