Jay didn't left a letter or anything regarding his situation, so Rose decided to just go straight to his home. She waved when his father saw her and he smiled at her before shouting behind him, "Jay! Rose is here!"
Jay's face appeared on the window and they smiled at each other, then Jay went outside the house excitedly and ran into Rose. "Hey, Rose!" he said, smiling brightly. Rose wondered what made him so happy. Perhaps a good dream?
"Hi, Jay. Why weren't you at the park this morning?" Rose asked, being the straight-forwarded person she was. Realization appeared at Jay's face and he smaked himself in the head lightly.
"Oh, right! I knew I missed something this morning, I just couldn't remember what! You see, me and my dad are going on a vacation in Hawaii! I know we're poor, but dad finally saved up enough! It's an amazing surprise, isn't it? So we were packing our things for tomorrow," Jay replied happily.
However, Rose was the opposite of him. She was looking down on her feet, and you could sense the happy energy of hers this morning was erased completely, replaced by a sadder and more negative one.
Once Jay noticed this, he quickly asked, "Hey, what's wrong?"
He wondered what he did or said wrong, but couldn't find any. 'But there must be something, otherwise she wouldn't look so upset like this,' he told himself.
"How long are you going?" Rose asked. Even if she tried to, she couldn't be happy for her friend. She wanted him here, with her, so they could play together. But no, he decided it was a good idea to go on a vacation with his dad.
As you probably already know, Rose was very bossy to Jay. She wanted his full attention to be on her, but that was impossible, wasn't it? And that would seem desperate, too.
Jay pursed his lips, trying to remember what his father had told him. "I think around two weeks," he said. He realized it just made Rose felt worse, because she really looked like she was really holding back tears now.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Jay tried again. He lifted Rose's head up until he was able to see her eyes, and they made eye contact. Then, Jay tilted her head like a confused puppy, and Rose just sighed.
She really wanted to smile because Jay looked so cute like that, but she was still sad. So, she replied, "I don't want you to go."
Jay raised an eyebrow in surprise. Why would his best friend not want him to go on a vacation that might be both his first and last one ever? So, he asked, "And why is that?"
Rose blushed a little. "Because I want you to stay here with me! So we can just play around!" she said to him.
Jay sighed and put his hand back to his side. 'So that was the reason,' he thought. "I'm not going for long," he told her.
"Two weeks means fourteen days which also means a half of a month. That's long, Jay," Rose pointed out.
Jay rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know what two weeks mean, Rose. I know," he stated.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Rose looked down again since Jay's hand wasn't lifting her head up anymore. "I'm just - I will miss you, that's all!" she said, using a slightly higher tone at the end.
Seeing his bestfriend like this hurted Jay, so he hugged her tightly. "Shush, I'll be back before you know it, I promise. Just, don't cry, okay? Promise me," he said and showed her his pinkie.
Rose chuckled, but then she remembered when she was six. Jay wasn't with her for only less than one day, and she was already crying. What would happen to her now? Was she going to cry fourteen times, once everyday?
'But I'm bigger now,' Rose tried to convince herself. That meant she could hold herself back, right? That meant she could keep this one promise, right?
Meanwhil, Jay was still showing his pinkie in front of Rose and his hand was starting to get tired. "Rose?" he called. Rose blinked before smiling at him, a fake one, then latched her pinkie with his.
"Well, there, you promised. You better not break it," Jay told her.
Rose shrugged. "Well, are you done packing? If yes, then can we go play outside?" she asked, trying to hide her sadness.
"Sure!"
Of course, Rose was expectedly a bit sadder than usual, but she tried to hide it. 'This is the last day before Jay goes away for two weeks,' Rose thought, 'I gotta make it last.'
Then the other day, Jay was already gone without saying, "See you in two weeks," to her, but what could she expect? Their flight was at six AM and she usually woke up at seven.
She was still disappointed that Jay didn't leave her a letter or anything, but then again, why would he?
Rose had tried to tell herself that she was overreacting. Jay was only gone for two weeks, not two years. But then the other side of her kept protesting saying that, 'He left me!'
And that side was stronger than the other side, so she went to the park and just sat on a bench. Negative thoughts started consuming her mind.
'Why would Jay leave me? Is he trying to avoid me? Is he going to come back? What if something bad happens to him while he's there?'
Two weeks later, Rose ran up to Jay's house. Jay had expected to see a happy smile on her face, but again, ot was the opposite.
When Jay opened the door for her, she went to his arms and sighed.
"Jay, I'm so sorry. I broke my promise. Again."
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