Serendipity || Rosalie Hale

- 2 -

Daria awoke the next morning due to birds chirping and the sun shining through her window. She had forgotten to close the curtains the night before. Her friends were right, it was going to be nice weather.

It wasn't a strange occurence for Daria to sleep in. At least not on Saturdays. They were the only days that Liz wasn't around and she was truly alone. And she didn't like to be alone.

She looked through her closet for any clothes and found simple jeans with a longsleeved shirt which she put on. Her breakfast consisted of cruesli and a small glass of milk.

One quick glance in the hallway mirror threw her off completely. She looked at the reflection and grimaced. She knew that she had changed in the last year, but this was ridiculous. It looked as if her body was decaying on the scene. Her cheeks had sunken in, her skin had taken a greyish tone to it, and everywhere you looked there were bones to bee seen. It looked as if she was ready to accept death.

"Ugh!" she exclaims while she throws her hands in the air. She was tired of the schedules. Tired of feeling so vulnerable. Tired of everything being planned out. But most of all, tired of the feelings that she had.

She ran upstairs and clothed herself in a workout attire before turning around and heading out the doors. She was going to make herself strong again.

Somehow she had always been in shape, even though she didn't do much to stay that way. But jogging took a complete different toll on her. Her breakfast was small and not enough to sustain the things that she was going to do. Switching between jogging and natural strutting for only half an hour had made her tired and dizzy, but she was not going to give in. She couldn't. She had to get back to the house in time.

After a quick shower and dressing herself in the appropriate attire, she made her way to the reservation. There was a cliff there that needed her attention.

She greeted many people on the way there, even though she normally wasn't that social, and everyone gave her the same look filled with sympathy.

Sympathy. The emotion someone gives when they feel bad for you. Sometimes the look someone gives when they do not know how to help you.

She hated the emotion. It was clear to her that no one truly knew her, otherwise she would have been thrown other looks.

The cliff held certain memories for her and all of them were with loved ones. She remembered how Samuel and she would jump off of it and how her parents would watch with great anxiety.

Today was the day that she would honor his memory and jump off one time before closing that chapter. She couldn't be hurting anymore. It had only been half a year and she was 'allowed' more time, she was tired of it. It took so much energy away from her.

"I feel like I should say something." Daria breathes out shakily and looks out towards the water. "I don't know what though." She sits down and lets her feet hang over the edge. "My heart aches just thinking about the lot of you."

Daria sighs and looks down. The water was crashing against the rocks and she would have to remember not to just fall but actually jump.

"I feel this burning in my chest when I think of you. And I do, a lot." She looks up to the sky. "Everything is going shit to be honest. Everything is horrible and sometimes I don't know how to breathe. The one thing that your body automatically does. And it hurts to know that you're not here with me anymore and that I can't say goodbye anymore as you leave for your out-of-the-country adventures." A lonely tear trickles down her cheek. "Only to wait for you to come back and tell me all about it." She sighs once more before getting up and looking at the sky once more.

It was strange thing to do. But she knew that people did that when talked to a past loved one. As if there was something more out there and they were now watching their still living loved ones.

"I guess I just really miss you." She mutters and walks backwards. "Well, this is the last time I do this. As a goodbye to you. Tomorrow I'll do a goodbye for mom and dad." She salutes the sky - they had always done salutations before jumping - runs forward and taking the leap.

She hears the air rush past her and there is just one moment where she doesn't feel her emotions and just feels free from every bad thing that has happened to her before crashing in the cold water and waking from the emotionless state. She starts to laugh as she keeps herself above the water and makes her way to the shore.

No one had seen her and that was probably a good thing. Maybe they'd think that she was ending her life, but she wasn't. She was just about to start living.