Finding Light in Brimberton

It was a week after the 'incident.'

I had been in my room for the past few days trying to collect my thoughts. I had tried to write, draw, even clean, but nothing could take away the pain. My mind was reeling and my heart felt hollow. I couldn't understand what happened or why it happened. I didn't understand how someone who loved me so much could do something so cruel.

I was lying on my bed staring off into space when my mother knocked on the doorframe.

"Nate, honey?" She said softly. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," I responded without moving or looking at her.

She sat down next to me and put her arm around me.

"How are you doing?" She asked softly.

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "I don't feel like doing anything."

"That's good," she said with a smile. "You should take all the time you need."

The day of the incident started as any other day. I walked from school with Grace and we decided to grab some ice cream before our shifts started. We walked along Main Street chatting about books and movies until we reached the store that had just opened up last month by a new ice cream shop company from New York City. They were called Ice Cream Apothecary and their logo was a swan made out of ice cream scoops that looked like it was flying up into the sky. When we walked in, we immediately noticed Kayla sitting in one of the booths by herself while she waited for us to arrive. This wasn't unusual so we went over to sit with her, but she seemed awfully quiet and sullen compared to her normal bubbly self. After we sat down, she finally started talking again, but only about trivial things like what song was playing on the store's speakers or the weather that day. We didn't think much of it until she announced that she had to leave since she wasn't feeling well and needed to go home early since her parents were going out of town for work that weekend so she wouldn't have any adult supervision. Grace and I also had plans for Friday night because there was another band playing at our favorite bar so we told her that we would talk about it this weekend if she still wanted to go out with us then (we both knew that Kayla's plans were always canceled if there was a boy involved). We gave her a hug goodbye and headed back outside where Grace decided to walk home instead of taking her bike since it was such a nice afternoon outside and asked me if I wanted to walk with her since we lived close by each other. Before we parted ways, Grace asked me why Kayla seemed so upset today when she never really got upset about anything very often, which got me thinking too because Kayla almost never gets upset about anything except when it comes to boys or when she is really passionate about something.. Everyone at school knows that Kayla has always been gay so I couldn't imagine what would make her upset today of all days because today was supposed to be one of the best days of her life! The concert tickets had been purchased months ago and they were supposed to be going together tonight!

The only thing that made sense is that something must have gone wrong with their plans for tonight because otherwise Kayla would've been bouncing off the walls excited this entire week! So now I'm walking home with a million questions running through my head because none of this made sense! Was Kayla maybe sick? Did something happen between them? Did they break up? Things were going so well between them recently...I guess sometimes things just have a way of falling apart even though everything seems like it's perfect on the outside...