Chapter 2

When Rory awoke in the morning Jenny was still asleep. He untied the cord from around his middle and manages to slip out of be without awakening her. He made his way to the bathroom across the hall had a shower, then slipped back into the bedroom and retrieved some clothes. Slipping into the hall once more he made his way down stairs and began preparing some breakfast.

Jenny awoke as the aroma of coffee began to permeate the bedroom. At first she could not remember what happened or where she was. As the memories came flooding back a sense of despair gripped her heart. Why had that bloody boy chosen that path to run on and why the hell could he not just have kept on going. She had failed and things would only get worse. Now she would be regarded as a nutcase and that would add to her misery

She was crying as she slipped out bed and stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror on the open wardrobe door. In her unusual attire she looked a right mess. She decided that for the time being she would just use the toilet, wash her face and hands and then make her way downstairs to face what lay in front of her. As she ran a brush through her hair, she decided that there would be other opportunities, but she would need to be much more clever if she was to exploit them. From now on there would people watching her and trying to stop her from achieving her goal.

When she entered the kitchen, she saw that Rory had prepared a glass of orange juice for her. Alongside it was a boiled egg in an egg cup with a spoon along side it.

"You may not feel like eating," he told her, "But you need to drink and if you can keep down some food it may help with any feeling of nausea you may have. Try it and see how you feel."

She had not brushed her teeth, but merely rinsed her mouth so she took the glass of juice and drank it slowly. She felt a bit better so she started on the egg and managed to keep it down.

"I know that all the books say you should drink lots of water after being sick, but I think coffee may be just as good at the moment. So I will pour you a cup and you can drink it slowly, the caffeine and sugar my give you energy as I want you to eat sparingly today."

"I don't feel like eating much anyway," Jen told him with a wan smile.

Despite her sickness the night before, she felt better once she had finished her breakfast and she told him so.

"Good," he said. Your clothes have been washed and dried. I have even done my best to iron them, but I am not all them, though I am not very good with woman's things."

"I'm amazed that you have even attempted to do that," Jenny said, "I don't think there are too many boys who would even think about doing something like that."

"Well, there is just me and my mum and she has a job so I muck in where I can."

He pointed to the chair where he had folded and stacked Jenny's things;

"You might want to take them upstairs, have a shower and then get dressed if you feel up to it. If not you can just crawl back into bed until you feel able to move around comfortably."

"I think I will have a shower and get dressed. I will feel better if I am moving around. I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I was not making a cry for help yesterday. I really wanted to die. Now I feel so bad because I think my failure will just have made my life situation worse."

"If you feel up to it, I would like us to talk about that. I accept that you feel you have serious problems in your life, but killing yourself is a rather drastic solution and one that is going to seriously hurt the people you leave behind."

"What good is talking about the situation going to do? I don't think many people will be hurt by my actions. I want out of my existence because I feel totally unloved, even by my parents"

"Jenny, we are two of the brainiest people in the school. I would like us to analyze your situation and see if we can alternative solutions to your problems. Why don't you list all the things that are making you so unhappy. Then we can look at them one by one and see what we can do about them," Rory suggested.

"I don't think that will achieve anything. I have lived with the situation for a long time and I am so miserable I just don't want to go on. I want out because my life isn't worth living, " she said and burst into tears.

"I accept that," Rory told her, "But since we are going to be here all day, it won't do any harm to look at your problems to see if there are thing you can try that may improve things and give you hope that there are other ways you can deal with what is happening in your life. What is the thing that makes you most unhappy"

"It is the situation with my parents, which is my worst problem. Before I came to this school, I told them I was being bullied and that people did not want to be my friend, which made me very lonely. They said things would improve when I moved up to high school and this would give me a new start."

"Obviously this didn't happen," Rory observed.

"No, if anything things got worse because the same pupils moved up with me and they affected the attitude of those from the other feeder schools. I don't get physical abuse, but the name calling, and people saying nasty things about me when they know I could hear them. If anything this has grown in intensity,"

She paused thoughtfully before continuing,

"That isn't the worst bit though. I get the feeling that they didn't want children in the first place. I am an inconvenience, by the time they get me up in the morning, they are heading off to work. Most days they don't finish work until after eight pm. I breakfast alone and I dine alone and by the time they get home, I am working on my studies and we rarely seem to talk."

"Have you tried joining them as they eat, even if you just share a coffee with them?"

"I have, but any conversation is about their work and what they are doing.

Don't get me wrong, they are proud of my achievements and they see that I have everything I need. Even though I have money of my own, they bought my car and didn't quibble when I said I wanted a Porsche, albeit a second hand one," she said with a slight smile.

"All right for some," Rory said with a smile. "I had to settle for a second hand Volkswagen camper van. Well, that is not strictly true. I like to go walking and prefer to camp in the back of my little van rather than a tent."