Tiger's AIO Writings

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TigerShadow
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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.
it's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love
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GJFH
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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!
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
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PennyBassett
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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
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TigerShadow
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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.
IAU (Incredibly Awesome Universe)

There were advantages to the end of Daylight Saving Time.

For one thing, the Sunday it happened was much more relaxing than usual; the extra hour of sleep was a nice gift, a chance to breathe for a bit in the middle of a progressively suffocating semester. It also meant that people were a bit more forgiving of lateness; chalking it up to the confusion brought about by the time change, most of the time people gave each other a couple of days to get used to it before they started insisting on punctuality again.

It also meant that it got dark earlier, and so for Mandy and Trent, dates could involve both stargazing and staying within curfew.

And warm sweaters and hot cocoa.

Mandy carefully closed her thermos with a satisfying snap and set it down gently on the blanket they'd spread out on the grass. "It's a good thing this cocoa's amazing and this blanket's comfy. Otherwise I'd be outta here."

She couldn't have been more reluctant to leave, though. They'd chosen a high hill in McAlister Park, tall enough to look over the whole town and far away enough that what little light pollution there was couldn't affect their view of the sky. It was a chilly and quiet December night, one in which the two perpetually-stressed teenagers had decided to take a break from studying, and Trent had eagerly suggested that they go look at the stars. As far as Mandy was concerned, it would be a crime if someone as passionate about space as Trent was didn't make it at NASA.

Trent rapidly rubbed his hands up and down his jacket-coated arms. "I'd object to that, but frankly, it's freezing out here, which sucks and I hate it."

Mandy rolled her eyes, half affectionate and half exasperated. Leave it to her boyfriend—who had suggested this in the first place—to be wearing multiple layers and still complain about the cold. "Y'know, there is a nice warm ice cream place not too far from here where we can hang out instead."

"Yes," Trent replied idly, sitting back on the blanket, "but that ice cream place doesn't have this kind of sky."

Mandy frowned thoughtfully. "I dunno. I've heard Eugene talking about building a planetarium for a while now. I think he could make a real case for it." She grinned and nudged him. "Maybe you could help out and make that happen."

He shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, planetariums are cool and all, but I kinda like the real thing better." He smirked knowingly. "Especially considering who I'm sharing it with."

Mandy was glad of the dim light of the park so he couldn't see her blush. Even after a year, nine months, and three days of dating (who was counting?), she refused to admit that he could get to her. "Shut up," she mumbled. "And it's 'whom'."

"Oh, come on," he laughed. "Really?"

"Yes, really," she shot back haughtily. "Now, come on. I don't know my constellations well, and time is money."

"Alright," he said, still clearly amused. "Let's do this." He pointed upward, and she followed the direction of his index finger. "See that line of three stars, really close to each other?"

"Yeah," she said, a little eagerly, since it was something she actually recognized. "That's Orion's Belt, right?"

"Yep. Imagine there's a straight line through there, and follow it down and to the left."

"'Down and to the left'," Mandy repeated in a dramatically deep Southern accent.

Trent laughed again, lowering the hand pointing at the sky to pinch his brow down to the bridge of his nose. "Oh, don't even go there. That movie was terrible."

"Well, artistically it was good," Mandy said fairly. "But yeah, historically it was nonsense."

"Said it before and I'll say it again: that was one thorough research paper." He lifted his hand back up. "Anyway, move it in…that direction, and you'll see a really bright star. That's Sirius, the Dog Star. It's the brightest star in the sky, and it's the chest of Canis Major."

"The Great Dog," they said in unison.

Mandy pressed her fingers to her mouth. "Oh—I'm sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted."

"No, no, it's okay," he assured her, taking her free hand. "I guess great minds think alike." He pointed back up at the bright star. "Go up a little to the left from there and…right there you'll see two stars kinda pointing diagonally to the upper right. That's Canis Minor, and that bright star is called Procyon."

Mandy frowned a little, trying to find the constellation, before she found what she was pretty sure Trent was talking about. "Oh, okay. Yeah, I see it."

"Well, look over to the right—there, the upper left corner of Orion. That star is called Betelgeuse."

Mandy raised her eyebrows and grinned. "'Beetlejuice'? Seriously?"

Trent shrugged one shoulder. "Well, it's not the most sophisticated name, but it works." He began making a triangular motion between the stars he'd named. "Betelgeuse, Sirius, and Procyon form the Winter Triangle, the three brightest stars in the winter night sky. And it's so cool—Betelgeuse is huge; if you put it at the center of the Solar System, it'd go out past the asteroid belt." He sighed contentedly. "Really wish you could see some of the pictures I've found. It's amazing."

His voice had risen slightly in pitch, and it had cracked a couple of times in those last few sentences. He also still hadn't let go of her hand.

She wasn't quite sure which of those things was making her smile the most.

"Now, if you look back at Sirius, there are a couple of stars—I don't think you can see them without a telescope; wish we had one—anyway, they form the head of the dog. And the one on its nose is called VY Canis Majoris."

"Original," Mandy observed.

"Yeah, they don't like to get too complicated. That's why they also have a ton of other different names for it with a bunch of letters and numbers in them."

"Ooh, much more exciting!"

"Isn't it?" He chuckled a bit, then continued, voice swelling with a kind of quiet intensity. "Anyway, it's one of the largest stars we know of in the whole universe. Put it where the Sun is, it would go past Jupiter. It's huge, and it's awesome. Actually—"

He pulled out his phone, and after a few moments he showed her a picture. "This is a size comparison of landmark stars and planets. See? Look how huge the Sun is compared to Earth—and then it's just dwarfed by these other stars—and it's practically nonexistent compared to Betelgeuse, and that's like a baseball compared to a basketball with VY Canis Majoris—and that one's not even the largest known star!"

Mandy had to admit, looking at it all in perspective was just incredible. She'd heard of huge astronomical objects before, but actually seeing it, even on this tiny phone screen, was almost incomprehensibly breathtaking. The Earth just always seemed so vast, especially looking at sunsets and mountain landscapes and the ocean, but now, just looking at this, knowing how truly small the Earth really was—barely even a thought next to these mammoth stars—was nothing short of mindblowing. "Wow," she breathed.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," Trent said excitedly. He quickly turned his phone off, focused on the sky again. "Oh, but—look, up there, right from Orion, you can just barely see it—that's Perseus."

"The pentagon shape?"

"No, just a little to the right of it—the stars kind of snake upward a bit, see?"

"Um…" Mandy frowned in concentration, looking where Trent was pointing, then she saw it. "Yep, found it."

"Well, that general direction is where this beautiful meteor shower radiates from every year in July and August, so it's called the Perseids." He sighed almost wistfully. "I wish I'd been able to see it this year, but it was too cloudy. Apparently my parents didn't want to drive all the way out to remote regions in Oklahoma or something."

Mandy shook her head. "Parents are so unreasonable."

"Make one simple request for a thirteen-hour drive halfway across the country and suddenly you have 'skewed priorities' and 'a lack of appreciation for other people's time and money'."

"Did you seriously ask them?"

"No," Trent snickered. "I just heard them say that to Jared all the time."

"Eh." Mandy inclined her head and shrugged. "I can believe it."

"Anyway—oh, I forgot, should have mentioned it earlier—you found that pentagon shape, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, just a little lower and to the right, that's the constellation Taurus." He drew his finger along the pattern, and she followed it. She didn't want to say it, but she thought the shape looked more like a stick figure with horns taking a leap off into the air than a bull.

Trent continued, his face rapt with wonder. "And if you follow the stars, there's a sort of V-shape there, and when it comes back up on the top right—that's called the Pleiades."

"What are they?"

"It's a star cluster; it's one of the closest star clusters to Earth. Actually," he added, sitting up and looking excited, "it's mentioned a couple of times in the Bible."

"No way." Mandy grinned. "Really?"

"Yep, a couple of times in Job and one in Amos."

"Wow, you don't hear about Amos too often."

"No better way than astronomy." He was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "It's amazing. I think one of the ones in Job is when God's talking to Job, reminding him of who He is, and He says, 'can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?'. I mean, you could talk about the historical and cultural connections, but it's still just the fact that He made all of this, and we've only seen a little bit of it."

He looked over at her suddenly. "Have you ever heard of the 'Pale Blue Dot' photo?"

She thought for a minute. "It sounds familiar."

"It's a picture that Voyager 1 took of the Earth as it was leaving the Solar System," he explained. "It's mostly black space and bands of sunlight, but if you look really closely at one of the bands, there's this tiny dot—like, you'd mistake it for a dust speck or think it's just the grainy picture quality. But it's Earth." He stretched his arm back—the arm not attached to the hand still holding hers—to rest on the blanket and leaned back with a soft sigh. "Really makes you think. It's such a huge universe, and God just…spoke it into existence, and He didn't even need to take a breath to make it happen if He hadn't wanted to. It's incredible, y'know? That He made all of this, stars and planets and galaxies and the whole universe, and it's so much bigger than we are, but He still loves us and cares about us and came down to Earth to die for us."

Currently, there was a bit of a divide going on inside Mandy's head, between awe and wonder at God's creation and the fact that...well, quite frankly, Trent had never seemed so incredibly winsome to her before.

On the one hand, he was absolutely right. Looking out at the expanse of the universe, it was truly amazing what God could do. Everything was under His control, He had so much power and authority, and yet he cared intimately about all of the people who lived on a tiny inconsequential blue dot. It made her feel small, but in a good sort of way—a reminder of the truth, that she was small, and yet the Lord of the universe cared about her and wanted her to know Him.

On the other, though…she'd never heard Trent talk like this. She'd always known him to be pretty articulate and insightful, massive glossophobia notwithstanding, but here, now, there was passion and fervor in his voice. There was joy. He hadn't been singing or playing guitar, and there hadn't been a band or orchestra behind him or lights flashing off the trees, and nobody was raising their hands or shouting "Amen" into the night. And yet she didn't think she'd seen worship like that, completely unbridled and pure, in a long time.

But maybe there didn't need to be a divide.

Maybe both were gifts.

She shifted closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder and gazing up at the sky above. God had granted them this sky—this sky, with its never-ending expanse of twinkling, glittering stars whose size from here belied the expanse of a universe so vast and yet held within His hand—as a chance to see Him reveal Himself and to worship Him.

And He had given them this moment, on a beautiful clear December night in a brief reprieve from routines that seemed so infinitesimal now, sitting quietly together and resting against each other, open and vulnerable and comforted.

Giver of every perfect thing, indeed.
it's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love
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GJFH
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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... :yes:

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
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PennyBassett
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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
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TigerShadow
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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's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love
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PennyBassett
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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
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Connie G.
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Wow wow wow. This is really. good. :mad: NOW YOU HAVE ME CURIOUS. *waits patiently :D*
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Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow.

"Why does Connie shower all of the time?" ~CGM_Games
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GJFH
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*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. :inlove: 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
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