In a Tragedy of Love Loss

Chapter 29

The next day, Jaycee and Braelyn were sitting on the dock on the lake in the next town, down the street from Braelyn and Sapphire's house. Sapphire and Landen were at the apartment, so Jaycee drove her truck. Braelyn wanted to bring Jaycee a little closer to her house to break up with her. She figured if she was near her house when she broke up with Jaycee, she wouldn't have to go to Landen's when she hangs out there, and she wouldn't have to driver her home after breaking up with her. They both stared out at the water the whole time they've been there.

"I used to come out here to fish whenever I had something on my mind. That stopped a few years ago; around the time I found out I was gay. I would come here, and just sit here for hours until whatever I was thinking about was nothing but a thought. I started coming here when I was about seven. Lately, I've been coming back here to think some things through," Braelyn took off the blue cap that she had been wearing. "If it was just me and Sapphire, I'd slip out of the house without her noticing. When she finally did notice, the first place she'd look was here. She never had a doubt that I was here because she always found me here."

"How many people have you brought here before?" Jaycee lit a cigarette and took a long drag.

"Willingly? Just you. Everybody else followed me here. My dad used to bring me and Sapphire here when we were kids, but that was before our parents split. I used to come here a lot after they split. When I finally got over it, I didn't come here as much," she took a drag of Jaycee's cigarette.

"I was like that too, but it was a cemetery instead of a lake," Jaycee blew out a cloud of smoke. "Sit next to an old headstone for hours on end, writing or drawing something stupid. I went there every day as a kid. Wouldn't come home until the picture or the story was finished,"

"Ever take Dylan there?"

"Nope," Jaycee took another drag of her cigarette. "I went alone if we had a fight or something then I'd tell him we would deal with it when I got back. He never even knew about that place."

            Braelyn looked at Jaycee in shock. There were a lot of places in town where Dylan and Jaycee went together. She had a hard time believing a cemetery was the one place where she went without him.

            Jaycee was out one day by herself when she was a kid, and she found a trail. She topped dead in her steps, and she stared down the trail, wondering where it led to. She looked around to see if there was anybody around, and started walking when she saw that it was clear. At the end of the trail was a small cemetery from around the late eighteen hundreds to mid-eighteen hundreds. There weren't a lot of graves there, but most of them were pretty old. Ever since then, she'd go whenever she had a problem, and she wouldn't have until she felt content with herself about her problems.

"Everybody has their own secret place to run to when there's a problem, or when they have something on their mind, Braelyn. When we broke up, the only place I ever went willingly was that cemetery. I want to be buried in that cemetery one day. I don't care what anybody says. I even have my burial all planned out despite the fact that I'm gonna be eighteen soon. I hope that whoever I end up with will be buried there too, right beside me."

 "Damn, you have a lot of downtime on your hands."

"Not really. It's just something I thought about since I was a kid. When I found that place, I immediately fell in love with it. Ever since then, I've been mapping out and planning my burial. Mainly because you never know when you're gonna die. I don't want anybody fixing my funeral and burial place when I'm old enough to do it myself."

"You sound like you're gonna die from disease or you're gonna kill yourself or something."

"No. It's just that each day is unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen. This thing could break, and we could both drown," she gestured to the dock.