Never Gonna Be Alone

“You know I’ll come back, Autumn.” Jimmy Sullivan whispered quietly to the girl sitting beside him on the old, wooden dock at Sweet Bryar Lake. The girl didn’t turn to look at him, instead opting to let her gaze linger on the still, blue water. Water she often compared to his eyes. He grabbed her shoulder in his hand and turned her so that she had no choice but to look at him, and he could have sworn he felt his heart breaking when he saw the tears that lingered in her hazel-green-swirled eyes.

“I don’t want you to leave, Jim.” She replied, her voice scared as she let him pull her up against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder as he wrapped his long arms around her, holding her as they looked at the water.

“I know,” He said, his own voice sad. He didn’t want to leave either, but he had to. His parents were moving all the way across the country, to some beach town in California. They had only given him a week’s notice that they were leaving, and the very day that he’d found out he knew he needed to tell Autumn. His Autumn. “I’ll come back for you; I promise I will.”

Again, Autumn didn’t respond to him as she closed her eyes, feeling a tension headache begin building behind her eyes as they often did when she became stressed. And she was definitely feeling stressed, she thought to herself. Tomorrow, Jimmy would be gone, out of her life. She saw a red leaf from a nearby tree flit across the water, separating itself from the branch it had been attached to only moments before, and she couldn’t help but compare her situation to the leaf’s. It wasn’t as though the leaf had wanted to leave the tree behind. The breeze had forced it, just as Jimmy’s parents were making him come with him.

“In two years, I’ll be eighteen. They can’t make me stay there then, Auttie.” He murmured into her ear, using the nickname that only he had ever bothered to call her by. He kissed her neck gently, just holding her because he knew that soon, he wouldn’t be able to.

“In two years, I will have been long forgotten.” She answered him, not moving. In California, she was sure he’d find better things than Autumn could offer him. She was just a hokey little country girl, destined to live her life in the same town. She’d never leave this town, and Jimmy would never come back to this place after Friday. She couldn’t blame him, of course; it had always been their dream to get out of this place someday. Someday had come for Jimmy, just as she had always known it would, and it was time to let him go no matter how badly she wanted to hold on.

“Remember when we met here?” He grinned at her, ignoring her last statement for a moment as he allowed the memory to replay in his mind. She had been ten, he had been eleven. He had accidentally scared her into falling into the lake. After he’d pulled her out and apologized a hundred and one times, they had sat down and gotten to know each other. They’d turned into friends, and then best friends, which had evolved into the boyfriend-girlfriend relationship they’d had for the last year and a half.

“Yes.” She smiled a genuine smile. “How could I forget? I’m still picking leeches off from that day.” She teased him, turning to look at his face. His familiar grin was plastered on his face, his crystal blue eyes twinkling happily as he remembered along with her.

“Oh, you are not.” He quipped playfully before the somber look returned to his face as he brushed some strands of her loose brunette hair out of her face. “I’ll never forget that day, Autumn. And that means I’ll never forget you.”

“I love you, Jimmy.” She said, saying the words for the first time. She gasped when she realized she’d said them aloud, and then looked at the wooden planks of the dock in embarrassment, the glare of the sunset reflecting on the lake’s surface glaring up at her in vivid oranges, purples, and reds.

“I love you too, Autumn.” He replied, turning her face once more so that she was looking at him. They sat there like that for several minutes, neither one of them moving or saying anything as they just looked into each other’s eyes before he finally leaned in and pressed his lips up against hers in the most loving kiss they’d shared with one another. “You’ll never be alone, okay?” He told her as they stood up, walking hand in hand towards the end of the dock, knowing that he needed to get home and pack the rest of his stuff. As they arrived at his car, he stopped her and looked down at her as he pulled a pair of drumsticks out of the passenger side of the car. Autumn recalled that they were his favorite pair.

“What did you bring those with for?” She asked him, confused as he held them in his hands, twirling them around before he stopped fidgeting and looked at her, his eyes sad as he held them out to her.

“I want you to keep these with you, okay? And take care of them. You know they’re my favorite ones, and I’m expecting them back when I return, okay?”

______________________-x-

That day had been two years ago today, Autumn thought to herself as she walked down the familiar path towards the very lake the memory had taken place at. She smiled as she saw the red, yellow, and orange leaves littering the ground, a testament that though time went on, some things didn’t change. Jimmy was eighteen now, and he still wasn’t back. She had been expecting it, of course; she’d known that he wouldn’t come back to Sweet Bryar. But it didn’t stop her from hurting for each day that passed that he didn’t come back to her. She looked down at the drumsticks that she’d brought with her; they were in the same condition as when he’d left them to her. She wondered if he even remembered that he’d left them with her, or if he’d just forgotten about them, as well. It wasn’t that Autumn was bitter. No, she was far from it. She was happy that Jimmy had gotten out of this place; she really was. Sweet Bryar wasn’t going to get him anywhere in life; it wouldn’t help him accomplish his dreams. California would, and she was glad that that’s where he’d ended up.

She stopped near the end of the dock, looking around at the scenery for a few brief minutes before she sat down on the wood, letting her legs dangle off of the edge, her toes barely touching the crystal blue water.

I wonder if his eyes are still as blue as this, or if they’ve faded with time. She wondered, frowning as the thought formed in her mind. She twiddled the drumsticks between her fingers, her eyes watching the water flow as she remembered his words.

You’ll never be alone, he’d said. And she knew he was telling the truth. He may have left Sweet Bryar, and he may have forgotten about Autumn, but she knew with every fiber of her being and every beat of her heart that he loved her. And that was enough for her to know; to know that somewhere, out in this big world, someone loved her. Her parents had never been the loving type, always too caught up in their own lives to really pay attention to their only child. She wasn’t angry about that, either; she was just destined to be the forgotten one; the leaf blowing away from the tree to be forever alone while she watched those around her move about their lives.

She heard footsteps walking behind her up the dock and turned her head. When she saw the person walking towards her, Autumn gasped, and she had to grab the edge of the dock to stop herself from falling into the water. His blue eyes were even bluer than they’d been two years ago, his hair was now its natural dark color, and spiked all over the place.

“Jimmy?” She breathed, hardly believing it as she stood up, the drumsticks held firmly in her hand as the tall figure walked over to her, a beautiful grin on his face as he stopped just a few inches short of her.

“Who were you expecting? Jesus?” He joked at her before immediately wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug, picking her short frame up off of the dock and twirling her once before setting her back down on her feet, the grin never leaving his face as his eyes met hers again.

“You came back.” She whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes again as she wrapped her arms tightly around his waist. He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in a tight hug as he just held her.

“I told you I would, didn’t I?” He asked her, tilting her head up to look at him. “I see you’ve kept my drumsticks safe all this time.”

A small giggle escaped her mouth through the tears as she held them out to him, smiling as he took them and put them in his back pocket. “Come back with me.” He whispered to her, lacing his fingers together with hers. “Come back to California with me.”

“But what about my family?” She asked him, looking at the dock again. He’d come back only to tell her he was leaving again. He saw the distress on his face and tilted her chin up so that yet again, she was looking into his blue eyes.

“I can be your family, Auttie.” He told her quietly. “You’ll have me, and I promise that everything will be okay. My friends out there can’t wait to meet you, and I can’t go back without you. Everything will work out. I promise.”

It only took a few seconds for Autumn to nod, leaning her head against his chest again as he held her, a breath of relief falling off of his lips as he rested his head on top of hers. “When do you want to leave?” She whispered after a few minutes, pulling away so that she could look up at him.

“Whenever you want to.” He told her, brushing hair out of her face just like he had two years before. “I’m not going anywhere without you again, Autumn. You’re never gonna be alone again. We’re leaving this place together this time.”

Autumn smiled up at him and nodded as she stepped back, grabbing his hand in hers. “Let’s go now. I don’t need anything from my house. My parents won’t even care if I leave; you know they won’t.” She told him as they began walking down the dock.

And as they drove away from Sweet Bryar Lake and towards the interstate that was going to take them back to Jimmy’s new home, Autumn couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of contentment. After two years, he’d come back for her. He’d kept his promise.

And now, she wouldn’t be alone again.