Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or its characters. This story was only written for entertainment purposes.

Save Me From Myself

Chapter Seven

Jamie glared at the bob haired brunette before him. "What?"

Ellen forced a smile on her face, "Good afternoon, Jamie. I was just wondering if you'd seen Abigail? She wasn't at her house."

His scowl deepened, "No."

"Oh." Her face paled for a moment, but she quickly returned a small smile on her face. "Oh, well, okay. Um, thank you. Goodbye."

He watched in annoyance as she bobbed her head and quickly left the purple haired farmer to do his afternoon routine. He glared at the ground before returning to his work. It was true, he hadn't seen the pigtailed brunette for a little less than a week. He half expected her to pick up her daily pestering from the year before, but unfortunately that hadn't seemed like the case. She actually seemed to be deliberately avoiding all human contact. He caught sight of her, two days after Gwen's birthday party, with her hammer in toe heading towards the cave. She seemed completely oblivious to everything around her. Her mind set on only one thing. He had been half tempted to say something to her, but she was off on her own little world.

That had been a while ago, however, and he had yet to see her again. He had caved in and walked by her home, once, but was strangely disappointed to find the house dark and empty.

As he watched his animal graze, he found himself thinking back to the party. It had been nice. A pleasant distraction from the numbing repetition of constant farm work. It had been awkward at first, seeing as he and the rest of the guests had never exchanged anything more than a meaningless 'hello' or 'goodbye'. But with her friendly personality, she had managed to break the ice between them all, granted he had remained silent for a majority of the party.

Had someone told him a year ago that he'd be attending a party and enjoyed being away from his bubble of solitary, he would have laughed in that persons face and probably run them out of his property without a second thought.

"Jamie!"

He stiffened at the sudden outburst of his name. With a quick look over his shoulder, his glare lessened at the sight of a familiar smiling brunette. He huffed and turned away from her, "What is it?"

"Good afternoon!" She ignored his sour attitude and reached into her bag, pulling out a pink filled jar. "Here you go. So, do you know what tomorrow is?"

Jamie took the jar and stuffed it away, shrugging as his answer to her question. He did know, it was the Firefly Festival.

"It's the Firefly Festival!" He rolled his eyes, but said nothing. "It took me forever to find a Moonstone. I barely found one this morning, can you believe that? It takes forever to find something you're looking for, but when you're not looking for that specific thing, its just laying around for anyone to find."

"Hm."

A few seconds of silence broke through the pair and they watched the animals move around calmly. She laughed quietly. "I'm so jealous of you, Jamie! You've got the best farm in the entire town..."

He remained silent, not really sure how to react to the complement. He knew he had the best farm, but it seemed to mean a little more coming from her. He glanced at her, she still held a smile on her face and had her eyes glued on his cow. He gulped. "Why don't you have your own barn?"

She sighed. "I'd love one, but I honestly don't think I'd be very good at taking care of the animals." She cringed. "... Besides, I don't think I'd be able to take on that heavy responsibility. I'm perfectly happy with my flowers and crops, plus my chickens are enough for me for the moment." Another gap of silence ate away at their time together before she jumped. "Oh! I got another letter this morning!"

He stared at her.

"... From my cousin in Waffle Island?"

He still had no idea of what she was talking about, but he nodded.

She smiled. "Well, she says she's really happy there and that all the people there are nice. She makes the island sound amazing, it's almost tempting to visit."

He frowned. "You haven't abandoned the idea of moving."

Abigail felt her smile drop, but she shrugged. "No. I mean... I feel like there is more out there and by staying here... I'll be missing out on it." She stole a glance towards him, but his face gave nothing away. It was emotionless. "Besides, its not like..." she hesitated. 'It's not like I have a reason to stay,' she thought glumly.

Her one possible reason for her to stay had finally showed his face the day after Gwen's birthday. Unfortunately, she had accidentally stumbled upon him... lip locked with a certain pink haired, green eyed girl. But it should have come as much of a surprise, Nina and Basil had a lot in common. Almost as much as she and Jamie.

But still, what a hell of a picker she was when it came to the opposite sex.

For the past couple of days, she had devoted her time and energy into the caves, hoping that it would distract her from the small hiccup. And it had worked, for the most part anyways. Evidently, however, it seemed that the flora couple wanted to keep their relationship a secret from the rest of the town because she hadn't heard a single word about the subject. So she had kept her mouth closed about the subject as well, she wasn't in any hurry to become the next gossip box. Seeing as Katie was doing such a wonderful job in that department. Besides, it just wasn't in her nature to blab about something like that.

"Not like what?"

The brunette jumped at the sound of his voice. She shook her head, "Nothing, never mind." He didn't look convinced, so she jumped onto a new subject. "So, about the festival tomorrow. Are you going to be there this time?"

He shrugged.

"That's not an answer." She smiled at him. "I hope you will be there." There was a moment of silence. "Well, I better get going. I don't want to waste your time anymore and I have to deposit the Moonstone I found earlier today. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Jamie refrained from smirking, but nodded. She gave him another smile and waved goodbye, running out of his farm towards the town square. He sighed silently.

One of these days, she was going to be his undoing.