Countdown (on hold)

Two years eleven months five days twenty three hours fifty-seven minutes before

Jane and I had known each other since grade one, and we always had been friends, but we were never really close. She and Kara were always close and I was always close to Theo, but now she and Kara weren't as close and Theo and I weren't as close, so we had been spending time together after school occasionally. Jane was a good listener, no matter who was talking to her, so I figured she would be a good person to go to.

In all the years I had known Jane, I have only been to her house twice, but knowing Jane she was most likely at the park. She loved being outside to do her schoolwork and to read, and those were her two common pastimes.

The walk to the park was short, considering I was already on my way to that area. The park wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be, with only a few people scattered around. I spotted Jane right away, her curly pale blonde almost white hair making her almost impossible to ignore.

I walked over to the bench where she was sitting. Like I had thought, she was hunched over a book, not bothering to push her hair out of her face. "Hey Jane." I said once she flipped a page in her book.

Jane looked startled for a moment, but relaxed when she saw who it was. "Hi Shay, please sit down." I smiled softly and slid onto the bench next to her. "I just finished a chapter, so you came at a perfect time."

"I figured you would be here reading." She laughed slightly, so I figured it was okay if I giggled as well.

"Where else would I be?" Jane gave another short laugh. "What did you want to talk about?" Jane could sense when someone needed to talk; she was good at that.

I blushed, embarrassed that Jane thought, but knew, that I went to her because I needed to talk. I covered up why I went to find her. "I was actually wondering if you wanted to go walk around the market."

"Okay, we can talk there if you want." Jane wasn't going to let that I needed to talk to her go.

Jane got up and placed her book into her bag. I followed her lead, flattening down my skirt the same way she did when she stood up. The market is right by the park, so we were quickly enveloped in the hustle and bustle of the market during midday. Insticntively, I grabbed onto Jane's hand, because I always did that whenever I went to the market with someone when there was big swarms of people surrounding us.

Jane looked down at my hand latched onto hers and I felt embarrassed for the second time around her. I went to pull my hand away, but she stopped me. "It's okay Shay. I used to hate going here because of the crowds but then my mother told me that I was bound to run into a friend or relative and that would calm me down to see a familiar face." She smiled at me.

I smiled back. "Thank you for understanding."

"Of course." We weaved around the food stalls in the market, going over to the other side of the market that sold some of everything. We waited in front of an aisle for a mother and her two children to walk past us, but the toddler kept stopping and running away from his mother and the mother was holding a baby, so we ended up helping the mother find her toddler. We didn't know her, but thats just how the people in our city were. You helped people if you saw them struggling, even if you didn't know them.

We walked down the aisle, not talking much except to point out things being sold. I wasn't one for small talk, and Jane would wait for someone to open up to her, but she tried prodding me to talk. "Theo met his soulmate recently, right?"

I nodded,"Yeah, about a month ago. Her name is Celeste."

"Do you like her?"

"Celeste is a great person and she's the sister I've never had." I paused myself before saying anything else.

Jane slowed her pace. "But...?"

"But I miss having Theo around." I found myself opening up to Jane. "All he wants to do is be with her and he yelled at me this morning and he just came back to town yesterday because he's living in Celeste's town with her family because he missed our mother. And when he first came here with Celeste, he barely talked to me. It's like I don't matter to him anymore now that he met Celeste."

Jane put a calming hand onto my shoulder. "I'm not meaning to be rude or offended you, so please tell me if I do, but how do you think Theo felt like when you first met Caleb?"

I had never thought of that. Before Caleb had come into my life, Theo was always the one I went to for anything. He's my big brother, he's supposed to protect me, and we're always supposed to be there for each other because we're siblings. I knew we had talked about mine and Caleb's relationship, but I had never related how I felt about Theo and Celeste to how Theo could possibly feel about me and Caleb. "I hadn't thought of that."

She smiled at me, and spoke in her calming voice, "Maybe you should talk to Caleb about how you feel before he leaves again."

"Thank you so much Jane. You've always been a great friend and a great person to talk too." We had done a full lap around the market, ending where we entered.

"Of course, Shay. Can you stay longer or do you have to go home now?"

"Is there anything you want to talk about? We can always do another lap around the market."

"I'll take you up on that offer the next time. I actually have to go home now and help my mother. It was great talking to you."

I smiled and hugged Jane. She seemed taken back at first, but she smiled back and hugged me back. "I promise to keep up my side of the offer for the next time." We left the hug, and turned our separate ways. "Bye Jane!"

"Bye Shay! I'll see you in school." We waved at each other for a few seconds before we lost each other in the sea of people that were shopping around the market. 

*Author's Note*                                                                                                                                                                           Hey everyone! I hope everyone had an awesome holiday season & I hope everyone has an awesome new years! Thank you all for staying with me and Countdown all through 2015 and I hope everyone continues to stay throughout 2016!