Other Side of the World

Cold. It was cold outside. Ugh, she wanted to go back to Australia and have cookies with her aunt whilst watching back-to-back episodes of Gossip Girls (and when her uncle was home, forcing him to watch too). Or maybe that was her anxiety talking. Why was she anxious in the first place? It was stupid. She was stupid. Everything was stupid.

She eyed the bouquet of dark purple carnations tucked away behind some pink ones and white roses. The carnations arrangement was almost identical to the one she bought when she went to Liam’s graves. Haley stood there for a while, rooted to the spot as the memories of finding him on the floor, bleeding to death, a panicked Belle rushing about, barely managing to spit out the address of his house.

Horrible.

It was truly horrible.

It wasn’t fair, she thought. She barely knew him. And yet to be this depressed about someone who died. Her mom was right after all. She once told Haley a few years back that it wasn’t good to be too emotionally sensitive over something or someone because people could take advantage of that and weak people would never survive in this world.

She walked over to the next shelf.

Maybe it was because that she barely knew him. That if he didn’t…if he didn’t disappear, they could help each other out. Maybe it was because she actually died in front of her. Maybe it was because the look in his eyes that she still refused to acknowledge, that last, longing look in his eyes.

A tear fell down her cheek. She furiously wiped it away.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Every morning, his mom would visit him at the hospital. It was some sort of a forced routine. Like she didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that her son was seriously ill and instead, put on a cheerful face that resembled Barbie’s smile. And then when his father got back from work, he would visit him too. He would look exhausted and that exhaustion would just make Nathan ponder on the amount of pain he had caused on his parents. It was always him, the priority.

He hoped that things would get better. So that if he could survive this, he would pay every single cent back to his parents.

That morning, his mom left with a hopeful smile. Small, and a bit cautious at most – but it was there. It was a good thing. It put his mind at ease. Well, at least that’s one thing to be less worried about. There was still that matter with Haley. The ever-so-absurdly-optimistic Haley. Who crashed and burn quite badly for months now.

Maybe he should get some fresh air.

He got up, massaging the back of his neck. When he turned to walk towards the door, he almost puked out his heart for the scare that Haley caused him.

“How…what. I…what?” he stammered, feeling drowsy. Wow, just wow. She looked different. She looked…really different. In actuality, they haven’t seen each other for just several weeks. But it felt like years. Her hair grew longer, framing her pale, fragile face perfectly. Her gaze was cold and piercing, even though she was smiling a tad nervously, shifting her foot from side to side. She looked really skinny. She was carrying a bouquet of flowers.

“Haley…” he finally breathed out.

Nathan felt weird. This felt weird.

It felt as if they were strangers meeting for the first time.