Stay With Me

 

Beeep!

“Hey, when you get this message, go to the lake. I need to tell you something. It’s important. Please come, as soon as you can.”

Beeep!

 

I listened to the message several times as I was driving to the lake. What did he want to tell me? I turned the radio up, and tried not to think.

Spinning right around a sharp corner, I follow a thin dirt road straight down. Trees surrounded me and the dust billowed up in front of the front window, but I knew the road well enough that I didn’t worry about it. I listened to the message again, listening to his voice.

 

Beeep!

“Hey, when you get this message, go to the lake. I need to tell you something. It’s important. Please come, as soon as you can.”

Beeep!

 

I sighed, and rolled slowly to a stop. Jumping out, I shoved my cell and keys into my pocket and start walking towards our cave. We had found it when we were little, and soon found that no one else knew of the cave. Driven by worry I began to sprint, my hair whipping against my face, as the wind blew from the opposite direction.

I raced into the cave and saw Josh sitting against the wall, curled into a ball, his face in his hands.

“Josh!” I yelped, horrible thoughts racing through my mind.

He looked up, saw that it was me, and stumbled to his feet. I rushed over to him and hugged him tightly.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” my voice was muffled against his hair and neck. I felt something wet drop onto my neck, and I pulled away staring at him. I saw tear tracks along his face, and his eyes were bloodshot.

“What’s wrong?” I asked in a kinder tone. I started to wipe away the tears on his cheeks.

“I’m moving.” He said shortly, and quickly. His voice was harsh, as if he hadn’t used it in a while.

I seemed to be falling. No! He can’t move. My best friend? Being ripped away from me this easily? No… It can’t be. I tried to keep my voice under control, “I’m sorry.”

Another tear slipped down his face. “Why do you keep crying?” It wasn’t the first time I had seen him crying, but only rarely did he cry, and never like this.

He didn’t answer so I asked, “When?”

“Next week.”

A sort of strangled sob escaped my tightly closed lips. I hugged him again, my own tears starting to fall.

“We have to do something! Not just sit on our butts and cry our eyes out,” I said after a little bit. I was still hugging him, not wanting to let go. He was going to move next week! Next week! That was too short of a time. “We have to make the rest of our time together worthwhile.”

He nodded and we walked out of the cave, me pulling him along to my car.

 

………………….…Seven Years ago……………………

 

“HEY!” I shouted as I fell to the ground. I landed on my arm badly and I heard two definite ‘cracks!’.

“Owww…” I moaned. I felt tears coming to my eyes, but I forced them away. The pain was overwhelming, but I didn’t let a tear fall.

“What’d you do that for? She didn’t do anything to you,” said a new voice. I looked up and saw a boy with black hair coming towards me, staring at the other boy that just pushed me down.

“Actually, she did,” responded the boy that pushed me down.

“Liar…” I whispered. I felt the wetness push against my eyes, as I tried to get up. Stupid me, and I tried pushing myself up with both hands. I moaned as the pressure on my arm made my arm start to throb horribly.  I fell back to the ground and lay on my back, taking long, deep breaths, as I listened to the two boys fight.

“And what exactly did she do to you?” said the boy with black hair.

“She got in my way.”

“So you pushed her?”

“Dude, were you born this stupid?”

I saw the black-haired boy grit his teeth. I knew he was regretting asking that. “Maybe I was, but, I know the teachers weren’t,” he said pointing at the teacher that had started to walk towards us with a stern look on her face.

My eyes widened, and I started to force myself up. I grabbed onto the swing chain and began pulling myself up slowly.

The black-haired boy finally noticed what I was doing and started to help me. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me into a standing position.

“What is going on here?” said the teacher.

I turned to look at the spot where the boy that pushed me stood. He looked scornfully at me, but I saw true fear under the scorn. “H- I fell.”

“You fell?” said the teacher.

The black-haired boy looked at me incredulously. I glanced back at the other boy, glaring at him for half a second before saying, “Yea, I fell, and I think I broke my arm.” As soon as I said those words, the black-haired boy’s face cleared and he looked at my arm.

“Are you ok?” the teacher and the black-haired boy asked at the same time. The teacher sounded brisk, and the boy sounded gentle.

“Uh, I just said my arms broken, and you ask if I’m ok?” I asked.

“Yes, sorry.” Said that teacher and pointed at the boy that pushed me down, “You! Go tell Mrs. Star to call an ambulance. We have a student with a broken arm.”

The boy nodded, looking dazed, and raced off towards the school, “You two come with me.”

We followed behind her, the tears finally falling down my face. The pain was unbearable. I couldn’t see the break, but I knew there was one.

“What’s your name?” I whispered to the black-haired boy.

He looked at me with his sharp blue eyes, “Josh. Yours?”

The way he sounded, I was sure that he already knew, “Heather.”

 

…………………The night before he moves………………..

 

I was shaking and crying against Josh. The past week we had done everything we could think of, but it hadn’t been enough, because we didn’t have enough time.

Josh wasn’t crying this time, he was just holding me tightly against his chest, watching my black hair turn silver in the moonlight.

“We took all this time for granted. Seven years. I can’t believe we did. I’m going to miss you so much,” I choked out between sobs.

“I’m going to miss you too, more then you can ever imagine,” he whispered into my hair. I cried harder into his chest, before I looked up into his face.

We were sitting beside the lake, the soft grass underneath us, and the dark blue sky above us. The stars twinkled and the moon shown brightly.

He stared back at me with those beautiful blue eyes I had seen on the day we met. Staring into them, I realized I couldn’t let him go.

“Josh, don’t move, please. Don’t. You’re eighteen, I’m sixteen. You can stay here if you wanted. I could work to help pay for wherever you live or something. Just please don’t go.”

Josh lightly brushed my cheek with his hand as he moved a strand of hair out of my eyes, “And why don’t you want me to move?”

I was shocked by the question, “Because you’re my best friend. The only true friend I’ve ever had, and I-” I broke off suddenly, realizing I was about to tell him my most treasured secret and deepest fear.

He played with my hair for a little bit before asking in a tight voice, “You what?”

I shook my head, and looked away from his eyes. I knew it was a matter of time before he made me tell him.

“Come on, please? I promise I won’t be mad,” he said, his breath ruffling my hair.

I felt more tears slip down my face as I closed my eyes. I shook my head again, but it was weak and hopeless. He knew that I wanted to tell him, but couldn’t.

“Hey,” he put his hand under my chin and lifted my face so he could look at me. I opened my eyes and jumped when I saw how close our faces were. “You don’t have to tell me, but I want to know.”

His breath blew against my face like a welcome breeze. I closed my eyes and whispered so low I couldn’t even hear myself say it.

I pulled away and got up, starting to pace the ground. I knew he didn’t hear me. I turned and toppled into Josh, both of us falling flat on the ground. We were so close together, my heart leaped and bounded faster and faster until I thought I would burst from my chest. Our noses were touching, and I could feel his breath coming faster.

“Don’t go, because I love you,” I whispered against his lips, which were barely touching. I still couldn’t hear myself, but that might’ve been because my heart was pounding in my ears.

Josh stared into my dark brown eyes for a moment before tilting his head up and kissing me softly on the lips.

“I love you, too.”

I pressed my lips to his again, never wanting this moment to end.

 

 

He didn’t move away the next day, instead he told his parents his life was in this small town. I persuaded my parents to let him stay with us, just until he could find somewhere to stay.

A few years later we got married, and exactly one year later we had twins.

Through all that time, we repeated that wonderful night to each other, always after we fought, or when one of us was feeling bad.

Author's Note

Any mistakes? Do I need to change anything?

Reviews

I would love to see you expand this story. I think it would do good as a Novella, all your stories have great characters and plot.
I enjoyed this one, it ends so happily. :)
-ST

[Sseoni]

Aw, that was absolutely adorable! I loved it! It was so cute, and so not cliche. I didn't find any mistakes, and I think it's great the way it is. I have a suggestion though. Maybe you could've gone into detail about Josh staying in the town,the marriage, and maybe the children. But other than that, it was perfect! :D