OKAY SO IM POSTING CHAPTERS 74, 75, 76, 77 AND 78 ALL TOGETHER. IF U HAVENT READ ONE PLEASE GO BACK AND DO SO!!! IF U WANNA SPREAD OUT UR READING THEM OVER THE WEEK OR SOMETHING, GO AHEAD!!! I JUST COULDNT WAIT TO POST ahahaa xD
“So what were you stuck on?” Isaac asked, moving through his house into the kitchen. His parents were out again, as far as Willa could tell, and Isaac was just back from the library, bag of textbooks still propped against the front door.
“I actually-” She bit the inside of her cheek, then said resolutely, “I actually just wanted to see if you were okay.”
His head snapped up from where he’d been looking in the cupboard for teabags, and he answered brusquely,
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You’re really not, Isaac,” she told him, eyes fixed to his. “You’re not talking to me and you’re not talking to Jared, you seem so tired and sad and you’ve been like this longer than is-”
“Don’t say normal,” he interrupted her, breaking eye contact. He swallowed, turning back around and pulling out two mugs for them.
“Okay?” tried Willa, confused. “Tell me what’s wrong then.”
He ran a hand through his hair, all fidgety energy and static-electric restlessness.
“I don’t know,” he said at last, reaching out for the mugs again as if to keep his hands busy. His fingers were shaking. “I don’t know.”
“Isaac-”
“No, I really- I’m not trying to be difficult. I don’t know why the hell this is happening again. Everything was fine.” She could hear his breathing, sharp and not quite even. Her confusion was only increasing. “Everything was fine.”
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, and her voice sounded almost pleading. He blinked.
“I just-” he began, then blurted out, “Sometimes I just get so- fucking- sad that I can’t breathe properly.”
“What?”
“I don’t know- the first time it came I was fifteen; that only lasted a couple of months. Sometimes it’s just here for a week or two. The worst time started last November and that didn’t go away till the end of summer, almost. That’s the darkest it’s been.”
Willa tried to keep up with his words, trying to think of the questions that would enable her to understand.
“You mean- is it like depression?”
He rubbed two hands over his face, eyes on the ground and then up again, searching hers out.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been to a doctor’s about it. Mam won’t let me. It’s my cross to bear. Everyone has their cross to bear, she says, and this” – he laughed slightly, a humourless sound – “this is mine.”
“That’s fucking stupid, Isaac!” Willa exploded. “Would she stop you going to hospital for a broken leg? Just cos an illness is in your mind doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
“I know that, Wils, but she’s not exactly stable and I’ve hurt her enough as it is without sneaking around trying to get help behind her back. You don’t understand how she is about these things- she’s suffered depression herself basically her whole life and been so adamant that she wouldn’t have any help, that she had to get through it on her own-”
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Invincible
Teen Fiction"I didn't know you had friends like Isaac," Willa said in greeting. "I don't," muttered Jared. Isaac rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you don't. You have //one// friend like Isaac." His voice turned into this stupid mock whisper and he leaned towards Jared c...
