Standalones.

Heather was normally happy. She was normally kind. She was normally loving to everyone she met.

Then again, today wasn't a normal day.

She was fed up with the human race. All they did was hurt, didn't they? Had anyone remembered how to love? Had they? Heather's mind raced with the questions that she wasn't quite sure she wanted the answer to.

And so it began. Considering this wasn't a normal day, Heather wasn't going to deal with her pain like any normal teenager. No cutting, no crying, no excessive eating. No. Heather was going to do something that no normal teenager [or even most adults] ever thought of doing.

Heather was going to get happy.

And so it began first with a smile. It was forced, definitely. She hated the look of her teeth and was so tempted to stop smiling when she saw them. But no. She kept it on as she continued her day.

Now she just had no idea what to do to get her happy. So Heather just left her house in a rush, ready to find happiness. Or, at least, force it to come.

She decided a walk on the pier would do no harm, despite the cold weather that plagued her. It tempted her smile to disappear, but she wouldn't let it. Not today, not when she most needed it.

There was no one else in the pier that she could see. She didn't blame them. There couldn't have been many people crazy enough to walk so close to the beach on such and overcast day. But she wished there had been some there. Maybe someone could help her be happy. Maybe someone could make her smile not so forced.

Heather simply pulled her 'Roit!' jacket closer to her 'fat' body and continued onwards.

Eventually Heather grew extremely cold. So much that her body was shaking so much that she couldn't move any longer. She slumped down on the nearest bench, her body not quite lying down, but not having enough strength to bring it up in a sitting position.

And then the coughing came. Strong and heavy, loud and painful.

Heather often got sick, but she had been fine for awhile now. The doctors had said she shouldn't have any major problems any time soon. But right now, as she felt as if she was going to cough up a lung, she was sure this was a major problem.

Soon, though, someone’s arms were around her and her head was soon rested upon someone’s lap, the rest of her body falling into a proper lying position.

“You all right?” the voice spoke. It was one of man’s, but Heather couldn’t stand to lift her head up to see just who it was that was addressing her. She was sure she didn’t know that voice. She just prayed that it wasn’t some creep that she had her head on.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. She opened her mouth to say more, but all that came out were hard coughs.

“You don’t sound it. You want me to take you to the hospital or anything?”

“No!” Heather yelled. She didn’t want to go there. She had frequented the hospital more than her eighteen year old body would have liked. “I just need to keep lying down, it’ll pass.”

The man nodded, although she couldn’t see him. Then he added, “Well, if I’m comfortable, I don’t mind staying here as pillow, as long as it doesn’t rain down on us. I think I’m allergic to that stuff.”

“Allergic? To rain?” Heather said, laughing, mingled with coughs. “You know it’s just water, right?”

“That’s what they want you to think.” Heather laughed again. “Anyways,” he said, wanting to get off the subject of his paranoid fears, “the name’s Zack and I’m amazing.”

Heather laughed again. Despite how much it hurt her chest to laugh and how much the coughing hurt as she did so, she couldn’t help but laugh like crazy with the things he said. “Well, I’m Heather. And, um, I like cheese.”

The words were out of her mouth before she could realize how lame that was. But Zack just laughed as if it was the funniest thing ever. “Are you not amazing, too?” he asked her.

“I’m more amazing than you could ever dream of,” she retorted, knowing how lame it was. She just hoped it would get him laughing again. There was something about his laugh, about how light and free it was, that caused her to want to hear it always.

Thankfully, he did laugh. “Well, I’m more amazing than you could ever imagine,” he replied, smirking his infamous smirk that if she could only see her heart would have melted.

“Oh, but dear, I have the biggest imagination ever and there’s no way you could be more amazing than that.”

Zack laughed again. “Well, in that case, my dears that the most insane things ever. There’s no way you could be more amazing than that.”

Heather smirked, coughed hard again, and then said, “But, thing is, I am.”

Zack laughed again. He loved laughing around her. It was different than when he was with his friends and they made fun of people and joked around. He wasn’t sure how, but this, this was different.

“You know,” he said, then paused as he waited for her coughing to subside, “you remind me of something. Not a person or anything like that. I’m not sure what, but something.”

“Hm. Maybe it was the last song you heard on the radio,” Heather threw out there. It was the only thing she could think of.

Zack laughed. The last song that he heard on the radio was one of his own band. That wasn’t it. She was no Jasey Rae. In all the good ways. But maybe that was it. A song.

“Or something like that,” Zack added. “And I think I should take you home. It’ll be start raining soon.” Heather nodded. “Can you walk?” he asked.

“I can always try.” She smiled. And this time it wasn’t forced.

It wasn’t forced either as she stood up and saw that this Zack kid wasn’t some old creep. It wasn’t forced as they walked towards her house, hand in hand.

‘Cause good things can happen when we allow them to.