First Love
First Love
"Thank you." He smiled as he looked down at the card and looked back at her. "I'll sure keep in touch with you. Need to make sure you're okay."
"Haha! I'll be fine, I hope. You could come pay a visit with your sister when you are free. Just let me know in advance though."
"Sure thing." He smiled again. She was a really nice woman, he noted. It was a sad for a misfortune of that sort to happen to her.
Mrs Wesley looked at Chloe's car and saw her sitting at the passenger's seat with her eyes closed, probably asleep.
"Do not forget what I told you. You have to look after her."
Everyone was suddenly putting Chloe under his care. He definitely would look after her and make sure she was fine. Not for anyone else, not for himself, but for herself.
"I will. Take care of yourself. Good night." He said with a polite bow before heading to where the car was parked.
When he fastened his seatbelt, he turned to look at Chloe who was still asleep. If only she could share her burden with him. But unfortunately, she liked to keep to herself.
He sighed in frustration and began to drive, taking a moment to wave at Mrs Wesley.
It was past 7 in the evening. Before they would get to town, it would be around 9 or more. Thankfully, Ellie was with the neighbors. He really didn't like living her by herself, but sometimes, he didn't have any choice especially as he also needed to work in order to earn for the both of them.
"You are sighing too much, I can't even sleep." Chloe whined before opening her eyes slowly.
"You are awake..?" He asked, looking at her quickly before facing the road. The day was already getting very dark, he couldn't afford not keeping his eyes on the road.
"I'm a light sleeper." She informed him.
"Sorry I woke you up." He apologized quickly.
"What's wrong with you? You seem... worried." She said, looking at him intensely.
Jeremy didn't think she would be worried about him. He had thought she would be mad he had disturbed her sleep so he was a bit surprised.
"Well.. nothing."
"You are not a good liar." She reminded him.
He looked at her briefly before pulling over by the side of the road, surprising her.
"What's wrong? Is the car bad?" She asked in near panic. She couldn't afford being stranded by the side of the road at night.
He turned the car off and turned to face her.
"I can't pretend like nothing happened in there." He started.
Chloe began to shake her head, not liking the topic he was about to raise.
"What happened. Why was everyone turning against you?" He asked regardless.
"Jeremy. Please... I don't want to talk about this." She said before turning to look out the window.
"But I want to. You keep to yourself everytime and it's not good for you. Neither is it good for me. Neither is it good for Ellie."
She turned to look at him in confusion. "How does it all relate?" She wondered.
"Because if you are sad, I am sad. It makes me worried. And when I'm sad, Ellie is also sad and worried. So please talk to me. I can help you."
"You can't help me. No one can!" She said, sounding harsher than she had intended.
"How do you know so if you haven't even tried? If God wanted us to always keep to ourselves, he wouldn't have created Eve after he made Adam. I'm not sure you understand what I'm talking about, but I do. And I want you to talk to me because you cannot continue keeping to yourself every single time!"
"You... do realise you are yelling at me... right?" Chloe asked him softly.
He realised he had actually been raising his voice so he spoke softly, "Sorry, I.. well... don't girls usually like guys who are tough?" He asked with a short laugh.
Chloe was in a bad mood. In fact, she had expected herself to be sulking and crying and cursing herself, but she found herself almost laughing right now.
Maybe Jeremy was a gift from God to her to always help lighten her mood.
"So please Chloe. I am really curious. I want to know what happened. I'm sure this must have been eating you up for quite a while. I can still remember how your countenance changed during James' party when you mentioned losing a friend. It was Adrian right?"
Chloe was facing the window. She blinked and sniffed before using her hand to clean the tears that were escaping her eyes.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"WHY? Why are you being so stubborn?" He asked in annoyance.
"Because you may also look at me the way everyone else looks at me!" She turned to face him and raised her voice as she spoke.
"It's better if you do not know anything."
"You know that's not true. I won't look at you in a different way for whatever reason." He promised her, looking confused.
Chloe began to cry so she used her hands to cover her face and sobbed into it while she continued to shake her head.
"You don't understand."
"Try me."
"You think it's something simple? I'm sure that is why you think you wouldn't change your perception of me. You want to know what happened? I'll tell you."
She cleaned her eyes and looked him squarely in the eyes. "I killed someone!"
The curious look on Jeremy's face turned to one of confusion.
"I... killed him..." Tears began to stream down her face.
"You can be anything else, but a murderer? No." Jeremy said confidently.
"I am. I am.. I pushed him into the pool. He drowned... he died." Chloe's whole body began to shake. She closed her eyes, trying so hard to push the memory away.
"I should have left him that day at his house. I shouldn't have convinced him to leave the house. I should have died instead. I shouldn't have left him after pushing him into the pool"
"Hey!" He held her shoulders and shook it with force to bring her back to her senses.
She looked into his eyes, seeing how worried he looked, she began to cry again. "It was all my fault. It... it was... my... fault. Everyone began to hate me. They all called me names... they... they called me a murderer. I couldn't say goodbye to him on his funeral. He was my best friend, my first love."