Tea and Sympathy

Efad sighed sadly to herself as she stared at the start-up screen on her laptop, daydreaming while she waited. It had already been two years and six months to the day since Aaron had moved away, almost a year from Kevin's departure, and nine months since Christien's family had left; Efad, Brian, and Justin had not been the same after their friends had moved from the small city of Prattville, Alabama, for they felt as though they had been left behind for better people in better places (and the fact that they almost never heard from Aaron or Kevin made it even more irritating).

Over the time of the past four months, even the three friends had started to fall apart. Brian would occasionally come by the Big House after school to do his homework (which defeated the purpose of coming to have fun), but he more enjoyed time with his school friends nowadays than his friend or his cousin. Justin, in the like, had started to find more enjoyable company in other people in the youth group. Efad wasn't upset at seeing them drift away from her, for she knew that the bonds that once held them together were now spread apart and harder to find.

The phone rang, which startled her out of her daydream. She sighed again, put her laptop down on her bed, and slid off onto the floor to answer the call. "Hello?"

A masculine voice answered her. "...Efad?"

She felt her heart leap for joy, for she knew whose voice it was. "Aaron, is that you?"

"Yeah. I just thought I'd call and see how everyone was doing--"

Efad grinned to herself. "Let me guess -- your internet is down?"

"A week today," he admitted. "So, how are the guys? Has Chris kept them from breaking any more windows in the Big House...?"

It was a moment before she could bring herself to answer. "Aaron... the Philemans moved away four months ago. I sent you an e-mail about it when the decision had become final; what happened to it?"

"I have no idea, but I didn't get an e-mail like that," he said defensively. "Oh well. What about the two monkeys who, under a certain amount of light, can be distinguished as Brian and Justin?"

"They've moved on since you last saw them," Efad declared, a little more sure of herself than she felt. "Their school friends seem more important to them now than they did before."

Aaron let out a low whistle. "Ouch. I always knew those two were whackas to boot... so is there no one left at the Big House nowadays? You've got nothing to do but play pool by yourself?"

She laughed. "I wish I'd had that much free time during the school year! But I am finally able to enjoy summer break, since most of my schoolwork had been LIFT classes this year. I finished my Geometry and Chemistry on time, too."

"Is there anyone that you go hang with?"

"Somewhat. Kate and I hang out with the McCords, Claire, and Shanna--- oh, you don't know her, she started coming late year before last."

He chuckled to himself. "Nah, I met her when we visited your family last summer. The tall one with glasses, kinda overexcited...?"

"That's her. Anyway, I don't know if you've heard, but Caitlin left around Christmas last year."

"...Suzanne's cousin? Where'd she go?"

Efad sighed darkly. "She's going to the Methodist church across the street now. I think Suzanne said something about her disagreeing with our theology on predestination, and thinking that Adam was fired by Pastor Ray."

"I thought Adam left because of financial problems," Aaron said slowly, sounding confused. "Did she think that Pastor Ray didn't like him or something?"

"They didn't get along like our dads do," she admitted, "but they didn't dislike each other. It WAS Adam's decision to step down as Youth Director, only because we had too many activities that aggrivated his asthma. Christien didn't know they were even considering moving until a month beforehand."

"Some luck..."

A lull passed in the conversation, until Efad spoke up with, "so, I hear you have a girlfriend now... is she nice?"

Aaron seemed taken aback by this. "...how did you know?" He finally asked. "I haven't told anyone outside of family yet!"

She grinned to herself, raising an eyebrow as she talked. "My spies have been providing me with information through secret transmissions out of their closets."

"Alright," he sighed, "what have my sisters told you?"

"Vauge descriptions on where you've been going and who with. I don't know her name, though -- it always manages to slip their minds in their e-mails."

He chuckled. "Julia Perry. She goes to school with me, and according to some of her friends, she's liked me for some time."

Efad frowned, now regretting her choice of conversation topics. "I bet she's really nice," she managed to say politely. She wasn't about to tell him about a certain other that had also liked him for as long as they had known him... meaning, inadvertantly, herself. "Do I need to expect a public announcement for your engagement party tomorrow or next week?"

"Efad, it's not like that and you know it," Aaron said sternly. "She's not officially my girlfriend, anyway; we just happen to go places together."

Her frown now turned to a scowl. "The movies, concerts in the park, her house for dinner, the rodeo--- since when do you like rodeos, anyway?" She asked tersely.

"Why don't we change the subject," he interrupted, his voice becoming more and more irritated before he cleared his throat. "So, um... haven't gotten a boyfriend yet, I suppose?"

"No, and I really wasn't planning on it for some time, either." She took a deep breath to calm herself and managed to resume talking normally. "I hear all the girls in the youth group saying how great it is, but I don't seem to have a lot of luck with guys. The last two that I liked ignored me completely." No, one moved six hundred miles away and got a lousy girlfriend named Julia, she thought as a sidenote to herself.

Aaron sighed. "Well, I can't advise you to, and I'd rather not advise you not to. I guess God will show you when the time is right."

"I guess I'm just afraid of the mistake I could make," Efad muttered.

"Ah, well... How are your stories coming?"

She sighed again. "Not too good. I've been visited by the anti-fairy of writer's block, methinks; everyone in Myrran is stuck in the forest labyrinth looking for the third shard, and I doubt I'll ever finish the Protectors of the Plot Continuum fic for Lord of the Rings. The Sue fics kind of died down after Return of the King..."

"I'm sure something will come along." Aaron hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "I have to go, my mom wants the phone."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later, then."

"Bye."

"Bye, Aaron."

She slowly hung up the phone, sighed once more, and tried to ease the pain that had begun behind her eyes. When she could stand it no more, she drew her knees to her chest and, quietly at first, began to sob into her jeans; as her sorrows mounted, they became louder and more mournful, filled with wails and moans, such that would have made listening hearts wrench and squirm in uncomfortable sympathy. But no one could hear her as long as the door was shut, and no matter how much noise she made, it was never enough to fill her depression anymore.

The comings and goings of life had finally caught her and shown her a horrid future she had never imagined: a life without her closest friends, without the wonderful things she had dreamed of, and a life in which her friends would forsake her.

Fare thee well;
Trade in all our words for tea and sympathy,
Wonder why we tried, for things could never be,
Play our heart's lament like an unrehearsed symphony.

Not intend
To leave this castle full of empty rooms.
Our love the captive in the tower, never rescued,
And all the victory songs
Seem to be playing out of tune...

'Cause it's not the way
That it has to be,
Don't trade our love for tea and sympathy, no,
It's not the way
That it has to be...

She wondered how it had all began. What had she done to make them leave? Was it something she had said to make them push her away, or had she been the one to push away? She couldn't understand why everything seemed to be falling apart around her. What trial was this, that she should go through it without the support of her long-time friends?

You begin,
All your words fall to the floor and break like china cups,
And the waitress grabs a broom and tries to sweep them up;
I reach for my tea, slowly drink in.

'Cause it's not the way
That it has to be,
Don't trade our love for tea and sympathy, no,
No, it's not the way
That it has to be,
Don't trade our love for tea and sympathy...

Fare thee well;
The words, the bag of leaves that fill my head,
I could taste the bitterness and call the waitress instead
'Cause she holds the answer,
Smiles, and asks "one teaspoon or two?"

'Cause it's not the way
That it has to be,
Don't trade out love for tea and sympathy, no,
No, it's not the way
That it has to be,
Don't trade our love for tea and sympathy...

Don't trade us for tea and sympathy,
Don't trade us for tea and sympathy,
We can work it out;
Don't trade us for tea and sympathy,
Don't trade us for tea and sympathy,
We can work it out,
We can work it out...

As much as it hurt,there was no going back now. Efad wiped her eyes with her sleeve and stared at the damp spots of her jeans. Then, she slowly reached over and took her hat, put it on her head, and sighed heavily. What was life without change, anyway?

...but why did it have to be such a change for the worst?