Always there when I Needed Her

My name is Lisa; I’m seventeen, and a junior in high school. I’m an excellent student in school; I always get honors every time I get an award. My parents were very proud of me, unlike my brother, Jeremy. In school he was a trouble maker, he hang with the “bad” crowd, did drugs and was always getting suspended. And to think he was a senior this year… again.

But besides the fact that my parents were happy and proud of me, my grandmother was also very proud of me. Whenever my parents went off on a business trip, which was practically every weekend, my grandmother was there. I feel as though I can talk to her about anything.

Certain things I would never tell my parents, I tell her; and she doesn’t judge me. She listens to me all the time and we just enjoy each other’s company. I feel like she’s the only one who understands me, I go to her house everyday after school just to sit with her. That was something I couldn’t wait to do that today, it was just a long day that was dark and gloomy. I wanted to leave at that very second, but I then realized that I still had lunch and two more classes to go.

The bell finally rang after my chemistry teacher dragged on and on about how much our test was going to count for a grade. It didn’t matter to me, I was going to Ace it anyways. I had a ways to go to get to my locker, as I minded my own business walking towards it, people said hi to me. It was mainly just people that other’s considered a bunch of geeks, but not me, I didn’t like to categorize people. Well maybe I did categorize the ones that were sluts, druggies and such, but I don’t socialize with those types.

My boyfriend Nick and I have been together for about a year and a half. He makes me happy, when we’re together I forget about school and everything else I’m worried about. We have so much fun together. I heard his laugh down the hallway along with our other friends, Myra and David.

“Hello beautiful.” He greeted, he always greeted me like that.

“Hey yourself.” I laughed. We quickly kissed each other, causing our friends to awe.

“Are we still going to the library after school?” he asked me.

I had completely forgotten that yesterday we made plans to study together for that Chemistry test; he had it for first period and me third. It was very important, but I made plans to meet with my grand mother after school. “Um, you know…I am so sorry but I completely forgot about that.” I told him.

He didn’t show any sign of disappointment, but I figured that he really was. “That’s alright, maybe when you’re done visiting with her we can go over a few things together.”

“That would be great.” I told him, almost as if I was relieved he wasn’t mad, but he was never mad; so I don’t know where I got that feeling from.

He kissed me softly as they bell rang; it was officially time for lunch. Nick and I sat at our usual table. Just talking and laughing, he always made me laugh; even if I wanted to completely die he made me laugh. He was just in the middle of telling me a joke when all of a sudden my brother, Jeremy approached us.

“Lisa…” he said breathlessly.

“What?” I asked him, I was very annoyed. I hated for people to even know that we were related; even though he was more popular than I was it didn’t matter.

“Gimme twenty bucks.” He panted.

I gave him one of the most disgusted looks I could give, how dare he just interrupt my boyfriend to ask me for money. “Go away Jeremy, I don’t have any money on me anyway.”

“You bitch yes you do.” He protested.

By now, Nick was getting very annoyed, “Hey…I don’t care if you are her brother, don’t call her that.”

I was so happy that he stood up for me; it made me feel so special.

Jeremy glared at him, as if he was going to smash his face in. He still completely ignored him and turned back to me. “C’mon, I’ll give it back.”

I sighed; there was no way I was going to get rid of him without giving him the money. I reached in my backpack and pulled out a ten. “This is all I have.”

At first he stared at it, as if he didn’t believe I was actually going to give it to him. He finally snatched it away from me and walked off. “You’re welcome…” I muttered when he left.

Nick scoffed, “You know, you’re brother is a real prick.”

“You think I don’t know that, he wanted that money so he could buy from some guy that deals behind the bleachers.” I answered sharply.

“So why did you give him the money?” he asked me that as if he were my father, I was getting a headache already.

“Just whatever, I don’t care alright. Please don’t question me about it.” I tried to say it as nicely as I could, but it didn’t come out that way.

He could tell I was annoyed and just dropped the subject, which is all I really wanted to do. “You know, I talked to my grandmother about what we talked about the other day.” I told him cautiously, he knew what I was talking about; it was a personal subject.

“Why?” was all he asked.

“Well, I wanted her opinion.” I said, “She said that in her day-“ I stopped, because just when I had started that sentence, he looked very annoyed. “Never mind.”

“Lisa, I don’t want other people to know what it is that we talk about. Especially your grandmother…just because she is so close to you, she may tell your parents or something.” He explained, I felt like he was talking to a little girl; which wasn’t me.

“Nick, she’s always there for me when I need her, she would never tell my parents anything that I didn’t want her to. All she does is give me the best advice she ever could.” I told him, he started to get a little soft.

“Alright, whatever.” And that was all he said, we were silently for the last five minutes of lunch, then the bell rang. He kissed me softly and walked me to my next class. “Instead of going to the library when you’re done visiting your grandmother, I’ll just call you, or why don’t you call me when you’re done.”

That was no surprise; I figured that our plans would change as quickly as they did. “Oh, alright…that’s fine.” He kissed me once more and walked away, that’s when the bell rang and I had to go inside.

After school, I had to walk to my grandmother’s. Dad had a late meeting and left a message on my cell phone telling me to walk there, and cook dinner when I got home. Mom was going to be late also. As I walked I heard footsteps gaining up behind me, I walked faster, only because I never knew anyone else to take this route except me around this time.

They were gaining on me, until I just stopped. Slowly I turned around to meet my stalker; it was just my friend Ana. “Oh god, Ana, you scared the shit out of me.”

She laughed slightly; she had that little girl laugh. “I’m sorry, I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure if that was you or not.” We slowly began to walk with each other.

“What are you doing taking this route?” I asked her, breaking the silence.

“I discovered it last week; it cuts off like ten minutes to get to my house.”

“Lucky you; I’m just going to my grandmother’s.” I told her proudly, maybe a little too proudly.

“That’s nice, you go there every day don’t you?” she asked me, I thought she was trying to sound smart, but she wasn’t.

“Pretty much,” I answered as though it wasn’t a big deal; “It’s good company.”

We walked for a least another six or seven minutes, just talking about nothing. She finally came to her street and we had to say goodbye. I walked another block down and approached my grandma’s house. It was an old Victorian house, it was so beautiful, and I loved being there. It was like a mansion to me, she once told me that when she was gone, I would be the one to have the house. Well, me and my brother were going to get the house, but he would just use it as a crack house; so technically it’s mine.

In my pocket I kept the key to the house, I used it to open the door. “Grandma I’m here!” I shouted, her hearing wasn’t all that well so there was no doubt, that with my loud mouth, she heard me. “Grams!?” I called again. I walked through the kitchen and grabbed a Pepsi, which she always kept there for me. Walked in the living room, where she usually does her knitting; she wasn’t there.

“Odd.” I said to myself out loud. If she’s not in the kitchen or the living room, she could be in the garden. Her garden was amazing, any flower you could think of, she had. Vegetables also, even though I hated vegetables, she always made me taste at least one, and it was still good. Her fruit was to die for, so while I was out there, I snagged a peach off the tree. She wasn’t out there either, “Gram?” I called again when I went into her bedroom. There she was, lying on her bed flat on her back.

I smiled to myself, it’s weird she was taking a nap so late in the day, she never did that. But as I walked closer to her, I realized that her eyes weren’t closed. They were wide open, and she wasn’t blinking. “Grandma?” I said as I shook her slightly, I set down the Pepsi on the night stand that was next to her bed, and I shook her again. “Grandma, this isn’t funny.” I laughed.

Now I was seriously getting scared, my heart stopped and had jumped into my throat, I could barely speak. “Grandma wake up!” I screamed, then came the tears running away from my face, one of them fell on her cheek and slowly rolled off. I ran to the phone that was on the other side of the bed and dialed 9-1-1.

“9-1-1 what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.

“My grandmother…she’s not moving and she’s not breathing.” I said softly, but definitely not calmly.

“Ok honey, what’s your address?” she asked me.

For a second I forgot where I was, then I realized again and gave her the address. She stayed on the phone with me until the ambulance got there, then I heard the sirens.

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