I Fell For You At The Cemetery

02.

02

"Chelsea!"

Chelsea who was browsing through a magazine flinched at Sarah's loud screech. She looked up as her friend tumbled in her room, her brown eyes glazed and her black hair tied back in a ponytail.

"You're drunk again, aren't you?" Chelsea closed the magazine, as she narrowed her eyes at Sarah.

"Am not." She pouted like a little kid, her voice slurring. "Well, maybe just a wee-little-"

Chelsea sighed, standing up. "Why do you do this to yourself?"

Sarah swayed on her feet, her head tilting to the side. "Do what?" She asked with an innocent smile. As soon as she opened her mouth, Chelsea was able to detect alcohol on her. Yep, she was wasted.

"There was this guy at the bar," she started with a goofy grin on her face, as she continued to sway dangerously on her feet, "and shit. He was so coming onto me. I had to run outta there to avoid him." She took a step into the room and fell down, giggling.

"Sarah, let's get you to bed," Chelsea said, draping an arm around her waist and shoulders to help her stand up. There was no use talking any sense into her when her brain was completely shut off like this. She murmured something incoherent as Chelsea led her into her own room. She fell asleep almost instantly as soon as she dropped onto her bed.

Chelsea stood there over her, a disappointed frown on her face. She knew what her friend was going through wasn't easy at all and Sarah's behavior was understandable in the circumstances but she wished Sarah would pull herself together soon. However, the way she was being right now, she knew it wouldn't be anytime soon.

Chelsea left the room after making sure Sarah was warm and went back to her magazine, not really reading but thinking about a lot of things. About Sarah and Steve.

----

Sarah ignored the terrible headache she had the next day and despite Chel's insistence that she stay in and do something creative since it was a Friday, she went out anyway. Her long hair wasn't tied back today and whenever a cold wind blew, her hair would fly in all directions giving her the look of a madwoman.

Her eyes were downcast as she walked towards his grave, the tears already threatening to spill. Memories flashed in her mind, haunting her.

Memories of a blonde guy with a perfect white smile.

"Steve..." She murmured his name. A name she had grown to love.

The long walks in the park in the evenings, the food fights, the tender moments, his light kisses, his hearty laughter, his ability to make any tense situation even more awkward or funny, his proposal...

"No, no," she choked on her sob, the tears streaming down her face now. "This wasn't supposed to happen," she said, stopping in front of his grave. "We were supposed to be together. Happy. But then-oh, Steve. Why?"

She vaguely realized she was talking to a mound of earth addressing a dead person but that dead person had meant so much to her so she still had a hard time letting him go. In fact, she knew she couldn't ever let go of him as long as she lived.

She stood there, the tears still flowing as she stared at the ground, picturing him just laying there. Sleeping. It wasn't hard to imagine that since she had seen him sleeping so many times.

She didn't notice Joey climbing up the steps, and then he stopped when he saw her. He opened his mouth to greet her but froze when he looked at her closely. She was crying.

He slowly went back the way he came from, somehow sensing that she needed to be alone. Even though, Joey knew she too was suffering he had never seen her cry and now that he had, he found himself to be a little taken aback. Of course, she would cry and it's normal but maybe she struck him as a person who stayed strong even in the roughest of times, it caught him off guard to see her like this; so weak, so...open.

He glanced back at the cemetery, wanting to go back but stopped himself. There was nothing he could do to soothe the pain, he knew, so he would probably just be in her way.

He wondered who was it that she had lost. A friend? A family relative? Or...a boyfriend? That thought made him stop in his tracks. He pang of sympathy crept into his heart. He wished there was something he could do. He couldn't probably do much though since he was no one to her, after all. Just a grieving guy she met at the cemetery. Nothing more. There was no way he could comfort her.

----

On Saturday, as Joey walked up those steps, he had no doubt she, Sarah would already be there. What made him a little anxious was the possibility of seeing her crying again. If she was crying, he vowed silently to walk away and give her space. But he didn't want to walk away. He wanted to talk to her again. He wanted to know more about her.

He wasn't sure if it was just pure curiosity or if he was genuinely interested to know more about her.

But she wasn't there and as he said a few words of greeting to his mother, he kept glancing over his shoulder expecting her to appear at any moment. But so far no sign of her. He started telling his non-existent mother about how he had to start going to school on Monday again, whining about stuff teenagers whine about. It felt good though, to tell someone these things, even though that someone was dead, but he couldn't talk about these things to his father. When he ran out of things to talk about, he paused wondering why he was waiting for her in the first place.

It was stupid, really. To wait for a stranger like this for about half an hour in the cold snow. So he turned and walked out of the cemetery, as he thought about Sarah. He couldn't help it. Maybe she was busy and couldn't make it today. For a brief moment, he wondered whether she thought about meeting him at the cemetery like he did. Probably not, maybe she didn't even remember him. That thought hurt him a little more than it should, and he flinched which had nothing to do with the bitter wind and snow.

----

Sarah didn't show up on Sunday either and Joey wondered whether he was ever going to see her again. School was starting tomorrow and he knew he wouldn't be able to visit the cemetery often, like he could now.

Was the little conversation they had the first and the last time they talked to each other?

He waited, hoping she would come. He waited even after he had ran out of things to say to his deceased mother, again. He waited even when the wind picked up and the sky grew dark. He waited as the entire world around him grew even more colder. He waited for two hours.

A bitter smile made it's way to his lips as he finally started to walk out of the cemetery.

"So, this is it, huh?" He whispered, feeling more colder than ever before. "So long."

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Author's Note: What do you guys think so far? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below, no matter what they are! Also, please don't forget to vote and add this book to your library/reading list if you're enjoying it so far. Thank you so much.

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