We Got Older But We're Still Young

I sat on my bed beside my packed bag, I held my phone in my hand as I looked over my contacts. I couldn’t decide if maybe I should call Sara or Leda before I left.

I left a note in the kitchen for Leda, but maybe it would be better if she heard me say it.
I know that if they were leaving unexpectedly I would like some warning but then again I also knew that I wouldn’t receive any warning from them.

It crossed my mind that maybe I should ring the school and make up some excuse for my two week absence. I had never had a day off of school besides the times I was deathly sick, but I had never done anything like this…

My finger hovered over the Sara’s name. I was still upset about the lack of support she provides to me but she was still my best friend and I felt like maybe I should call her.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Jaime had beeped from road. I stood up and walked over to the window. Jaime stood there, leaning against his car running his hands through his hair. I had to mentally slap myself for letting my eyes linger longer than they should have.

After a deep sigh, I put my phone in my pocket, grabbed my bag and jogged out of the house.

“Morning” Jaime said brightly, taking my bag off of me and putting it in the car.

I smiled slightly before getting into his car. Jaime got into the driver’s seat and looked over at me raising an eyebrow.

Jaime opened his mouth slightly “You alright?” he asked watching my expression.

I brushed my ginger hair off of my face and nodded my head allowing a smile to shine at Jaime. He still looked at me questionable as he started the engine.

---

We pulled up outside of the hospital. Jaime turned off the engine and took off his sunglasses allowing me to see his eyes. I moved my hand over to take off my seatbelt but he put his hand over mine.

“Just stop for a second Freddi.” He said softly.

I sat back in my seat looking over at him rubbing hard at his eyes.

“I know something’s up with you and you need to tell me. I don’t want you building up all these issues while Delilah’s around and…” he paused “I just really hate seeing you upset, So just tell me Fred, You know I wont judge.” Jaime spoke as he looked at me with complete concern on his face. It really hit me how truthful he sounded and it was really hard to grip that maybe I was so completely wrong about him.
I let out a nervous laugh as Jaime smiled softly at me.

“It’s just…” I started as I stared at my fidgeting hands. I could feel tears brimming around the edge of my eye “I’m really lonely” I said as I awkwardly laughed at myself for letting tears fall onto my face.

I didn’t even need to say anything else, Jaime understood. He moved over and pulled me into an embrace.

“I can’t begin to imagine how much things are for you. You had to grow up too fast and take on responsibilities that no kid should ever have to even consider and I’m sorry for that. I really am.” He whispered as he held me in his hug.

“It’s just you know, it would be nice to have someone to actually listen and give a shit about me or even just appreciate me and right now it seems that neither my sister or my best friend will do either.” I mumbled quietly.

Jaime pulled out of our hug and looked me directly in the eye.
“Freddi, first of all you do not know how much I appreciate you, the fact that you are willing to do this for Delilah and I, It’s crazy. And second, I feel like lately I’ve been starting to get to know you better and I know there is so much about you that I have no clue about but for some reason I find myself actually really caring about you and how you are going. It’s so weird and all I want to do is just to be around you and hear you talk about yourself or memories or anything at all. You’re so different and it drives me crazy.”

I looked at Jaime as he spoke fast while he smiled softly at himself. It was really bizarre hearing someone say something like that to me, especially Jaime. I was starting to be pretty sure that Jaime was a completely different person to what I had initially believed.

A slight smile grew on my face as Jaime smiled back at me. It was weird, In this moment that Jaime was talking, I remembered something my dad told me when I was younger.
I remember being upset because I was having trouble making friends at school and I went to him and told him I was feeling really alone and that I was scared that I would stay that way forever and he told me that being alone isn’t something to be frightened of because it is not unusual for someone to feel on their own, but when you are with someone who refuses to let feel alone, that is when you should be frightened because that isn’t something that one feels very often and you should be quite frightened that one day it might go away.
It didn’t mean a lot to me then but right at this moment I understood what he meant.

“Let’s go steal ourselves a little girl!” Jaime announced as he practically jumped out of the car causing me to chuckle slightly.

I sighed to myself because right now I was starting to feel a little frightened. Even though my dad died long ago, I felt as if he was with me then, giving me a smile to say ‘I told you so’ and for a few seconds I allowed myself to miss my dad, but only for a few seconds because I had a little girl to steal.