Coming out of the woodwork to post something I threw together on Kelly.
i.
her earliest memories are warm and full of happy giggles and a pair of loving smiles; she can’t associate sentences or events but knows that they were good, that they were happy, once
her sendoff on her first day of kindergarten is an argument that had nothing to do with her, and she sees all the other kids’ parents hugging them goodbye and walking them into school holding their hands and forces a smile, wanting it to be real
her last memory of her father smells strongly of alcohol and tobacco smoke and sounds like a man who has had enough of what his life has become but can only keep up care for himself (but even then, she has a feeling that “can” really means “will”)
she learns that some people are just born lucky, and that if she wants to survive, she’ll have to start doing it on her own—it’s not as if anyone wants to help her; she's just an unlucky one
her one solace is music; she learns to play on an old church organ on afternoons lit dimly by a winter sun, and presses on despite how her arm aches from the last time she and her mother talked
she learns richland like piano keys and can play it about as well by the time she’s in the second grade, and has seen enough to give her a look about her that keeps her classmates as far away as she wants them
she knows as soon as she puts the first cigarette to her lips that she’s making a big mistake, but does it anyway because it isn’t as if anyone’s going to stop her, and maybe she just feels so much that she wants to be numb for a while
ii.
she finally runs, runs as far as she can and doesn’t look back, doesn’t want to look back, just knows that she has nowhere to go but she’ll find something, because she’s on her own and doesn’t need anyone
she's used to people pushing back against her, especially church people, and sort of enjoys getting under their skin—you either burn or get burned, and she is nothing if not a master at playing with fire
she meets the washingtons and mr. whittaker and cannot for the life of her figure them out—once she thinks she's got their number they surprise her, and she wonders if maybe these people are the real deal (no they aren't, silly girl, why would they be? you watch. you wait.)
she takes that doll and puts it in her backpack and can’t help but keep it close—the last toy she had, the little lion she’d had since she was three, was given oh-so-generously by her mom to a boyfriend’s daughter six months ago, and the comfort is worth the extra weight
she first learns to trust not ed, with his generous gifts; not elaine, with her welcoming air; not marvin, with his goofball antics; but tamika, who shares an old lullaby and teaches her how to play it and even lets her improve it, a little (it just needs some flair, that's all)
she lets elaine and connie in when she sees just how far they'll go, finally ready to let in slivers of hope that look oddly like a town library and an ice cream shop dumpster
she goes on picnics and dances in the rain and laughs at marvin's messiness and learns how to make candles and soap and lets herself be awed by her world and her freedom
she is skeptical of this church thing, has seen what church people are like and knows it'll only be a matter of time before she scares everyone away, just like always, because not everyone can be the washingtons or mr. whittaker or connie (but the rest of her new world has been one surprise after another, and maybe...)
iii.
she comes face-to-face, completely out-of-the-blue, with a savior who tells her to step out, embrace hope, and care fiercely, and pierces her to her very core with how much she is loved
she barely escapes going back to her mom—she never wants to see the apartment or the alley by the school or the corner store that accepted her ridiculous fake id for cigarettes as long as she lives because she's done with that; she's found something better
she gleefully gets into prank wars with david straussberg, whose sister has never given her approval but makes sure to inform her which branches near his bedroom window are shakier than others
she asks marvin to teach her how to play basketball when she's played it for years, just because she knows he's thrilled to be able to teach someone and if she's being honest, she kinda likes trusting someone enough to let them show her something
she starts going to the sleepovers tamika has with mandy straussberg, who's a little sugary for her tastes but always knows just what to say—and has an unexpectedly metallic taste in music while she's at it (have you ever heard of demon hunter? oh, you wait, best bass lines i've ever heard)
she sees buck oliver walking into her classroom and invites him to sit next to her, because she hears the muttering and sees the suspicious glances and thinks not in my school
she accepts jules as part of her friend group without question, because she knows what it's like to be lonely and abandoned, and doesn't bat an eye before giving her an extra rice krispie treat at lunch because she said she liked them
iv.
she decides to become a washington one day, completely out of the blue, and it's all marvin's doing because he's the one who finally points out that y'know, she's lived with us for four years now, might as well make this thing official
she is in the washington family and the family of the church, and doesn't need to think about those old memories anymore because she's never felt so wanted
she leads a boy to becoming a christian, a foster care boy who was tossed around for seven years before he went to the petersons, and marvels at how things are coming full circle
she won't be stopped from serving food to the homeless or ripping weeds and thorns and bushes out of abandoned lots for new houses because i'm serving the least of these, and if you want to put an end to this i'd like to see you try
she happens to be a lot better at school than she'd been given credit for, determined to earn college and get scholarships because ed and elaine—mom and dad—have provided for her enough and it's time that they see their returns
she double majors in social work and child psychology; she fights tooth and nail for foster kids because this system is broken broken broken and she'll do whatever she can to fix it
she leads charges and bandages wounds, she nurtures and battles, she gets married and fosters and adopts, she advocates and organizes and makes voices heard, and she places above all the desires of the one who brought her here
she refuses to settle for surviving and who lives and laughs and loves and teaches and fights because it's all so risky, and really, that's the thrill of it, isn't it?
her memories are full to the brim with warmth and beauty and joy and contentment, clear and rich and vivid, and knows that whatever she felt once is nothing—she's been brought here now, she is whole, and she is His.
Tiger's AIO Writings
- TigerShadow
- Mocha Jamocha
- Posts: 2654
- Joined: June 2014
it's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love
That was beautiful Tiger, you did remarkable work on describing her childhood in an abstract way, I love that you've written it from her perspective.
Kelly definitely deserved a little attention, and your imagination conjured up the untold story brilliantly. Please write more!
Kelly definitely deserved a little attention, and your imagination conjured up the untold story brilliantly. Please write more!
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us - Romans 8:18
It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better. – Tony Stark
It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better. – Tony Stark
- PennyBassett
- Fudge Marble
- Posts: 926
- Joined: May 2016
- Contact:
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! This is gorgeous! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
"Let me get this straight. I bet all those non-friends of yours try to embarrass you about your love for that stuff, right? So, you almost feel like you have to hide your treasures away and can only take them out in secret on rainy days when your mom goes to the store to get more liver and nobody is around to berate your sensitive spirit. Is that what you’re saying?" -Jay Smouse
- TigerShadow
- Mocha Jamocha
- Posts: 2654
- Joined: June 2014
So I've recently gotten super obsessed with astronomy and space exploration, then I watched the "Indescribable" and "How Great Is Our God" talks by Louie Giglio. This is the result.
it's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love
This is beautiful TigerShadow, and I mean it. I've always had a thing for stargazing though the idea of it being used for worship...
I think you did an outstanding job writing them as teenagers, awkward in nature, more confident around each other. I can imagine Trent saying every word, with excitement and passion, while Mandy listens in eagerly. This story is so lovely, thank you for sharing it with us.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us - Romans 8:18
It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better. – Tony Stark
It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better. – Tony Stark
- PennyBassett
- Fudge Marble
- Posts: 926
- Joined: May 2016
- Contact:
That. Was. Amazing. It made me want to cry and laugh and praise God. I'm speechless. Well done.
"Let me get this straight. I bet all those non-friends of yours try to embarrass you about your love for that stuff, right? So, you almost feel like you have to hide your treasures away and can only take them out in secret on rainy days when your mom goes to the store to get more liver and nobody is around to berate your sensitive spirit. Is that what you’re saying?" -Jay Smouse
- TigerShadow
- Mocha Jamocha
- Posts: 2654
- Joined: June 2014
This is the first part of a fanfic I intend to complete at some point. Act surprised: Trent, Mandy, and Marvin feature in it.
--
It can hardly be overstated that whoever first declared that high school would be the "best years of your life" clearly didn't last very long into adulthood, but that didn't mean the days couldn't be enjoyable. And as far as high schools went, Odyssey High was hardly a poor one.
It was a bright, sunny spring Monday afternoon, and even with the lingering winter chill in the air, the courtyard's siren song was too seductive to ignore, including for juniors Mandy Straussberg and Marvin Washington. Marvin, tapping his foot impatiently as Mandy went through the cafeteria line, might have picked her up and carried her bodily outside in his rush to get a good spot—but he was in no mood to deal with slopping chicken noodle soup all over himself. Naturally, as these things go, he needn't have been too concerned; they still got out early enough to snag a nice table and wraparound bench under a tree.
Most unusual, however, was that a trio was down to two. Trent DeWhite, Marvin's best friend and Mandy's boyfriend—a relationship that had had three-quarters of the school in a winnings-exchanging uproar when it was first unveiled the previous year—was nowhere to be found, and Marvin was clearly growing impatient in his absence. Mandy had simply rolled her eyes and quipped that he couldn't expect to be attached at the hip all the time, which Marvin had ignored in favor of texting Trent to demand a reason as to why he'd been abandoned so.
"Dang it," Marvin hissed at his phone.
Mandy looked up from her soup. "What is it?"
"Trent's not gonna be here," Marvin grumbled.
"That's not unusual." Mandy shrugged. "Must be in the library again."
Lately, Trent had been making it a regular habit to haunt the library, particularly the research labs. Between the mere fact that he was taking eight classes and the AP label in front of five of them, he was running himself ragged trying to get all his work done. But somehow he always got it done, and somehow it was always impeccable.
"I'll text him to see." Marvin began rapidly tapping away on his screen.
"Why is it so important to you for Trent to be here?" It had hardly escaped Mandy's notice that Trent and Marvin were practically brothers—dating Trent almost ended up meaning dating Marvin too—but they weren't that co-dependent.
"Need him to look at my chem homework," Marvin muttered. After a couple of moments, he frowned. "That's weird."
"What's weird?"
"This text." Marvin held out his phone for Mandy to read the text history. Marvin had sent You at the library again?
And Trent had simply responded No.
No?
"Yeah, that is weird." Mandy frowned. "Just 'no', with no explanation. That's not like him."
"I know." Marvin put down his phone. "You're his girlfriend; you know what's happening?"
Mandy gave him a look. "I'm his girlfriend, not his soothsayer. I don't know any more than you do."
"Well, any chance you could maybe work your magic a little and flirt it out of him or something?"
Mandy rolled her eyes. "Nice try. Here, give me that chem assignment. I'll see what I can do."
They didn't see Trent until almost the beginning of sixth period, when he strode into their AP English classroom and slung his backpack down next to his desk. "Hey, guys," he greeted briskly.
"Hey," Mandy replied. "Where were you today during lunch?"
"Doctor's appointment," he grunted, unzipping his backpack to pull out their assigned novel and the connection-to-meaning paragraph he'd written on the latest reading. "Man, getting this thing done last night was like a special form of torture."
And that was all he said on the matter.
-+-
Trent's behavior grew increasingly odd over the next day. Mandy had seen him talking to almost all of their teachers privately before class, and as soon as they nodded, he took his stuff to sit at a seat in the back of the classroom, usually close to the door. The first time this happened, in AP Spanish, Alex nearly keeled over in shock, while Mandy simply frowned at him quizzically.
"Since when do you sit in the back?" Trent was usually a middle-of-the-front-row sort of person, always paying rapt attention to whatever the teacher was saying. And at any rate, it was March of their junior year—seating wasn't ever assigned, but as far as the students were concerned it might as well have been, and Trent was not the sort to try to shake up the natural order of things.
But he just shrugged. "Needed a change of pace."
So Mandy took a desk next to him, refusing to just leave him alone to the wolves of the back-row slackers, and started off nicely with a fierce shut-up-or-I'll-do-it-for-you glare at Max Hampton as soon as he opened his mouth to say something. And when Trent proceeded to do this for at least every class they shared, Mandy didn't question it; there were very few ways to change the mind of a resolute Trent DeWhite.
But if he thought she wouldn't file away the fact that at a couple of points he outright stopped taking notes and made her promise to give him hers, he had another thing coming.
-+-
But by the end of the week, Mandy had adjusted to the new normal, and between the passage of time, her own busyness with schoolwork, and the fact that nothing else really out of the ordinary had happened, she'd all but forgotten that anything odd had occurred at all.
That Friday afternoon, she and Trent met together at Whit's End right after school—a "dire emergency", Trent had claimed, that largely involved bowls of chocolate ice cream. Once she saw what was going on, Mandy knew this was a top-priority situation. If that ice cream was not consumed soon, she reasoned, it would be consumed later, and not eating chocolate ice cream on sight had to be some kind of human rights violation. Naturally, she joined Trent on their noble, daring quest to eschew their homework for a while and sit at the counter, eat, and socialize.
"Y'know," he remarked through laughter, "on a certain level one wonders why we even have SCO this year, if Liz just strong-arms them into everything."
"It's just to keep up appearances." She swallowed another mouthful of ice cream, then continued. "I'm really hoping she'll somehow convince them to do away with the Beauty Walk by next year."
Trent wrinkled his nose. "Why do we even still do that?"
"I don't know. It's ridiculous." Mandy threw up her hands in exasperation. "There have got to be better fundraisers."
Trent opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly his phone went off. "Oh—wait a minute." He checked the text message—Mandy couldn't read what it said, and anyway she felt nosy for trying—and climbed off the stool, stooped down to pick up his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder. "I gotta go—I have a doctor's appointment."
"A doctor's appointment?" Something about that seemed rather familiar, and then Mandy remembered the odd events of the beginning of the week. "Wait, you were at the doctor on Monday—Trent," she said, reaching out to gently grab his wrist, "is everything okay?"
He looked startled for a moment, then collected himself. "No, I—I mean, yeah, I'm fine." He gave her a small smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll see you—maybe later tonight?"
Mandy frowned. "You sure?"
"Yeah—library, same time as usual?"
"Well…okay, sure."
"Sounds good." He turned and walked toward the door, tossing a "Bye, Connie!" over his shoulder as Connie came in from the kitchen.
"Bye, Trent," Connie called back.
Mandy's brow remained furrowed in thought as her eyes followed Trent's retreating back, and didn't change when the bell tingled to signal his exit. She hadn't been giving his behavior a lot of thought since that Monday or Tuesday, but now it was back at the forefront of her mind. It wasn't like he wasn't allowed to have a personal life apart from her, but she also knew that he trusted her deeply, and they'd been very close for years. If it was something serious, she thought for sure that he would tell her. So why was he being so cagey now?
The thing was, she didn't quite blame him for clamming up a bit if something was really wrong. She'd done the same when her parents were separating, trying to put on a happy face and yet unable to keep the bitter aches and loneliness from slipping through the cracks. But she also knew from experience how hard that was. It took a toll on you, trying to be strong and brave and acting like nothing was wrong when it really felt like the weight of the world was crushing you. And something was definitely wrong; there was just something about all those convenient little excuses and vague explanations that told Mandy that Trent wasn't being truthful when he claimed he was fine. And she would know personally—they were exactly the kinds of things she used to say before the truth came out, and they were still the kinds of things she said when she was feeling moody or otherwise upset.
"Something wrong?" Connie asked, jolting her out of her musings.
Mandy shrugged, shaking her head in confusion. "I don't know, honestly. Trent went to the doctor on Monday, he's been acting kind of weird ever since, and he had to leave again today for an 'appointment'. And all he told me was that he's fine and not to worry about it."
"And you don't think he is."
Mandy rested her cheek on one hand. "No," she sighed, "because I know from experience that he's not."
Connie nodded sympathetically. "Been there, done that—from both sides." She took the now-empty ice cream bowls off the counter. "And you of all people probably don't need to hear this, but I'd be a pretty terrible friend if I didn't say that it's probably best to let him tell you on his own. It's hard not to push—believe me," she said with a smile that was both wry and sheepish, "I've tried with stuff like that. But all you can really do is just let him know you're there for him if he wants to talk and let him talk to you about it when he's ready."
"Yeah," Mandy murmured. "I know." She had a feeling that this was one of those many life lessons that was learned by doing, not by intellectual understanding. She knew that if it were her, she'd want time to gather her thoughts before running around telling people, even her close friends. But she also knew that what she really wanted to do was to chase after him and tackle him to the ground and somehow make him tell her everything—which, in the long term, somehow didn't seem very efficient.
Connie turned to take the dishes back to the kitchen, then looked back over her shoulder. "Give him time," she said kindly. "And pray for him, too—and for you, that you'll know what to do when the time comes."
Mandy couldn't help but smile. The reminder that an omnipotent, omniscient God was always by her side and ready to help her, as little as she deserved it, was already pretty comforting. "Thanks, Connie," she said, standing up to head home herself.
"No problem." Connie smiled at her in a reassuring sort of way, then walked back into the kitchen.
As the bell jingled to signify her exit, Mandy caught sight of a bench along the front of the shop, and suddenly it seemed like it might be a good time to follow Connie's advice. She sank onto the metal, leaning against the curved back, and took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Okay, God," she murmured. "I know how I want to handle this, and You know how I want to handle this. But what I want isn't important right now. What's important is that Trent gets the help he needs for…whatever this is." She pressed her lips together, then continued resolutely. "I pray that You'll help me to accept whatever decision he makes, and that You'll give me patience and help me to just be there for him when he needs me." She let her head fall back gently onto the top of the bench. "In Jesus' name…amen."
She didn't really do or say anything more for another few minutes. She knew she'd have to get up at some point, but right now her thoughts were too tangled in her head to make getting home a priority.
Besides, she'd probably end up getting distracted and hit by a car again.
--
It can hardly be overstated that whoever first declared that high school would be the "best years of your life" clearly didn't last very long into adulthood, but that didn't mean the days couldn't be enjoyable. And as far as high schools went, Odyssey High was hardly a poor one.
It was a bright, sunny spring Monday afternoon, and even with the lingering winter chill in the air, the courtyard's siren song was too seductive to ignore, including for juniors Mandy Straussberg and Marvin Washington. Marvin, tapping his foot impatiently as Mandy went through the cafeteria line, might have picked her up and carried her bodily outside in his rush to get a good spot—but he was in no mood to deal with slopping chicken noodle soup all over himself. Naturally, as these things go, he needn't have been too concerned; they still got out early enough to snag a nice table and wraparound bench under a tree.
Most unusual, however, was that a trio was down to two. Trent DeWhite, Marvin's best friend and Mandy's boyfriend—a relationship that had had three-quarters of the school in a winnings-exchanging uproar when it was first unveiled the previous year—was nowhere to be found, and Marvin was clearly growing impatient in his absence. Mandy had simply rolled her eyes and quipped that he couldn't expect to be attached at the hip all the time, which Marvin had ignored in favor of texting Trent to demand a reason as to why he'd been abandoned so.
"Dang it," Marvin hissed at his phone.
Mandy looked up from her soup. "What is it?"
"Trent's not gonna be here," Marvin grumbled.
"That's not unusual." Mandy shrugged. "Must be in the library again."
Lately, Trent had been making it a regular habit to haunt the library, particularly the research labs. Between the mere fact that he was taking eight classes and the AP label in front of five of them, he was running himself ragged trying to get all his work done. But somehow he always got it done, and somehow it was always impeccable.
"I'll text him to see." Marvin began rapidly tapping away on his screen.
"Why is it so important to you for Trent to be here?" It had hardly escaped Mandy's notice that Trent and Marvin were practically brothers—dating Trent almost ended up meaning dating Marvin too—but they weren't that co-dependent.
"Need him to look at my chem homework," Marvin muttered. After a couple of moments, he frowned. "That's weird."
"What's weird?"
"This text." Marvin held out his phone for Mandy to read the text history. Marvin had sent You at the library again?
And Trent had simply responded No.
No?
"Yeah, that is weird." Mandy frowned. "Just 'no', with no explanation. That's not like him."
"I know." Marvin put down his phone. "You're his girlfriend; you know what's happening?"
Mandy gave him a look. "I'm his girlfriend, not his soothsayer. I don't know any more than you do."
"Well, any chance you could maybe work your magic a little and flirt it out of him or something?"
Mandy rolled her eyes. "Nice try. Here, give me that chem assignment. I'll see what I can do."
They didn't see Trent until almost the beginning of sixth period, when he strode into their AP English classroom and slung his backpack down next to his desk. "Hey, guys," he greeted briskly.
"Hey," Mandy replied. "Where were you today during lunch?"
"Doctor's appointment," he grunted, unzipping his backpack to pull out their assigned novel and the connection-to-meaning paragraph he'd written on the latest reading. "Man, getting this thing done last night was like a special form of torture."
And that was all he said on the matter.
-+-
Trent's behavior grew increasingly odd over the next day. Mandy had seen him talking to almost all of their teachers privately before class, and as soon as they nodded, he took his stuff to sit at a seat in the back of the classroom, usually close to the door. The first time this happened, in AP Spanish, Alex nearly keeled over in shock, while Mandy simply frowned at him quizzically.
"Since when do you sit in the back?" Trent was usually a middle-of-the-front-row sort of person, always paying rapt attention to whatever the teacher was saying. And at any rate, it was March of their junior year—seating wasn't ever assigned, but as far as the students were concerned it might as well have been, and Trent was not the sort to try to shake up the natural order of things.
But he just shrugged. "Needed a change of pace."
So Mandy took a desk next to him, refusing to just leave him alone to the wolves of the back-row slackers, and started off nicely with a fierce shut-up-or-I'll-do-it-for-you glare at Max Hampton as soon as he opened his mouth to say something. And when Trent proceeded to do this for at least every class they shared, Mandy didn't question it; there were very few ways to change the mind of a resolute Trent DeWhite.
But if he thought she wouldn't file away the fact that at a couple of points he outright stopped taking notes and made her promise to give him hers, he had another thing coming.
-+-
But by the end of the week, Mandy had adjusted to the new normal, and between the passage of time, her own busyness with schoolwork, and the fact that nothing else really out of the ordinary had happened, she'd all but forgotten that anything odd had occurred at all.
That Friday afternoon, she and Trent met together at Whit's End right after school—a "dire emergency", Trent had claimed, that largely involved bowls of chocolate ice cream. Once she saw what was going on, Mandy knew this was a top-priority situation. If that ice cream was not consumed soon, she reasoned, it would be consumed later, and not eating chocolate ice cream on sight had to be some kind of human rights violation. Naturally, she joined Trent on their noble, daring quest to eschew their homework for a while and sit at the counter, eat, and socialize.
"Y'know," he remarked through laughter, "on a certain level one wonders why we even have SCO this year, if Liz just strong-arms them into everything."
"It's just to keep up appearances." She swallowed another mouthful of ice cream, then continued. "I'm really hoping she'll somehow convince them to do away with the Beauty Walk by next year."
Trent wrinkled his nose. "Why do we even still do that?"
"I don't know. It's ridiculous." Mandy threw up her hands in exasperation. "There have got to be better fundraisers."
Trent opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly his phone went off. "Oh—wait a minute." He checked the text message—Mandy couldn't read what it said, and anyway she felt nosy for trying—and climbed off the stool, stooped down to pick up his backpack, and slung it over his shoulder. "I gotta go—I have a doctor's appointment."
"A doctor's appointment?" Something about that seemed rather familiar, and then Mandy remembered the odd events of the beginning of the week. "Wait, you were at the doctor on Monday—Trent," she said, reaching out to gently grab his wrist, "is everything okay?"
He looked startled for a moment, then collected himself. "No, I—I mean, yeah, I'm fine." He gave her a small smile. "Don't worry about it. I'll see you—maybe later tonight?"
Mandy frowned. "You sure?"
"Yeah—library, same time as usual?"
"Well…okay, sure."
"Sounds good." He turned and walked toward the door, tossing a "Bye, Connie!" over his shoulder as Connie came in from the kitchen.
"Bye, Trent," Connie called back.
Mandy's brow remained furrowed in thought as her eyes followed Trent's retreating back, and didn't change when the bell tingled to signal his exit. She hadn't been giving his behavior a lot of thought since that Monday or Tuesday, but now it was back at the forefront of her mind. It wasn't like he wasn't allowed to have a personal life apart from her, but she also knew that he trusted her deeply, and they'd been very close for years. If it was something serious, she thought for sure that he would tell her. So why was he being so cagey now?
The thing was, she didn't quite blame him for clamming up a bit if something was really wrong. She'd done the same when her parents were separating, trying to put on a happy face and yet unable to keep the bitter aches and loneliness from slipping through the cracks. But she also knew from experience how hard that was. It took a toll on you, trying to be strong and brave and acting like nothing was wrong when it really felt like the weight of the world was crushing you. And something was definitely wrong; there was just something about all those convenient little excuses and vague explanations that told Mandy that Trent wasn't being truthful when he claimed he was fine. And she would know personally—they were exactly the kinds of things she used to say before the truth came out, and they were still the kinds of things she said when she was feeling moody or otherwise upset.
"Something wrong?" Connie asked, jolting her out of her musings.
Mandy shrugged, shaking her head in confusion. "I don't know, honestly. Trent went to the doctor on Monday, he's been acting kind of weird ever since, and he had to leave again today for an 'appointment'. And all he told me was that he's fine and not to worry about it."
"And you don't think he is."
Mandy rested her cheek on one hand. "No," she sighed, "because I know from experience that he's not."
Connie nodded sympathetically. "Been there, done that—from both sides." She took the now-empty ice cream bowls off the counter. "And you of all people probably don't need to hear this, but I'd be a pretty terrible friend if I didn't say that it's probably best to let him tell you on his own. It's hard not to push—believe me," she said with a smile that was both wry and sheepish, "I've tried with stuff like that. But all you can really do is just let him know you're there for him if he wants to talk and let him talk to you about it when he's ready."
"Yeah," Mandy murmured. "I know." She had a feeling that this was one of those many life lessons that was learned by doing, not by intellectual understanding. She knew that if it were her, she'd want time to gather her thoughts before running around telling people, even her close friends. But she also knew that what she really wanted to do was to chase after him and tackle him to the ground and somehow make him tell her everything—which, in the long term, somehow didn't seem very efficient.
Connie turned to take the dishes back to the kitchen, then looked back over her shoulder. "Give him time," she said kindly. "And pray for him, too—and for you, that you'll know what to do when the time comes."
Mandy couldn't help but smile. The reminder that an omnipotent, omniscient God was always by her side and ready to help her, as little as she deserved it, was already pretty comforting. "Thanks, Connie," she said, standing up to head home herself.
"No problem." Connie smiled at her in a reassuring sort of way, then walked back into the kitchen.
As the bell jingled to signify her exit, Mandy caught sight of a bench along the front of the shop, and suddenly it seemed like it might be a good time to follow Connie's advice. She sank onto the metal, leaning against the curved back, and took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Okay, God," she murmured. "I know how I want to handle this, and You know how I want to handle this. But what I want isn't important right now. What's important is that Trent gets the help he needs for…whatever this is." She pressed her lips together, then continued resolutely. "I pray that You'll help me to accept whatever decision he makes, and that You'll give me patience and help me to just be there for him when he needs me." She let her head fall back gently onto the top of the bench. "In Jesus' name…amen."
She didn't really do or say anything more for another few minutes. She knew she'd have to get up at some point, but right now her thoughts were too tangled in her head to make getting home a priority.
Besides, she'd probably end up getting distracted and hit by a car again.
it's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love
- PennyBassett
- Fudge Marble
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- Joined: May 2016
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I think I'm going to die. Or maybe Trent will! Ahhhh! This is insane! And so good! Please release more soon!
"Let me get this straight. I bet all those non-friends of yours try to embarrass you about your love for that stuff, right? So, you almost feel like you have to hide your treasures away and can only take them out in secret on rainy days when your mom goes to the store to get more liver and nobody is around to berate your sensitive spirit. Is that what you’re saying?" -Jay Smouse
Wow wow wow. This is really. good. NOW YOU HAVE ME CURIOUS. *waits patiently *
Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow.
"Why does Connie shower all of the time?" ~CGM_Games
*throws hands up and runs around room*
I love this Tiger! It's exciting to see fan fiction written about the golden trio, the ones who were my best friends for a number of years. You've done awesome work here, the characters are all in character, even as high schoolers. Then you actually included my husband, Marvin.
I can imagine this happening, the mood is bright though I worry with Mandy now about Trent.
Please update soon!
I love this Tiger! It's exciting to see fan fiction written about the golden trio, the ones who were my best friends for a number of years. You've done awesome work here, the characters are all in character, even as high schoolers. Then you actually included my husband, Marvin.
I can imagine this happening, the mood is bright though I worry with Mandy now about Trent.
Please update soon!
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us - Romans 8:18
It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better. – Tony Stark
It’s not enough to be against something. You have to be for something better. – Tony Stark