Everything comes back to you -J.MARIANO

[1.35]

ꪻas had hurriedly walked to Taryn 's house after faking a stomach bug at eleven o'clock in the morning. He had succumbed to this 'illness' after Taryn hadn't turned up to their previously planned hour to work on her valedictorian speech. He, thinking that maybe she just hadn't woken up yet, phoned her house in the hopes that one of her dads would be there to answer and explain. When he got his explanation, a fury filled Tas hunted down the nurse and came up with the most convincing lie possible to get himself out of the school walls.

Upon being within the walls of the cottage, he passed through the worried parents and headed straight upstairs to her bedroom. He knocked, flickered the light and got no response. Assuming she was sleeping, he stepped inside the room and walked over to her bed. He sat down at her head and, though her eyes were closed, he could tell that she wasn't sleeping. Tas got her attention by fixing a sodden piece of her hair away from her tear stained cheeks. She opened her eyes and despite the pain he saw within them, he smiled softly, ^Taryn.^

^Better looking blobfish I know,^ she sighed back after untucking her hands from the blankets that she had so carefully wrapped herself in beforehand.

She watched Tas' shoulder move as he sighed. ^Taryn he's gone.^

^What?^ She frowned deeply whilst reaching for her processors. Despite Tas signing every word as he talked, she wanted to have the capacity to shut her mind of just a little more than usual whilst also understanding completely what was going on. She knew this wouldn't be an easy conversation, she could tell it within his eyes. 

"Luke grabbed me on my walk to school. He's gone, for good. He kicked him out."

"That asshole," she muttered under her breath, wondering how he could even think of leaving without saying even the smallest word to her. She would never do this to him, or anyone for that matter especially after the pesky phrase she spoke for the first time the night before. That phrase haunted her now, it hung over her head and just amplified everything she felt to an entirely new level.

Tas, still sitting on the floor and tucking hair behind her ear comfortingly, gently asked, "What happened?"

She cleared her throat and only did so to prevent the glassiness from appearing in her eyes. "We had an argument... He's not graduating, has been working instead. He told me that he was passing classes, doing catch up work in his breaks at work... I told him I loved him..."

Tas, eyes wide and jaw slackened, whispered, "Holy shit."

She smiled through her body and mind felt the exact opposite to any sort of feelings that could cause any joy. "And he didn't say anything, just left."

"I am going to break every bone in his body," he threatened with a certain bite within his voice, his knuckles suddenly ached to be cracked.

"I shouldn't have said it, it wasn't the right time to and I probably just scared him..." she trailed off then cleared her throat again, shifting her head away from his face to the ceiling. "He'll be back"

"Taryn I don't think he will."

She shook her head, refusing to believe that could ever be true. "He's done this before, he'll come back."

Tas frowned softly and grew increasingly angered by Jess for every second that passed. "Luke said he's not allowed back. End of, stories done."

Slowly Taryn  turned back towards her best friend and searched his expression for any hint of a lie. When she found nothing, her eyes brimmed with tears yet again and she simply sighed. "Oh."

Tas chose that time, to climb up from the floor and into the bed with her. He slot himself next to her just in time for the tears to reach their peak. She sobbed profusely, cheeks red and puffy.  The room filled with the sound and nothing else. "You don't deserve this Taryn ," Tas almost whispered and she couldn't tell whether he had intended for her to hear it or not.

"He didn't even say goodbye," she paused, lifting her head from his chest to get some air to soothe the ache within her chest somewhat. It had no effect and the hoarseness in her voice only worsened. "He can't care that much."

"He did care about you, Taryn ," Tas paused as she reburied her head into his chest. "He just had a funny way of showing it."

Past tense.

-

A few days later, after graduation, Taryn  returned home after running errands to the library and sat down at the kitchen table to do her studies. She hadn't managed to make it back into the diner just yet, and no one blamed her for that. She waved to Luke upon occasion and often overheard her Da talking to him on the phone after he had called to check up on her. She got an hour into her studies, which now after exams consisted solely of design plans, various readings and lots of research. She had learnt a few things but compared to all the things that she already knew, those new things seemed very small. Her work ethic was unmatched though and she never found her adoration falling. Nearly an hour in, the house phone rang and she slowly got up to answer it. She picked it up on the fourth ring and instead of greeting the person, she announced, "Hey it's Taryn so I can't quite understand what your saying, if it's important my Dads will be back in an hour please call back then."

The person on the other line did not hang up as all others did. So Taryn held the line, just to see, and found her brow furrowing more the longer it was silent. "Hello?"

Nothing, like not even a muffle sounded from the phone so she knew it was completely dead. She could hear the usual static of the phone, so she knew it wasn't turned off. She didn't know what it was but something within herself told her it was not just a cold caller. She, deep down, knew who it was. "Jess?" she paused and on the other line, the person's breath hitched. "My dads say we've been getting alot of these ditched calls, person doesn't say anything then hangs up.... Is it you?"

Taryn sighed softly and sat down at the kitchen table, her head resting against the unusual feeling of the cold phone. "I've been nothing but kind to you Jess. I supported you through everything you were going through and gave you time to shape yourself into a better person that you thought you could ever be. If this, running away without saying a word or even a goodbye to me is something you need to do then so be it. But I'm not waiting for you to figure yourself out and come running back. I need to have my own life. I can't waste time waiting around for you... But Jess. I- I do love you and I see that you can become an incredible person. You have so much potential and please, I beg of you, do not throw it all away for something that's not worth it. And just know that if you do ever need somewhere to crash if things get bad, my couch is always an option, okay?"

"Goodbye Jess," she paused, waiting for him to say something. Anything. But he didn't, not a word or even a breath. " I  hope life is good to you."