She Will Be Loved

“No! You can’t take me!” The blackness was back in my dreams…
“Watch me!” The white shadow had me in chains once again. “I’m done with you.” That was the only other thing I heard it say. Suddenly the chains disappeared and I was falling again. The figure of white watched me, my eyes burned from looking at it. Then, wings. It was wings, I flew. I saved myself. The figure of white blurred into gray and dissolved. They died, and I felt free.
My eyes opened. I didn’t even feel tired. 8:49 AM the clock glowed. Then I thought about time. Time is relevant, time is inevitable. Time can be slow, it can be fast. Time can hurt, time can heal. Time can determine, and time can define. And time can be marked. It is inevitable. I wondered how much longer my time was going to be with Erik. There were three knocks on my door, and I was still in bed.
“Come in.” I felt a little slow. My door glided open with ease, and Erik was standing in the doorway.
“Hey.” Again with his smile. “Uh, sorry to intrude but… I have something to show you.” Curiosity hit me. I noticed a camera in his hands. A Kodak, I think.
“Well then show me.” I said and patted the bed next to me. I was still under the covers. And no I did not plan for him to be too, and it didn’t happen. He did as I suggested, and didn’t look the slightest bit uncomfortable. We both knew we were just friends.
“So uh, Charlotte and I… we share the same hobby. We like photography.”
“Cool.” I heard enthusiasm in my own voice, I hope he did too. I always wanted a camera… “so you wanted to show me photos?”
“Yeah.” He was bright, but I could tell he was nervous. Erik turned on the camera and went through the pictures (from newest to oldest). There were pictures of us, pictures of the gang (+ me), pics of James sitting by the water at the beach. It was amazing, he caught the light just right on every photo. There were some from the beach where Mitchie gave me a piggy back ride. There were some of the chicken fight in the water, Charlotte and Erik vs. Johnny and I (we won). Then suddenly he just stopped going through the photos that we were smiling and laughing at.
“This next one’s my favorite. Mitchie took it. He flipped to the next picture. It was me, with my hair down as usual, sitting in the sand with James laughing. Both of us (James and I) had the biggest smiles on our faces. I realized that I didn’t just smile, I was truly happy.
“These photos are amazing.” he’s amazing “I’m truly speechless.” Which was true, my tongue (and stomach) were tired into knots.
“Thanks. You brought me back to life, gave me inspiration.” Erik is an artist. He told me so, once. He has a room down the hall from the sitting room. He uses it for his art. I haven’t been in there yet. Maybe someday.
Then the doorbell rang. We could both guess who it was. We exchanged glances.
“Wanna go make something to eat?” he understood that I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her right now. It rang repeatedly.
“That sounds good.” We both stood up to go to the kitchen when the door flung open.
“Joslin Shae Makki!!” Allison started shouting.
“Get out!!” I yelled at her walking away.
“NO! Listen to me!!! I am sick and tired of you hiding out here!! You need to come home NOW.” God. Why doesn’t she just listen to me?
“I’m sick of you showing up in my life! When I left it was because I was trying to get away from you!! I was trying to start over! I don’t care if you leave and I never see you again, I’d be happy. You always show up and I hate it and I don’t want you. Dad didn’t want this, and neither do I!! He left and he did the right thing. He left because of you!!!”
“You know what, your father didn’t want you! THAT’S why he left!! And fine. If you don’t come with me right now then I’ll walk out that door and you will never ever see me again!”
“I COUNT ON IT!!! Goodbye means nothing when I say it to you!!! Goodbye never means anything when you say it to a stranger!!” I shouted. I meant it, but I was going to regret it for some reason.
“Fine” she walked out the door, and just stood there… she tried to say something, but I slammed the door in her face. I didn’t want to her the crap come out of her mouth.
“You okay?” Erik asked me. I really didn’t, but I acted like it anyway. I nodded, but he saw it in my eyes that I was angry and upset. He hugged me. “Why don’t we go around town today, we can go to those freaky museums you like.” I do like freaky museums…
“Okay.” I smiled innocently. He rushed me upstairs to get dressed and stuff. We were spending the day in town. Smile.