The Day After

CHAPTER TWO- AFTERSHOCKS

It's been two days since the incident and I'm supposed to start University next week, I'm going to try and get my degree in astrophysics, it's been my goal since I started high school and with everything that's happened I really need some consistency. I decide to stop and see my friends before I went to work which is just part time at my mums accounting company, she's not going to work for at least the next week under the circumstances so I'm going to file and finish off some work for her while I'm there so she doesn't have to worry about anything right now except herself. I drive to my friend Jade's house where I notice my other friend Monique's car parked outside. I texted both of them but only Jade replied so I assumed it'd just be us but this just saves me having to tell the story twice. I unlock the door since I have a key, Monique, Jade and I have been friends since as long as I can remember and they've been the people I've gone to for comfort and support for all of my childhood and I'm glad that with everything going on I have them in my life who I can trust and count on no matter what. I walk in and see them all ready for me with a box of tissues, ice cream, the notebook which is one of our all time favourite movies and a blanket over the both of them with a spot in the middle for me to sit in. as I walk into Jade's massive lounge I feel as if they already know what's happened, I told Jade that something happened and that it hit me pretty hard but I never got into the details,since Jade's father died last year and her mother left her for her new fling she inherited everything her father had. She didn't talk about it much but when she did I could tell that she is still struggling and in a way that's how I felt now, like I've lost a parent and it was really nice to be around someone who knows what it's like to lose a father, I know it's not the same and her dad actually died but I feel like I lost my dad too because the person in my father's body the other night was not my dad.

Monique gets out of the blanket to let me in, neither of them say anything they were just there for emotional support. They don't make me talk, they just sit there and watch me cry and eat ice cream and hug me for a really long time. It felt good to just not talk about anything for a while, not having a camera pointed at my face or being asked questions about that night. After a while I have to go to work and they send me off with hugs and kisses, if there's anything I know about them is that they know me and what I need.

All my happiness my friends just gave me disappeared as soon as I arrived at work, I had to answer a million questions about the case and how my mother's doing and my brothers and it all just came flooding in and I just couldn't cope so I went running out of the massive building that suddenly felt very small and sat on a bench outside the police office. It's a small town so one turn gets you back to the centre of town. As I sit down and close my eyes for a few seconds I notice a shadow standing over me and then I felt someone next to me, hovering. Curious I opened my eyes only to see officer Jones sitting next to me in all his glory. He sits there for a while and then he gets up and walks away, down the street and around the corner. I thought it was very weird but after a while he comes walking back with two cups of coffee from the coffee shop. He sits down, hands me a cup and says "you have every right to feel like you do right now but don't let this feeling destroy the spark I've seen in your eyes since the day I first saw you!" He says it like he's wanted to say it for a while but just didn't know how.

"Thanks" I say to him with a small tight smile.

"For what?" he asks

"for the coffee" I reply 

"and for not looking at me like i'm a lost cause" I continue.

"Why would you say that?" he asks,

"because everyone seems to think that because I went through something terrible I'm going to crack and not be the person I am anymore!". I say remembering the officers at the police station, the nurses at the hospital, and just now, my coworkers and bosses all walking around me like their terrified that I'm going to snap or break down, but their wrong, how can I move on from this if everyone keeps treating me differently. Of course I was going to need time to process but that has nothing to do with everyone else, so I don't understand the incessant need to bombard me with gifts and compliments!

"Well, who are they to tell you who you are? only you can decide who you want to be! And only you can decide if this experience is going to make you weak or stronger!" He says and it makes me consider who I would be if I didn't go through any of that and then I realised that I'd doesn't matter because I know what I want and I know who I am! And no one can tell me any differently because I know without a doubt that I have become a stronger Person because of that night and I know that if I can go through that and come out unscathed then I can tend to anything else. We sit there for another five minutes just talking about random things, normal things and I started to remember who I am and who I want to become!