Seeing Isn't Always Believing

Mary closed her eyes and she collapsed onto her bed. It was later than she had planned on going to sleep, but she didn’t mind. She had her trusty iPod in hand and it was the only thing that she needed. It was the only thing that could help her fall asleep at night. If she didn’t have it, she would stay awake all night thinking about all the things she was missing.

She went through her iPod, knowing exactly how many turns to make until she found what she wanted to listen to. Once she did, a smile appeared on her lips. She pressed play and placed the headphones into her ears.

And so, that's how she fell asleep. Headphone's lodged into her ears, and Gabe Saporta's voice filling her ears, mind, and heart.

It was how Mary feel asleep every night from then on. She never listened to anyone else, just Gabe. Sometimes she didn’t even notice the guitar and drums or any of the other instruments; she only heard Gabe's voice. Nothing else to help her drift off to a magical dreamland.

One day—or almost night, actually, Mary and her friend, Alex, walked down the pier. Mary's left hand was placed within Alex's and her right wrapped tightly around her cane as she tried to walk the best she could. She was still getting used to the new situation and wasn’t very good at it. It almost felt suicidal to be in a new place that she didn’t know her way around.

That's how it felt today. She hadn’t been to the pier since she was little. She had no idea why Alex thought it would be a good idea to bring her here. However, Mary trusted her friend and continued to follow wherever she was being led.

She felt the falling hot sun hit her back as she walked around, but she saw no light. She heard the waves as they crashed against the shore, heard the people laughing as they tried to catch another wave, but she felt no laughter escaping her lips. She was to busy wishing that she could be like them.

As she walked, all she could do was wish that she could be normal. She kept wishing that last month could have been erased. Her brother wouldn’t be laying in a hospital bed unconscious, her mother almost dead from depression. And her, she wouldn’t be walking around slowly, cane in hand. She would be out on the beach, trying to catch the biggest wave.

"Sit down," Alex said, leading her towards a nearby bench. "I have to go and get something that I totally forgot. I'll be back in a few." Alex let go of Mary's hand. Immediately, Mary felt so alone. She had no way of getting anywhere without Alex, unless she really wanted to test out her suicide theory. She didn’t understand why her friend had left. It just didn’t make sense.

Moments past and Mary felt the sun getting lower and lower in the sky. She knew that it had been longer than Alex had meant to be gone, though she didn’t know why. Thoughts flooded her mind of all the horrible things that could have happened to Alex.

Her thoughts only led her into thinking more about last month. Eventually, knowing that anyone that was around her wouldn’t care or notice, she started to cry. It was the first time she had actually shed more than a few tears in years. Not even she had gotten in the accident, she hadn't shed more than a few tears. Now, she let out all the tears that had built up for years.

Mary placed her head into hands, trying to stifle her cries. Suddenly, she felt the bench sink down slightly. She lifted her head up and said in a whisper, "Alex?"

The man sitting next to her wasn’t sure how to react. She was looking right at him, but Gabe had the feeling that she couldn’t actually see him. "No, sorry to disappoint you," he said, half smiling. "I just saw that you were crying and I was wondering what was wrong. It's pretty late out, and a crying girl shouldn’t be alone at this hour."

Mary did her best to smile. She didn’t say a thing, just tried to imagine what the man looked like just by hearing his voice. She imagined red hair, blue eyes, really high cheekbones, and a smile that didn’t seem to fit his face.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Gabe asked. Normally he would talk non-stop, bombarding people with questions, but he had the feeling that he needed to be quiet.

Mary hesitated, not knowing if she tell a stranger what was going on. Then again, she needed to tell someone and she wasn’t sure when Alex was going to back—if she ever was going to be.

So, without another thought, she began to say everything that was bothering here. The fact that Alex wasn't back, the fact her mum was so close to either going crazy or simply dying, her brother not being able to do anything on his own, the fact that she had no idea where Alex was or what was going on with her. Last, she spoke of how scared she was now that she could no longer she the world around her.

To Gabe's surprise, he didn’t say a thing while she was talking. Even more to his surprise, he actually listened to what she was saying, trying to think of a way in which he could help her. As he thought, Mary sat there still, trying her best not to think.

By the time Gabe turned to face Mary, finally knowing what to say to her, she was fast asleep, looking absolutely peaceful and beautiful. He didn’t want to wake her, but he didn’t want her to be sleeping on a bench in the middle of a pier.

Not giving another thought to his problem, he took her into his arms, carrying her bridal-style. He got close to her ear and asked, "Where do you live?"

Mary, still half asleep, mumbled an address. Then she dug her head into his chest and continued to sleep. Hoping that he knew where he was going, Gabe made his way through the semi-deserted streets. He didn’t even notice the cane that was left by the bench.

Once he reached what he believes was her house, he realized that he had to wake her up again and ask for the key. "Where's the key?" he asked, leaning down to whisper into her ear once more. Not saying a word, she pointed to her pocket.

Gabe, thinking this was at least a little awkward, removed one hand from holding her and reached into her pocket. He got out the key and locked the door. He stepped inside, removed the key, placed her other arm back on her, and kicked the door closed.

She walked around the house, not knowing where he was going. He found the way to a bedroom and placed the girl down on the bed. She wrapped her arms around herself, noticing how cold she suddenly had gotten. The coldness woke her up.

She was about to try and fall back to sleep when she realized her iPod's headphones weren’t in her ears and no music was flowing into her head. She moved her hands all around her bed searching for her iPod that wasn’t there.

"iPod," she cried out, not remembering where she had placed it. Gabe, who was standing in the doorway, turned the lights on, knowing it wouldn’t bother her. She looked around the room for the iPod she wanted so badly.

He found it lying on top of her dresser. He walked over and it handed it to her. Feeling the cold metal in her hand, a smile grew on Mary's face. She turned the dial the right amount of turns and placed the headphones into her ears.

She laid quietly on her bed, the sound of Gabe's voice once more filling her soul. Once she fell asleep, Gabe walked over to her removed her iPod from her bed, looking to see who had helped her fall asleep.

He almost burst out laughing when he saw that it was Cobra Starship. Never in a million years had he expected that she would be listening to them.

Gabe placed the iPod back onto her bed. He walked out of the room. Only turning back once to say, "One of these days, I'm actually going to sing you to sleep." Then he was gone and Mary slept better than she had in years.