Chapter 29

During breakfast Richie wondered if his dream really had meaning. If it had meaning, would it become true too? Hopefully, if Sarah did come it would be less weird than in his dream.

He imagined how she would stand there, they’d hug and kiss and Sarah would say she’s ready for it. Then they’d go home and be happy forever.

He almost laughed at himself. His dream may have been weird but his imagination sounded like a fairytale. He knew it wouldn’t be that easy, there’d be a lot of things they had to work on.

For starters, he was leaving for New York in only four days, how would Sarah handle that? He knew he should have told her sooner but he had forgotten it. Maybe he could convince Jon to only rehearse one or two days, then he could go back home and have a whole week before leaving for two months. He wished he could just take Sarah with him but how would that work? Next week Wednesday they’d leave to Croatia.

He didn’t know what but he’d figure something out.

Of course Megane had followed him to the kitchen since they had been talking in the living room. She didn’t seem so bad but didn’t want to talk about himself anymore, which gave him an idea.

He interrupted whatever she was talking about. “So Megane, what brought you to the center?” He hadn’t asked any other residents that question but maybe he could change the subject and find out more about her.

“Nothing really bad.” She said, reluctant to tell him more.

He didn’t care, she always got him to talk, and he’d get her to talk. “What’s not so bad then?” If it wasn’t so bad, then what was she doing here anyway?

“Well,” Megane sighed, it was the first time Richie saw her not cheerful, “I just needed a break. So it’s really nothing.” She explained but he wasn’t going to let her go that easily, he was going to find out. He hadn’t pushed Sarah to talk but Megane pushed him so he was going to push back.

“What do you need a break from?” She was only 21, her life was only starting, he couldn’t imagine why she needed a break. “You’ll think it’s stupid.” Megane said instead of answering his question. “I won’t think you’re stupid.” He answered and meant it.

He didn’t see how she’d need a break but she was here so she probably thought it was bad enough. He knew not to judge people before they could explain.

“Well, I never finished high school and I worked very hard to get into college and it’s been so much and so difficult, I just needed to get away from everything.” Megane explained with a deep sigh.

It was the end of May, wouldn’t she be missing classes right now? Richie understood she needed a break but she couldn’t miss classes, he knew from experience that that was a bad idea that only led to more skipping classes. “Aren’t you missing classes right now?” He almost actually cared. “No, I have a two week break, then two more months and I’ll graduate.”

Now he was a little confused, she said she had a job where she met a lot of people and claimed that was how she could read people so easily. “I thought you had a job?” Richie had his last bite of toast and got up to get another cup of coffee.

Megane moved uneasily in her chair. “Not really, I’ve been doing an internship the entire time. They already offered me a job in August.” “That’s good.” Richie said. “What is it that you do?” He still wondered.

“I’m studying obstetrics and gynecology.” “Oh,” he was a little surprised with that, it wasn’t what he expected although he didn’t know what to expect, “you get to know people from that?” He asked confused. “Yes, sort of and good intuition.” She explained.



Breakfast was over by 9 and Richie had two more hours before he was leaving, he had no idea what to do until then other than watching tv but he really didn’t care for tv right now.

He was leaving the place where he met beautiful Sarah. Right here in the living room had she first talked to him. The next times he had seen her she was in the kitchen, where they continued to eat together for the rest of Sarah’s residency.

Most importantly, he thought of their bench. With that he walked outside, following the path until it ended in grass and he could feel the soft soil under his feet as he walked over to the bench and sat down, he looked down over at the pond.

They had shared so many feelings, thought, emotions and kisses here. Ah the kisses, he thought, her soft lips that he longed to kiss again, hopefully in a few hours.

He remembered the joke he had made about the bench, how he had wished he could take it home. Sarah had said he probably could as a rock star.

Richie thought of the first time Sarah really opened up to him. How she had told him about the things in her life, how difficult everything had been for her and she wanted to try, slowly and carefully.

She just had to be there to pick him up later. That first time that they really talked, was also the first time they kissed. She had reached up so slowly and had kissed him ever so softly for a few seconds. After her confessions, he had barely dared to kiss her back.

The second time he felt much more comfortable kissing her.

This bench really held a lot of memories. Their relationship had grown closer every time they spent time by it. He almost felt sad that it would be the last time he was sitting on it, even though he was sitting by himself now. If only he could really take it with him. Then they could continue growing closer to each other every time they would sit on it. It was their bench.

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