Chapter 12

The summer passes and Raine gets ready for the first day of her last year of school. She places everything she’ll need in her bag and lifts it up onto her right shoulder. She walks out of her room and sees her mother getting ready for her work. “Hi Mom.” Darlene turns and looks at her daughter before smiling. “Hi Raine. Are you ready for your last year?” Raine nods and walks to her mother, giving her a light kiss on the cheek. “I’m heading out, bye.” The two wave and Raine leaves the house as Mrs. McLeod continues getting ready.

“Hey.” Raine looks to her left and sees Jenos walking towards her. She smiles at him as he gets to her. “It’s the last year, you excited?” Raine nods and grins. “Yup, I’m ready to get this behind me so I can really live.” Jenos chuckles and they head to the school. The walk is uneventful and they part when they get to the double doors. “I’ll see you later Raine.” She nods and gives him a light kiss on the cheek. “All right, later Jen.”

She enters the school as Jenos walks away, his hands in his pocket and shoulders hunched. Raine takes a glance back at him, noticing a slight change in him. “I wonder why…” She sighs and heads to her class, pushing her curiosity in the back of her mind. Her day continues as past days in school had gone, rather boring and long. The last class of the day ends and she leaves the classroom, heading out to the front door.

She opens the door and takes a quick look around, trying to find Jenos in the mass of students leaving the building around her. Unable to see him, so goes to the side and continues searching, hoping to find him before he found her. Minutes pass and she still does not see him. After eight minutes of waiting, she decides to head home, the first time in months she had walked home alone.
She gets home to an empty house. It didn’t surprise her, but she had gotten used to coming home with Jenos. She felt as if something was missing. Looking around at the house, she found it warm and comfortable, yet devoid of life. The family pictures on the walls helped to remind her that her family was just at work, but did little to change the feeling of loneliness.

Walking to her room, the feeling only increased as the further into the house she went, she was reminded more that she was alone. The bag drops to the ground as she enters her room, her feet dragging towards the bed. She plops down into the bed, burrowing her face in the pillow. Tears stain the pillow as she cries in bitterness. Her breathing eventually slows as she falls asleep, her energy spent from the crying.

She wakes up and moans lightly, not feeling any better than she did before she slept. She glances at the clock, seeing an hour had passed since she got out of school. Her fingers grip the pillow as she realizes she will still be alone for at least a little over an hour still. “I don’t want to be alone…” She curls into a ball and hugs herself, trying to find comfort within herself.

Thoughts of the future depress her more, knowing that should Jenos find a job, he won’t be there for her, just like he wasn’t today. She shivers and hugs herself tighter, not liking where the train of thought was taking her. Eventually, she cries herself back to sleep.

The sound of the front door unlocking and opening wakes her up. She bats the sand out of her eyes with her eye lids and rubs the rest out with the back of her hand. She gets up and goes to the refresher, making sure she looked okay and didn’t appear to have been crying. She nods as she seems fine and goes to see who it was.

Darlene sets her purse down and walks into the kitchen, taking an orange out of the refrigerator. She sees Raine and smiles. “Hi, how was your day dear?” Raine smiles back, “It went okay. Just the usual things really.” Darlene nods and starts to peel the orange apart. “Would you like a piece?” Raine nods. “Sure.” She gets a slice and eats it, glad for the company of her mother more than the food.

“Any news about Jessica?” Darlene shakes her head. “She left a few days ago, you know she’s usually gone for more than a week at a time.” Raine nods her head slowly, picking up another orange slice. “Are you okay Raine? You’re never this talkative.” Raine looks at her mother before slowly shaking her head. “I walked home alone today.” Darlene raises an eyebrow. “You mean Jenos didn’t walk you home?” Raine nods. “Yeah, he walked me to school, but didn’t meet me afterwards.” Darlene blinks in surprise. “Really, that seems odd. I wonder what happened to him. Maybe he had a job interview to go to.”

Raine smiles slightly. “I hope that the reason.” Darlene catches the slight disappointment in her voice but doesn’t say anything about it. “Well, it’ll be a little bit before your father comes home. Shall we prepare something to make?” Raine’s eyes widen. “You mean me help you? You never want me to cook.” Darlene smiles slightly. “Well, I think it’s about time for you to learn how. After all, you might get married someday, and it wouldn’t be right to rely on him for food.” Raine chuckles and the two start to get things together to make dinner.

Rostan comes home and hears laughter coming from the kitchen. Curious, he creeps to take a peek. Raine and Darlene are making dinner together, Darlene finishing up on the ribs and Raine making a side of beans and fried bacon. He smiles and walks into the kitchen. “I didn’t know you hired a helper.” The two women smile. “Welcome home honey.” “Hey Dad.” Rostan kisses his wife and hugs his youngest daughter. “So what spurred this monument event?”

Darlene lightly elbows her husband. “Quit teasing. I just thought that as it’s her last year of high school, she should learn how to cook.” Rostan chuckles. “Well, that’s good to hear. I’m looking forward to it.” He leaves the kitchen to go to the master bedroom and change clothes.

The two women are finishing putting everything on the table by the time he returns. They all sit down and eat dinner. Rostan smiles and pats his stomach. “That was a very good meal, you two.” Raine smiles and helps Darlene put away the leftovers and clean the dishes. Afterwards, the three go into the living room and watch a holodrama to pass away the night.

Raine excuses herself so she can go to sleep. Her parents stay on the couch together. “Did something happen today?” Darlene nods and explains about Jenos not walking her home. Rostan nods slowly, thinking to himself. “I hope that he didn’t get in trouble. He finds it as easily as his father did.” Darlene pats his shoulder. “Even if he does, he’ll be fine. He’s capable of getting out of situations.” Rostan lightly chuckles. “He got that from his father also. Darien was constantly in trouble. I didn’t like him much because I felt he would be a bad influence on Valerie. After we fought once, we understood each other better. It’s funny, I was trying to keep my sister from him, now I’m worried about his son not being around our daughter.”

Darlene lightly smiles. “Things change with time. Have faith in them, Raine is stronger than she seems.” Rostan nods and kisses his wife. “Yeah. Shall we call it a night?” She nods and the two go to their room to go to sleep. Raine lies awake on the bed, wondering if Jenos will show up tomorrow morning to walk her to school. She gets underneath the covers and pulls them tightly to her. Closing her eyes, she whispers, “Jen…”