The next day was more distressful than the next, because people were coming up to her and trying to comfort her, all failing. No one could make Valerie feel better, and she knew there was no getting over the loss of who she assumed she would spend the rest of her life with. She grew miserable, and each day without Jack was another knife in her side. Everyone notices how the passing of Jack impacted on her. Her teachers realized that the girl who was once an A grade student, was now nothing more than a mere average, and maybe even less. Her mother and father noticed that there once lovely daughter, fun-loving and full of life, was now the walking dead, cold, lifeless. She had even noticed this herself, but never really bothered to do anything about it. She regularly visited the icy grave that was the lake. Over time, the hole had frozen over once more, but she always knew where the hole was. There was no putting it out of her mind, and it was as if it were never going to freeze over.
"Valerie, you need to get out and do something," pleaded her mother, as Valerie sat at the window sill, watching the snow melt on the glass pane. Valerie looked to her mother with sad, despair filled eyes.
"And do what?" questioned Valerie. Her mother was frustrated with her daughters mourning, which had now gone on for four months.
"Something! Honey, sitting here and wishing for him to return to you won't bring him back," she said softly. But suddenly, Valerie burst as if it were something she had been bottling up for the four months that had past.
"You don't think I know that?! You don't think I know, that the one person in the world that would ever love me for who I am, who could make me smile, when I was in my deepest moment, who loved me like he did, is NEVER coming back?" she yelled and shouted, her voice faltering at the end, when she realised he was never going to return to her. "Oh no," she said, covering her hand over her mouth. "He's never coming back," she said, tears running down her cheeks.
"Oh sweetie," sighed her mother, walking to her and wrapping her arms around her. "Go to sleep. Forget your troubles."
Valerie decided to take her mother's advice, and laid down wrapping herself in her blanket. Just as her mother left the room, Valerie spoke up.
"But when I wake, all my troubles will be waiting for me," said Valerie quietly, before drifting off.