Chapter 12

This is a SHORT Chapter  :D

# No matter how far apart. Our hearts will always stick together. 

I woke up with a strong spirit. I kind of missed how I used to sleep in the past years; how I wish every night could be so easy.

Jasper sent three messages to me. He probably had been freaked out from waiting because I had non-respond at all.

‘It’s great. Wow, I wish I was there with you guys. Are you sure you’re ready for school? I’d settled down the registration at the school. I’ll be school tomorrow too. ;) Jasper.’ –First message

‘Raven? Are you there? Are you alright? @. @’ –Second message

‘Don’t scare me! Reply me as soon as you read the text. Jasper, miss you.’ –Third message

Jasper made a laugh in my heart. It’s really nice to have his nervousness occasionally. I never knew he would be so worried about me.

‘I’m okay. I just fell asleep yesterday. Sorry for letting you worry. Have a nice first day at school;D Miss you too. Raven’

I went to school after my breakfast. I never knew that wearing a bandage on the head would receive such enormous amount of greetings and regards from the people in the school, even the teachers.

Ken suddenly patted my back and walked beside me.

“Feeling better?” He smiled and trying to hold me in case I won’t fell.

“I’m fine. I won’t fall.” I grinned and we stopped by his locker.

“Are you sure?” He chuckled and slammed his locker hardly.

“Hey, don’t vandalize the property of school. You’ll be expelling.” I stared at him and laughed.

“So, when will you take that thing off your head?” He frowned and pointed at my head.

“Emm, I don’t know.” I laughed and continued “What’s that?” Ken was taking a box. I did realized when we started walking towards the class.

“Emm, emm…” He hid into his bag immediately when I asked. “Jennifer?” I said. “No!” He yelled.

“Why are you shouting?” I yelled while Jennifer was skipping towards us.

“Hi guys!” Jennifer smiled and looked stern once she saw Ken.

“Hi, Jen. What are you doing here? I thought your first class was upstairs.” I looked at Ken then Jennifer.

“Yea, I came down to look for you. Did you look at the address I snugged to you…like couples week ago?” Yes, I totally forgot about that.

“Oh. No, I forgot about it. Sorry.” I looked apologetic and she grinned.

“Never mind. Just remember that. See you soon!” She skipped away speedily and disappeared at the edge of the hallway.

“What happen to you, Ken?” He was stunted beside me.

“What?” Ken said and frowned. “Let’s go. And that box wasn’t for her, anyway.” He looked at his bag and dragged me into the class.

The class started as usual. I recognized Ken was staring at me during the class. It made me extremely uncomfortable and I couldn’t even concentrate for even a second.

“What are you staring at?” I whispered and he looked away. He was acting really weird this morning. Maybe he was just staring at the girl who was sitting right beside me. After the class, Ken fled away so quick that he couldn’t even hear me yelling his name out loudly. He almost fell down because of the slippery but still regardless. I have to get this to the bottom someday, I told myself. IF I remembered.  

I took out my phone to check if Jasper replied my text messages.

‘Heart disease almost overbear my life ;( I will, I’ll tell you about my school tonight. Take care, especially your head ;laugh laugh;’

Jasper’s texting skills were improving. It seemed to own a strategy of convincing.  Every moment in the school seemed so bored to me, I went home straightly after my last period. The day during school hours became less special. My life became not so interested, not a little, for me. The only time I could possibly felt the existence of living was the time I spent with Jasper. That was the only moments I can feel how much important I was to be alive.

TO BE CONTINUE :D

Chapter 11

My eyes widened slightly, a ray of sunlight shined right through my eyes. The tingling was killing me. I could hardly open my eyes to assure if I’m died already. I turned my head slowly to the other side from the sunlight. My dad was sleeping right beside me and holding my hand tightly. He was about to wake when my movement bothered his slept.

“Dad…” I said feebly.

“Ray, are you okay? You scared me.” My dad looked worry and languished. I guess he hasn’t even took a shower since he found out I was being unconscious.

“I’m okay, dad. Don’t worry. What happen?” I asked to find out what was happening yesterday night.

“The burglars. They broke into our house but you found them. So, they hit you. I’m so sorry that I wasn’t protecting you…” My dad was bearing the responsibility, which wasn’t actually he’s fault.

“Dad, I’m fine now. You don’t need to apologize. I’m fine.” I tried to grin but it was a pain. I have no choice but to groan the pain out of myself.

“I’ll call the doctor.” He then walked out from the room to look for the doctor. It was pretty impressive that the effectiveness of the doctors and nurses were great.

“Ms. Raven, I’m afraid you have to stay here for a couple days. We would like you to have detailed of checking to make sure there will be no congestion in your head.” I nodded as the doctor left the room. My dad sat down and coaxed me to sleep. I was fast asleep after the nurse injected soporific into some kind of machine beside me.

“Raven, wake up.” Somebody just woke me up from my sweet sleeping mode. I haven’t figured out who was it, and he then snugged a phone beside my ear. I heard an anxious sound with a moderate tone that I love to hear.

“Raven! Raven! Are you alright?” It’s Jasper! I was completely sober when I knew Jasper was calling.

Meanwhile I gazed at the guy who snugged his cell phone beside my ear – Tiff. He never did anything great for me, and now he told Jasper everything about me.

“Jasper…Hi, I’m fine.” My sound sounded weak while I hated to let him worry.

“Does it hurt? Will it cause sequelae? How long do you need to stay in the hospital? Are you really okay? What does the doctor said?” He sounded was still nervous and anxiety.

“Jasper, Jasper. Calm down. Everything’s fine.” I tried to convince and calm him down.

“Really? I was totally freaked out when Tiff called me.” He sighed and he sounded relaxed a little.

“I’m okay. I just need to stay in the hospital for a couple days to check for detail.” I sighed and stared sternly on Tiff.

“Okay then. Is your phone with you?” I turned slowly to the drawer beside me to search for my phone. Tiff grabbed me my phone and passed it to me.

“Yea, it’s here.”

“Switch on your phone. I’ll call you soon.” He hung up the phone very quickly. I don’t understand but I gave the phone back to Tiff. He looked at his phone and waved to me as he was trying to leave as soon as possible for not letting me a chance to blame on him. Soon my phone rang and I picked up.

“Jasper?” I asked foolishly.

“Yes. Let me take a look of you.” What? I was thinking. “It’s a video call.” He laughed and I took the phone in front of my pale whiten appearance.

“Oh no. You looked horrible, Ray.” I don’t care about how I looked, but how he looked. He was still looking good when I saw him on the phone.

“You looked fine. I’m glad.” I smiled and he smiled. I missed his smile so much.

“How’s your head?” He frowned.

“It’s just a bruise. I’m sure it’ll recover soon.” I set up the bed from pressing the button beside my bed.

“How did you got hurt?” He asked and his lips pressed into one straight line.

“Somebody just smack on my head.” I chuckled and his eyes open widely.

“Jesus.” He looked stern but it never held long.

“I’m fine now.” Trying hard to be strong.

“Yea. It’s killing me right now.” He groaned and one of his hands was grasping the side of his head.

“What happen? You okay?”

“I’m okay. I just can’t protect you. I can’t be with you when you needed me.” He sighed.

“Jasper, I’m okay. It’s not your fault.” I grinned and he grinned.

“Everything will be fine. I promise.” I swore to myself that hopefully the report wouldn’t be bad.

“Tell me you’re really okay after you recover.” He never stopped sighing. How I wish I could do something to make him feel better. Just then, I heard the sound of footstep from the outside.

“Oh gosh, I think my dad is coming in.” I really wish it wasn’t, but I shall avoid my dad’s madness on Jasper.

“I guess we’ll talk soon.” His smile always made me feel painless and I nodded.

“Thanks for the call, Jas.” I smiled and my head hurt a lot.

“I miss you.” He hung up the phone and I immediately hid the phone in the bed. I assumed I was awaked by the footsteps that just came in to my room.

“Strange. I heard someone’s talking.” My dad whispered to himself.

“Dad? Did you saw Tiff?” I rubbed my eyes to assume I just woke up from the heavy component of soporific.

“Yea, I entrusted him to apply a few days’ holidays for you.” He sighed and placed the food on the table. “Eat some if you’re hungry. I need to get to work now. I’ll come after my work. Will you be fine if you’re all by yourself?” I nodded lightly in case my head wouldn’t hurt so much. He left quickly after packing up his stuffs. The room went quiet again. I have to be pleased that Jasper spent most of his time texting with me, treating me like a complete patient. It was really bored to stay on the bed whole day instead of walking or moving. Although Jasper was willing to text with me, I don’t want him to waste his time on me so much but to prepare the stuffs to register for his new school.

After three days lying on the bed, I was finally declared that I’m free to go. It was indeed fortunate that my report illustrated that everything went just fine on my body, especially my head. I had enough for the smell of the medicinal liquid in the hospital, the beeping sounds that came from the equipment beside me, especially the food, it sucks. I can never endure the taste of the food in the hospital anymore. My dad looked cheerful when he handled the discharge formalities at the counter.  He couldn’t keep his smile away while we were in the car too. As long as he was happy, I can felt the happiness spontaneously.

“Your friends really worried about you. They were waiting for you.” He glanced at me and grinned.

“What? Dad, you invited them?” I tried not to yell because I had been afraid of the prickling at the backside of my head.

“Yea, they wanted to see you. It’s hard to deny their regard, you know. They were just worried about you.”

“Oh, so, they’re all in the house now?”

“Yea, I guess there’s additional friends.” One of his hands pointed at the direction of our house and halted on the parking lot. I went into the house before my dad can reach to me.

“Surprise!” A loud shout spread into my ears. It was Jen. She was terribly exultant. Ken was the most gentlemen person amongst all of them. He came and held me to the couch so that would be easier for me to sit down. Then, he sat beside me and crossed his arms.

“Thanks.” I said to him. He smiled and stared at Jen.

“Would you please just stop jumping around?” He looked annoyed and Jen stared at Ken for a moment and sat on the floor beside the door reluctantly. She could probably hit by the door once my father get into the house but it was just my tattled.

“Hey. How you guys?” I asked and looked at them each by each. Firstly was Tiff then Zach, Eddy, Gilbert and a guy named Nicky was there. I don’t know him much but why did he appeared in my house. He spoke before I could ask any question.

“Hi, Raven. Zach invited me here. We just ended up our basketball game, so he asked me to come along. You mind?” I never knew he was that polite.

“Hi…emm, emm, no no. It’s fine.” He looked cozy after my words. But anyway, he wouldn’t be the protagonist today.

“Ouch!” Jen was groaning. I guess she might have hit by the door, of course by my dad.

“Oh! I’m really sorry. I didn’t see you there.” My dad apologized and laughed. Ken was really bad, that he laughed so loud before anyone could have done so. Jen was still struggling on the pain on her feet.

“Are you hurt?” I asked while I trying to get up to help her. Ken dragged my hand and insisted me not to move. Then he walked to Jen to help her get up from the floor and ceased her tears. Jen was absolutely mad at Ken because he teased her a lot.  

“Ken, stop teasing her. Don’t bully her because she’s younger and smarter than us.” I grinned. Jen laughed because of my serious judgment. Everyone just laughed because of what I’m saying. These made me felt abnormal. My dad carried out some juices for us. We spent our night chattering and playing cards. It was really joyful to have such memories even though I was injured.

I went straight back into my bedroom after they left. I was exhausted but the one thing I must do before I get to my bed was to text a message telling Jasper that I was safe at home.

‘I’m safe and sound. The report was good. Zach and the others came to my house to celebrate for my recovery. I’ll be back to school tomorrow. How about you? Raven.’

I just fell asleep after sending the message. It was nice to have a long sleep night without any dreams and anything…

Chapter 10

I have no sighed of message from Jasper. I wondered how he was doing in Arizona, repeating the same thought to console my sentiment. Not to worry about Jasper, consoled that he was busying with the stuffs to a new home, and new school. He will text me soon, I guess.

The days seem even longer without Jasper. I assure myself that I haven’t adapted my life without him, and I would probably got paralyze the whole day or maybe for a long long time. I’m incapable of to concentrate on the curriculum, even the coming test. Every minutes passed by were just tearing me into pieces; evidence my life expectancy decreasing.

Jen grasped my hand in a sudden and broke into my thought.

“Raven, are you okay?” Jen looked worry and she sat beside me closely. I didn’t answered her question but nodded.

“You miss him huh?” I frowned and looked at her.

“Jasper, I mean. I can see how much you miss him.” Jennifer grinned and looked serious.

“Jen, how did you…” This was the first thing I ever said on the day.

“He’s my cousin, Ray.” I was completely astonished by her words.

“You’re Jasper’s cousin?” She nodded and looked shocked.

“Didn’t Jasper tell you that? He’s a bad cousin. I don’t like him.” She looked angry and sighed.

“He didn’t tell me anything about you.” I asked as I started feels there’s a little strength in my body. When I can finally talk about Jasper with his ‘relatives’. I hoped I can get some news from Jen about Jasper, hopefully.

“We have a big understanding between, when we’re young. We don’t really see each other after that, till he met me here. Still, he never stopped bullying me, that’s the reason why I hated him so much. He used to pull my hair and messed my things up. He’s really bad but he got mature now. I wondered what grown him up.” Jen chuckled and continued “And soon I found out that the five of you grown him up, especially you, Raven. He came to apologized and we’re fine now.” She smiled and holds my hand. She squeezed a paper into my palm and grinned.

“What’s this?” she didn’t wait for a second and whispered in my ear as Mr. Werner stepped into the lab. “Address” Jen said softly. I wondered what addressed was, probably was Jasper’s Arizona home address, I thought. I putted the paper into my bag and focused on my work. I felt a lot better after talking to Jen. Maybe she’s the first person I talked to, today. After class, Jen and I went to the cafeteria. I went and sat on the chair, which I used to sit on. My sight was completely distracted by the empty sit beside me but a snap distracted my sight. It was Zach. I think he’s the one who really took care about me after Jasper left.

“You need to talk.” Zach grinned and brought me back to the conversation with the others.

“Thanks. You two left without telling me.” I did a grimace towards Eddy and Tiff.

“We wanted to but Zach asked us not to disturb your own ‘meditation.’” Eddy blurted out the truth. I stared at Zach and he smiled.

“Nice excuse huh” I assumed that wasn’t the truth.

“Aren’t you taking your lunch?” Zach asked and I shook my head.

“Hi guys!” Jen never loss her smile whenever she was with us. She brought her lunch and sat down. They really did enjoy their lunch and conversation but I didn’t. I sat there for minutes but I couldn’t think of anything to do. They waved to me when they realized I decided to leave. I went to restroom and change for my physical education class. Suddenly, I realized that I didn’t get to see Ken in the class during the first period and lunch period. I knew there was some time for me to look for Ken, so I went around the school to track him down. I gave up finding him, as I will meet him during the P.E class, so I sat in the gym hall to wait.

Just when the bell rang, somebody just patted my backside and I stared up. A tall, slender guy stood in front of me, Ken.

“Hi” I said politely.

“Are you okay? You looked sick.” He frowned and grinned. He pulled me up from the ground and I stood unstably for a minute. Ken grabbed my wrist when he knew I was going to fall backwards.

“Thanks. I didn’t saw you during Algebra and lunch.” I finally found my hub to stand steadily.

“Oh, I was late today. I slept overtime.” He giggled and released my wrist. I nodded my head lightly as I knew there’s nothing bad happened on him.

“Can you borrow your notes to me?”

“Sure.” I squatted down to my bag to search for my notes.

“Thanks Raven. You really sick, aren’t you?” He squeezed for a smile while frowned for my look.

“No, I think I just didn’t slept well last night.” I sighed and he nodded. The class started normally and ended up normally. Amanda came to me after the class, her hand crossed into my hand and we walked towards the restroom together.

“You looked sick, Raven.” She was holding me, like a nurse and a patient. I knew I wasn’t sick at all.

“I’m fine.” I answered inability.

“Go home and take some rest. I’ll inform the teacher who in charge for today’s study period.” She smiled and sighed.

“Thank you but I like to stay today. I have nothing to do when I was home.” I grinned and she released my hand when we reached the restroom. We went to the hall and study for our coming tests. Amanda was nervous for the coming exam but I’m not. I’m over nonchalance for the tests because I felt that I wouldn’t be that hard for me. I spent the whole period on teaching Amanda the technic of answering the question in Biology.

I went home straight after school. It was the first time that I didn’t skip any classes during school hours. On the way home, I was surprised that I didn’t think about anything of Jasper. I enjoyed the song that was broadcasting on the radio ‘payphone’. Very soon, I arrived in front of my house. I stepped out of my car and just then my phone rang. I searched for my phone in my bag and picked up the phone before the ringing tone halted.

“Hello.” I said pantingly.

“Hello.” The sound seems familiar to me and I quickly took the phone out and glanced through the name –Jasper. I couldn’t speak up when I saw his name. He’s calling in such timing that would made me panicked.

“Hello, Ray? You there?” Jasper asked twice and I immediately responded.

“Yes. Yes.” I couldn’t believe he called me.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine.” I grabbed my keys with the other hand and went into the house. I walked up to my bedroom to calm down my mood so that it would be a lot easier to talk with Jasper.

“Oh. I just finish unpacking the stuffs over here. I’ve tried to call you as soon as possible.” He sounded tired when he was talking.

“How’s everything going?”

“Emm, everything’s fine, its fine.” He chuckled “So, what you’re doing?”

“That’s great. I just came back from school. It’s kind of rushing that you called at this timing.” I still can feel that panting in my voice.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t notice what the time was.” I hated him to apologized while I was really glad to receive his call.

“It’s okay. Everything had been settled down now.” My panting finally began to calm in my voice. The phone was muted in a sudden and all I could hear was my breathing.

“I miss you…” I couldn’t believe I said it out. I can hear Jasper smiled when he heard I said it.

“I miss you too.” Jasper always wouldn’t be shy on saying this sort of things to me but I will. It’s really sweet to hear Jasper’s voice and that he was missing me.

“Jasper…” We spent an hour talking to each other. We talked a lot; it probably was the first time that Jasper and I were having a conversation without seeing each other. Glorious time always passed speedily, it’s time to say goodbye again.

“Let’s make a deal. No matter what happen, you shouldn’t disappear in my life.” Jasper wanted me to make a promise and I did promised.

“I have to go now.” Jasper said reluctantly.

“Okay, we’ll talk later. Bye.” I wasn’t happy at all when he decided to leave the call.

“Bye. I miss you.” He hung up the phone and I hung up the phone after.

The time became longer once I hung up the phone.  The peaceful atmosphere in my room had always existed. I slept soundly the whole afternoon. It’s been a long time which I couldn’t sleep well, thanks to Jasper. It would be great for me if I get enough sleep to recharge my energy for being consuming much on thinking about Jasper.

I woke up lately in the evening, but I was still able to feel the tiredness in my mind when I awoke. I took a glance through the clock beside me. It was accurately pointing at 6.30 in the evening. I had to prepare dinner for my dad and me. I’m probably late, but I think my dad will forgive me. I grinned to myself and I was suddenly shocked by the loud smack of the door which spread from the downstairs. There’s no hesitate for me, I went down straightly to find out what was happening.

“Dad? Are you back?” There’s no respond after I’m asking a few times. “Dad?” I asked again. 

I went down to the front door and decided to take a look where my dad used to park his car but somebody just grabbed my shoulder hardly. I swerved instantaneously when I felt the pain on my shoulder that made me feel extremely painful. I can feel something just smacked on the back of my head. The harm drove my head into a sudden pain, and I can feel my head was spinning seriously and it turned black... I could hardly see who’s the person was but the dizziness I can feel.