We gather with everyone except Joanna, Jenny says "where is Joanna again?" Ellie says "she has six days to reply to any of my messages" the rest call her but she doesn't answer, Alan then says "I called her mother and says she is not home" Jenny suggest "should we go find her?" Alan says "we better split up then"108Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtrBW0s4cRl
Ellie points with her finger at Jenny "I will go with her" Gelsida at Alan and Dane at Vasil and Vasil says "Lawrence come with us" "I better go alone, we will cover a bit more distance" "are you sure?" "Yes, besides I enjoy some time walking alone" Vasil nod his head and we all go in different directions.
I walk forward with my eyes locked on the half constructed building, reaching it and seeing Joanna's raven hair, I walk to the stairs and see her sit there looking at the bright stars, she look at me with her dark eyes flowing with tears and turn her look back again, I go and sit beside her, looking in the view " the others are searching for you" "just go and tell them I will be missing for today" I sit down placing one of my arms to the knee of my leg, "I have to find a very good reason to make it believable Besides I don't think that would stop them from searching you" I look with the edge of my eyes at her glistening eyes "please, just tell them anything" she takes a deep breath and I get up sighing" if that's what you think is the best for you"
I turn and walk to the first step of the stairs but I stop, I look back seeing Joanna gazing at the stars and hearing her deep breathing, I turn and walk towards her, placing my hands above her traps and she raises her head, her eyes wide opening for a second before I hug her tight,
Whispering "you told me to let it all out, now it's your turn and I will be here to help you" she turn and grab my shirt and cry on my shoulder, I gently grab her head and she grabs the shirt tighter "why do I always do the wrong choices?"
"We all do them, but now you can't change them, you can accept them"
Her sobbing becomes louder "I'm tired" "me too, but we will keep our heads up because we have people that gives us their love, like me to you and you to me"
"Thank you" "you don't need to say that,, we are here for you" she smirk for a moment and she let me and a cold wind strike my shoulder.
We hear footsteps from the stairs and we both look, seeing Vasil and the others coming, Ellie and Jenny rush first hugging her and Ellie saying "my girl, why are you crying?" "I will tell you later" "no you will tell us now"
"It's not the right time" "believe me it is" Dane and the others sit beside her and we all look at her, Vasil says "guys we must give her more space and besides we should stop looking at her so intensely" we step further and turn to look at her and the stars.
Joanna takes a deep breath "I wrote the exams again and the results came seven days ago" we all look disarrayed at each other and Joanna continues "it's the second time and still failed" her hands shaken and her tears flow like a river, hearing her Ellie and Jenny lean first at her and Jenny shouts unconsciously "you can try again" she says stammering "I don't know if I have the courage to do that again" Gelsida says "Joanna it has no meaning to cry now, the results are this and you can't change them"
Ellie kneel and look Joanna in her eyes "and in the end if you don't pass there is a second option and there is nothing wrong with that" I grab her shoulder and with my mouth beside her ear I say "you told me that there is always time to change, these words, your support help me regain my confidence and courage now I will say the same things to you and ask you to get back on your feet, maybe not today or tomorrow but you have to stand again"
Joanna turn on us and then look at her hands, slowly stopping shaking them and getting up, cleaning her eyes and whispering "thank you" we hug her or stand beside her and she calmly close her eyes, after many breaths Dane takes his arms and says "now let's go, we do not have much time left"
Ellie opens her mouth looking with anger at Dane but Joanna says "yes, let's go" I lean towards her ear "are you sure you want to go?" She force a smile "yeah" Dane descends first, with Ellie beside him and raising her voice and hearing from Dane "and sit there letting her focused on her problems?" I look at Joanna staring pensively at the stairs and suddenly her stomach growls and everyone look at her Vasil says "what did you eat today?" She replies with a weak and slow voice "I don't remember, maybe an apple for breakfast?" Vasil raise his tone "how do you feel?" "A bit light and a little headache" Jenny shouts "we can go to my house and bring her some food" Joanna says "I'm not hungry, we can continue" I say "do you want a walk to the village?" She nod her head and Dane says "let's turn right then" Ellie look at him and he wink at her, we do as he says and we go down, walking across the white houses and the closed taverns, soon seeing Jenny going inside her house and coming back with four toasts wrapped in tin foil and some apples at a bag.
Joanna place her hand in front of Jenny "I'm fine" Vasil says to Joanna "please eat, just a little bit for us" the others persuade her too and Joanna take one of the toasts and eats half of it "it's enough" Vasil says "eat some more" we persuade her again and she eats the toast and then another and she says with disgust "I can't eat more" Jenny gives the other two at her and the apples to all of us "then eat the rest at your house, and please don't forget it" she nod her head, I look her in the eyes, more lively than before and I ask "do you want to continue to walk?" She nods her head and we continue, passing the closed taverns and white houses always saying something especially in Joanna, making jokes and talking "so we were at the hotel last night and our friends were drunk, three bottles of vodka gone and after that we had to put them on their beds, we even had to hold one from his legs and arms and put him on the bed because he started picking up fights with everyone" "and in the end what happened?"
"Most of them were holding the toilet all night, as for the guy he stopped after half an hour and until everyone went to bed it was already six in the morning, but hey at least it was fun while we were there, who knows maybe one day you will meet them" Joanna says with a low voice "and after that you have to come to me, I will meet you some very good people" she grow a smile and I do the same "they seem very important to you to smile like that" "they are like family" she look at me intensely and we look at each other for some seconds and then
turn my gaze at Vasil, leaning towards him and whispering"are you feeling Better now?" "It's not that it hurt me, I'm just thinking, why now?" "It could be what Joanna told you, or maybe there is a chance he wants to talk to you" he said massively "I will see what to do when I go home" he makes a pause and his tone turns serious
"We don't need to talk anymore about this, let's just focus on Joanna" we both stare at each other gaze seeing her curving a weak smile and after a second her eyes turning narrow again,
I look at her and she turns her gaze on me and I make a sign to look forward.
We see the curved road and I look back at Joanna and say "do you want to run?" Joanna look at me with a smile
"3,2,1" she run first and I shout at her with an energetic voice "I'm still gonna pass you" i run behind her and soon pass her and after many steps stop hearing her own.
I run for some more meters before I stop and look at her having her head down.
I go in front of her "maybe the next time" Joanna throws a weak punch at my shoulder and Dane comes beside us with his eyebrows pointing at the center of his head "for what reason do you guys start running?" I shrug "for no reason" Dane let a sigh and look at the others, waiting for them as we make eye contact and as they step beside us we start walking again, time passing and all of us yawning and closing our eyes for many seconds, she lean her head close and whispers at my ear "thank you" I freeze for a moment before I point my hand at the others "I'm not the only one you should thank" she whispers "oh I know, but I will talk to them in a bit" I say plaintively "I should be the one thanking you for the night at the club" she let a displeased voice "maybe we both needed someone to keep us at a line" closing my eyes intensely I ask "we will keep contact when I leave, won't we?" She curves a bright smile and my heart skips a beat "do not be afraid we will keep after we all leave" the warmth builds up again "thank you for your support back at the club, it helps me enough to try again" her voice brightens "I'm glad to hear that" continue towards her house. now both of us smiling brightly.
We bring her outside her house and hugs each of us and smiley waves at us as she closes the door, Ellie says "Vasil, Lawrence lets accompany you to your house" I say "this time we will accompany you" "well if you don't get lost in the village " she smiles and Vasil says "very funny" we continue talking as we walk and suddenly Vasil says "we have to do it again when we come back" these others agree and I along with them, we leave Ellie last to her house and she hugs us both.
I and Vasil continue at the pitch black, not watching too much further at the road or inside the trees, I look at him seeing him staring at me, I tilt my head a bit "are you here?"Vasil blink and says "yes, I was just thinking" "is it about your father or just thinking random things?" "The second" "you looked like me when I drank the shit out in the bar" he let out a faint laugh and he walks at a faster pace.
We go back and we lay our back on the bars and we look at the sky and Vasil says "Lawrence, when can you come back again?" "I don't know, I want to try and fix my life before I come again" he look back at the sky "but let's come with the first opportunity" I say nothing for minutes and then "it was really good these last few weeks" Vasil says nothing and I get up yawning "let's go inside" Vasil yawns too and we shake hands "see you tomorrow" "don't forget our morning workout" I go inside and sleep in an instant.
