Eternity

Chapter Nineteen~ What Happened Junior Year

"Woah." Thomas mumbles under his breath as he, and pretty much the rest of the people in our group, stare at Wayland with eyes as big as the moon.

    Mackenzie covers her small and delicate mouth with her pale hand, and Bella releases a light gasp. Jacob only widens his eyes a fraction, but you can tell he really sympathizes with Wayland.

    I squeeze my hand in Wayland's barely shaking hand while I give him a look in my eyes that I hope he understands as reassurance and comfort.

    "We're glad you got out of that situation, Wayland." Bella briefly rests her dark tanned hand on Wayland's shoulder with a sad smile setting her lips. When she takes the hand away, she fiddles it with her other and looks to the ground.

    "Well, I guess you and Jean have the rest of us beat at sad stories." Thomas attempts to joke, but there's an odd twitch in his eye. "It's almost too depressing, but I guess everyone has their demons." He finishes off with a gulp that bobs his Adam Apple.

    Wayland narrows his eyes at Thomas, and I try to think through why he would say something like that, but Ms. Dean stops everyone in the class with one loud clap that echoes throughout the fairly large classroom.

    "Alright, everyone. Your deadline is tomorrow. I tried to give you as much time as possible, but I need to make sure I have time to grade all of these, and your graduation is coming up fairly soon. So please finish up by the end of the week. You still have thirty minutes of class time: use it to your best ability." She then turns around to talk to a student with a question next to her, and the whole class erupts into the normal clatter of school.

    "Should I go, then?" Bella steps forward with a small frown tugging at her lips. Her big, dark eyes bounce along every person's gaze before she stops on Jacob's. "He's already gone, two weeks ago, I believe, so the only one left is me." She picks up her settled gaze and again, begins wandering it around the group.

    Yes, Jacob had gone awhile ago, when he went to interview Mackenzie and Thomas for us. They decided to meet up after school, because this is an A/B class and they didn't have it that day, so they met up at a cute Cafe, which Mackenzie's parents own. Jacob told me all these details, plus everyone's story including his own.

In Mackenzie's story, she spoke of how much her parents loved her and each other, despite her mother's infatuation with drinking that caused her parents' divorce. In Thomas' story, he spoke about how close he was to his grandfather, and how when he died, Thomas took awhile to cope with it. However, he had two great adoptive parents who made sure he did eventually cope with it and was okay.

    Jacob's story, however, spoke of his eating disorder, which occurred of his paranoia with other's figuring out he was Bisexual. Deep into the disorder, once his parents figured out he kept getting thinner and thinner, he broke and came out to his parents. Thankfully, they were very supportive of him, and he was set to recovery. Although sometimes he still struggles with the paranoia that circled around his hidden sexuality, he has become much happier and calmer.

    I was— am— so proud of him for sharing his story, but also because of the journey he's come to be happy and safe.

    "Well," I'm thrown out of my reminiscing thoughts about Jacob by Bella's subtly accented voice speaking up. "This is a little bit hard for me.... But I'll tell it anyways." She takes a deep and steadying breath before continuing.

    "My lineage hails from Italy, so my grandparents are immigrants. When they came over to the U.S they were poor, and so I lived in a bad part of town. As I was growing up, I continued to be sexualized and discriminated against by those living around me. Every day I walked home, I feared for my life..." She stops to take a steadying breath. "One day, when I was only fifteen, I—" she stumbles and her voice wavers. Albeit the slight tremble, she juts her chin up and strengthens her voice and stance.