‹ Prequel: Wretched and Divine
Status: active

Ohio Is for Lovers

Chapter Fifteen

On the bed next to Lena's half packed suitcase sat her now ringing phone with Derek's name and smiling face lighting up the screen. Lena turned at the sound and sighed loudly. She knew she was going to have to face him sooner or later and it was going to have to be now.

"Hello?" She answered, half hoping he wouldn't be on the other end of the line.

"Hey, stranger!" He sounded cheery and that cut through Lena's heart strings. "Have you been ignoring me or are you mad at me or just been busy?"

"I'm moving back to LA." Lena blurted out without thinking.

"Oh..." She could hear the pain and disappointment in his voice. "We can at least stay friends, though, right?"

Lena swallowed down the tight lump forming in her throat. "Of course we can." She choked out as she held the tears back.

"When do you leave?" He asked.

"Tomorrow." She answered.

"Oh, good!" He surprisingly exclaimed. "Are you doing anything right now?"

Lena sat down on the bed next to her suitcase and sighed. "Well... Packing... but I'm barely doing that."

"Do you want to come over? I have someone I need you to meet before you go." He admitted.

Lena glanced over at her suitcase. She knew even after talking with Derek, she wasn't going to keep packing. "Sure, I can be over in 10 minutes." She agreed.

***


Lena hadn't even turned the car off before Derek was skipping down the front steps towards her car. He smiled widely and waved as she shut the car off and opened the door, stepping out onto the driveway.

"I'm really glad you could come over." He smiled, sounding strangely positive.

Lena pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and smiled weakly. "Yeah, no problem."

Derek motioned for her to follow him and the two started towards the front door. Derek let Lena in first and she stood at the bottom of the staircase as Derek closed the front door and looked up at the top of the stairs.

"Hey, Jessie?" He called out and suddenly Lena and Derek heard heavy, excited footsteps coming from upstairs.

Moments later, a young girl, who looked to be about maybe 10 years old, appeared at the top of the stairs. Lena couldn't help but smile when she saw the huge grin plastered across the girl's face.

The girl descended the stairs slowly, taking each step carefully and holding onto the rail with both hands. The way Derek had described his sister made Lena think that she was much younger than she actually was, and after seeing her, Lena understood why. Derek's sister, Jessie, had down syndrome.

"Hey, Jess!" Derek smiled and hugged his sister when she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Do you know who this is?"

"Pretty... blonde... ballerina!" Jessie said, struggling a bit.

"She calls you that because she doesn't know how to say your name." Derek explained. "I've tried to help her pronounce it, but she just can't seem to grasp it."

Lena nodded slightly and looked from Derek to Jessie. She kneeled down so she could be eye level with the young girl. "Hi, Jessie!" Lena smiled. "My name is Lena."

Jessie furrowed her eyebrows. "L-Le-Len-a. Lena!" She exclaimed and jumped up and down a few times when she said it. "Hi, Lena."

"Yeah!" Lena grinned and held up her hand so Jessie could give her a high five. "So, Derek tells me you want to be a ballerina just like me?" She asked.

"Yeah." Jessie said.

"Well, I live in Los Angeles. Do you know where that is?" Lena asked.

Jessie thought for a minute. "California."

Lena smiled. "Yeah! And I was thinking, if it's okay with your mom and dad, you and Derek can come visit me sometime. Does that sound like fun?"

Jessie nodded. "To go see ballet?" She asked.

"Is that what you would want to do? Maybe I can take you on the stage, too. How does that sound?" Lena suggested.

Jessie gave her two thumbs up. "Sounds good."

"Alright." Lena said. "Can I get a hug?"

"Yeah." Jessie said and fell into Lena's open arms.

"Alright, Jess, do you mind giving me and Lena some time alone? I'll come find you when she leaves." Derek said.

"Okay." Jessie said and waddled back up the stairs to her room.

As soon as she had disappeared around the corner, Derek turned to Lena with a small tear in his eye. "Thank you so, so much, Lena."

Lena shook her head as to say, don't thank me. "Really Derek, it's no problem at all."

"No, just... Thank you for being so nice to her. A lot of people aren't because of well... the downs." He said with such defeat in his voice. Lena could practically see Derek's suffering. He had dealt with ignorant, disrespectful people for ten years because of his sister's mental issues. Lena could see why he didn't like to talk about it.

Lena glanced at the time on her phone. "I have to go if I'm going to get the rest of my packing done..." She admitted. "But, once I'm settled back in LA, I'll give you a call and we can plan something for her."

Derek extended his arms toward Lena and pulled her into a tight hug. She was sure Derek hadn't completely accepted her choice to move back because the way he held onto her made it obvious that he wasn't ready to let go any time soon. She had been the one part of his life that gave him happiness and a sense of security. And now that was all going to go away.
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I literally feel like shit for not updating but I've had so much going on in my life recently that I just haven't been in the right mentality to write, plus writer's block. And as you can see, I decided to do something very different from any fan fiction I've ever read. My mom is a special needs teacher so I've grown up around kids with autism and down syndrome and other mental issues. I know how they talk and how they act and I've even taught dance to a few kids with downs. They're definitely not stupid, but their mental age is just a few years behind their real age and so that's why I made Derek's sister sound younger than her actual age earlier in the story. Originally I did plan on having her be young like 5, 6 or even 7. But then I thought, why not do something I've never seen before? Never have I seen a fan fiction with a downs character and since I know a bit about how kids with downs act, I knew it would be generally easy to portray the character. If you've ever talked to someone with downs, especially kids, they usually only answer you with one word. I've never been able to have a downs kid talk to me with a full sentence before and usually they don't say much unless you ask them simple questions where they can give you one word answers. I will try not to keep you waiting so long for the next update.

Shout outs:

-a.rebel.in.love.97