CHAPTER TEN
There was a knock at the door. Lisa opened it and there was Chad.
"I came as soon as I heard, is she okay?"
"No I'm afraid not. When is Jake coming? We need him."
"He's right here."
Chad moved and Lisa's mouth dropped. There was one of her best friends standing at the doorway of her house after more than a year thinking he was kidnapped and killed. The boy she knew had changed so much since she last saw him. His short blonde hair was now brown hockey hair and he was at least six feet tall. His preppy style was now skater, and he was more handsome than he had been.
"Hi Lisa, it's been a while," he said, his voice was deeper too.
Lisa threw her arms around him and whispered into his ear, "It's so good to see you. Thank-you so much for coming."
"Anything for a friend, when you told me it was an emergency I found the next flight. Where is she?"
"In the spare room. She hasn't eaten since it happened and she won't move except to go to the bathroom. She won't sleep, she won't go away from that window and she won't even drink anything. I am so worried. She's never been like this."
Lisa began to cry as she said the words. Chad took Lisa into the living room and Jake walked down the hallway, nervous to be re-acquainted when she was in this state. He had never stopped loving her, in all honesty, and he never would. He looked at the pictures on the wall and saw one of Wendy, it was in a frame that said grade 8 graduation, and so he guessed that it was recent. She still had bright red curly hair, but it was tamer now, and she was even more beautiful than she was before. She had her hair up in this picture, and her bright blue dress sparkled. She had grown into a woman.
Jake continued down the hall and when he found the spare room, he stopped and exhaled. He was sure Lisa hadn't told him all the details, but he would find out whatever she didn't tell him, like how she cut her wrists, which he didn't know and didn't expect, until, that is, he opened the door.
There was a fairly good-looking boy sitting on the window seat next to Wendy.
"Hi, I'm Peter," the guy said in a very worn out voice.
"Jake. Nice to meet you."
Peter took a deep breath, he shook the guy's hand and left the room, watching from a small crack he left purposefully there.
Jake walked over to the counter and grabbed a hair elastic. He put Wendy's hair up, she didn't move. Lisa told him she was non-respondent, so he wasn't surprised. When the big red tangle was out of the way, he rubbed her shoulders the way he used to. Peter's eyes widened when Jake began to sing. It was a song he had often heard Wendy singing before they met. He guessed she wrote it for Jake. What amazed him even more was when Wendy stood up with her mouth open. A tear trickled down her cheek. Even now, when she was in her worst state, she was beautiful.
When she threw her arms around Jake, she realized that the love they shared would last an eternity, or more. He realized that that would be the last time he ever saw Wendy. "Good-bye Wendy, I will never forget you."
As a last tear rolled down Peter's cheek, he took a small bark pouch out of his pocket. He never thought he would have to use it, but he was proven wrong. He took out a pinch of forgettable dust, he said the words, and disappeared. Nobody would remember him after that dust, but he would remember them.
Jake felt something weird in his body, like a small chill up his spine. But he was distracted when Wendy pulled away and sat back down as if nothing had happened. She stared out the window again in the same blank stare.
"Wendy, talk to me, please," he said as he sat down beside her and went to reach for her hands that were resting palm up on her lap. Then he saw what Lisa hadn't told him. There were cuts all over her wrists. At least a hundred. Some were older, but some he could tell were just created, for the blood was only starting to dry.
"Why?"
"I still hear her voice," she whispered in a very creepy voice. Jake shuddered when she said it. She was not herself.
Jake put his hand on the underside of her chin and pulled her head towards him, "Wendy, you have to eat something."
"I don't want to." Same voice, same feeling in Jake. It was his heart breaking every time she spoke that voice or ignored him.
"You don't know you're doing it, do you?"
For a moment, a short moment, Wendy looked into Jake's eyes, but that was enough for him to grab a glass of water and force her to drink it.
Wendy choked on the water and started to cough; she looked at Jake. She swallowed. She had known he had come before, but something inside told her to ignore it. She began to cry, partly from happiness that Jake was here; partly to as the occasion that Jake was here. Everything in her head was so jumbled up that she didn't even get anything.
"Hello Wendy."
"Jake..."
"Want to tell me why you did this to yourself, and why you're acting so strange."
"I-I see her everywhere, and I keep seeing her in the hospital bed and I have never felt so...afraid before and I didn't know what to do."
"Why are you hurting yourself for it?"
"Because I can't take it anymore. I want to hold her again, and hear her say those last words without an echo in my mind. I feel so guilty and I don't know what to do anymore."
"Nothing should ever bring you to do that. You know that as well as I do."
"Yah well, I am a coward and I have never been able to control the things in my head. You don't know what I am seeing in my mind. Everywhere I look, she is sitting there crying. Every time I close my eyes I see my father killing her because of me."
"That is not your fault, Wendy. Nor is it anyone's except your father's. He let his anger get out of control."
"Yah well if you ask me he has done that one too many times."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that...nothing."
"No, I want to know."
"I don't want to talk about it."
Without realizing it, Wendy scratched her stomach and her shirt went up enough to see the faint bruise from where her father's foot had been. It had gotten way better. Instead of purple and black it was light brown and shrinking, but it was enough for Jake to see.
"Did he do that?"
Wendy nodded and Jake looked horrified.
"Did he only do this once?"
Wendy shook her head and moved her chin length bangs to reveal a light brown bruise, "This was the first time it happened." She showed him the various bruises on her legs and arms. "These are from when he threw me down the stairs. The one on my stomach was when he kicked me to the point that I passed out."
Jake's mouth opened. This is what he had left Wendy to get? "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault, don't apologize. I don't dwell on it, neither should you. Right now I am focused on my mother's passing. Jake?"
"What?"
"Why are you here?"
"I came back for you. I still love you and when I heard your mom died it gave me a reason to come. Lisa told me you needed me and that I was the only one who could help you. I didn't know you did this to yourself."
"You shouldn't have come. I am not the same person. Would you really still love me if I am like this for the rest of my life."
"Of course. Why do you think I came? To help you through this."
"Jake I... I don't know what to do anymore. Everything I do is wrong, so how could being with you be right?"
"Because I care about you. Because I love you, and because you need someone to talk to."
"Do you care Jake? Is that why you're here? Is that why you never once made contact with me in the last year? You never even stuck up for our love, how could I even think you care?"
"Wendy, I had to leave. Your parents got a court order that I can't be within the same city for at least 2 years, or until something happened to your parents. Why do you think I came if I don't care?"
"I don't know, okay. I'm a little confused right now. I...you can't care about me. That's the bottom line, nobody-."
Jake put his finger on his lips and looked into her eyes. "Never think that Wendy. You are nice, beautiful, smart, and caring. There is not many people who have all those qualities in this world."
He took her wrist and kissed the small cuts. Then he looked into her sorrow-filled eyes once more and moved closer to her face, giving her a kiss.
Wendy's thoughts were jumbled. How could all this be happening? Wendy still loved Jake, but she pushed him away.
"Jake I can't, not now. There's too much going on. There's too much in my mind to begin to think about this. I don't know why, but something in my heart is telling me this isn't right. I'm sorry. I-I have to go."
Wendy got up. Though she couldn't walk very well due to loss of energy, she ran through the house and out the front door. She ignored everyone at the front door calling her name and ran down the street.
She ran into her house and it was deserted. Her father was in jail, and her mother... was gone. She began to cry even more than she had been and she ran up the stairs. Not into her room, but into her parents' room. She fell on the bed she had slept in so many times when she was young and scared.
Tears falling onto the white silky sheets, she clutched her aching wrist and continued to cry.
