A/N: Hi everyone! I'm back after like, 2 weeks, and I have to apologize for that since I was planning to update this earlier but I got kinda carried away.
If youre wondering when the next update for reach for the stars will be it'll probably be next wednesday or thursday or something. i've got everything plotted out but i just have no idea how to put it down o-o
anyway this is the second/last chapter of this story, enjoy :)x
part III
middle school [or summer?]
"I'm gonna throw this onto Sophie." Tessa says mischievously as her best friend helps her fill the pail with water from the hose. When it is full, Tessa takes a few steps towards Sophie's direction before whipping around and dumping the water onto Will's head.
"Tessa, you little—" Tessa tries to dodge but it is too late— the cold water hits her already-wet shirt and within seconds she has a mouthful of water.
She runs to smack the laughing Will. Her bucket is still over his head and his dark hair sticks to his forehead like glue. Water runs freely down from the bucket and onto his eyelashes. With a shake of his head, droplets of water fly off his hair, spattering onto Tessa. It didn't make much difference, anyway, since she was drenched in head to toe with water.
"Will Herondale!" She shouts and runs toward him, but in the end the four friends— Will, Tessa, Jem and Sophie are laughing and dancing around the lawn sprinkler on a hot summer day, having the time of their lives.
She knows that Will is thankful that she has dragged him away from his gaming console and out of his room and to the beach even though it is eighty-five degrees celsius. The view from the beach, is as usual, breathtaking.
Tessa gives a small smile as they both stare at the sea, hand in hand, the wind ruffling their hair. His eyes are the exact color of the cerulean ocean.
"What do you see?" Will asks her after making a comment about how his skin was going to get seriously tanned. She doesn't turn to look at him; she keeps staring at the blue waves and the dots of people scattered across the wide stretch of water.
A neon orange beach ball gets tossed into the air and breaks onto the surface with a satisfying splash.
She replies after a while, smiling wistfully. "I see a friendship that will last for a lifetime."
-o-
Tessa loves her life. She never knew that one day, in the middle of seventh grade, her life would crumble down.
"I've lost my job." Richard Gray says, panting, in the middle of the dining room.
All three mouths drop open.
"How?!"
"Why?"
Richard doesn't give anybody an audible explanation. Instead, he pushes past Tessa's mother, warding Tessa and Nate away and locks himself into his bedroom.
Her family is forced to move out of their house and squeeze into a small apartment the size of a fist, a long way away from their old house, Tessa and Nate's school and her best friend's mansion.
Instead of focusing on getting his job back, Richard Gray then purchases bottles and bottles of alcohol and has too much to drink.
Tessa cowers in fear in her bedroom, her brother by her side as their father yells at their mother and smashes lamps and jugs and things around their living room. She can hear the smash of porcelain and glass shattering.
Her only escape is school.
Every day the school bus picks her up and brings her to her middle school, and the one thing that cheers her up is the sight of Will, waiting amongst the flow of students for Tessa.
It makes her feel… loved.
Maybe not loved, but at least she has someone.
Every day Tessa confides into her group of friends, Will, Jem, and Sophie about the woes with her father, and they all end up cheering her up, although day after day Richard's condition gets worse.
part IV
high school
Something in Elizabeth Gray's mind snaps, and her hand firmly clasps around Richard's wrist and sweeps the bottles of pills down from the table.
His eyes, glinting and dangerous, fall on his wife.
"Stop." She says firmly without a tremor in her voice. So Richard pulls out a gun from his back and puts a bullet straight through her forehead.
Tessa goes motionless for a while, frozen in spot, and she has this fear that she is going to be stuck in this position, paralysed forever.
But Tessa screams, her gray eyes wide and filled with fear. Her father seems to realise what he has done, flings open the window and before she can stop him, he positions himself onto the windowsill and leaps out of it.
Tessa crouches beside her mother and sobs; she flings out her cell phone and dials 911.
Then she dials Nate's number.
The police arrive almost immediately, and they take their parents away. Tessa clutches her brother, crying in his chest. He tries to comfort her while stroking her hair but he is crying too.
When they get to the police station, Tessa collapses.
Somebody, not Nate, takes her in their arms and rocks her back and forth, and even in the midst of all this stuff a sense of security washes over Tessa.
-o-
Will places the card on Tessa's bedside table inside the hospital room. Jem and Sophie had left only moments ago, and he decides to stay a little bit longer until a nurse forces him to leave.
"Hey, Tess." He says softly, watching her sleep, and slowly places a kiss onto her forehead.
After Tessa gets better, Edmund Herondale asks them if they want to live in their house. After all, it is too big for four people and a maid.
Tessa says no at first as they would both be a burden for the Herondale family, but slowly Edmund and Will come around and finally Tessa and Nate are convinced to move into the house.
The school is having their annual Prom, and Tessa decides that she cannot go. She is afraid of the world. She is afraid of what is going to happen next and how she is going to get through it.
After all, right now she is falling into a seemingly endless abyss and next to nobody is there to pull her out.
Every night she has nightmares about both her parents, but Will always appears at her side and holds her until she falls asleep again. And at that there is another uninvited, probably unwanted feeling in the pit of her stomach, the same feeling she had felt all those years ago, when she had danced with him during fourth grade's Christmas dance, when she had looked into his eyes.
Despite all her efforts, she isn't able to push it away. After all, if she kept it, it would just be another— bigger burden.
-o-
"You need to make it up to me," Will says, brushing the waves of black hair away from his eyes, a gesture Tessa is very used to.
"Make what up?"
"You missed the dance," He mutters. "I didn't enjoy letting Jem and Sophie drag me around the table. I didn't even want to be there, since you weren't."
Tessa's face turns warm. "What'd they force you to drink? Punch?"
He snorts. "Punch. Tessa, don't even try. You are going to be dancing with me."
She rolled her eyes. "Will, it's twelve a.m."
"No excuses, no exceptions. Oh, and Tessa?"
"Yes?" Tessa can't resist but smile at his determination, and decides to give in.
"That flower barrette. Do you still have it?"
Tessa laughs at the memory. "It was once Tatiana's."
"I don't care. Just wear it."
They dance around his living room to a slow song, with the barrette in Tessa's hair. His dancing skills seem to have improved over the course of eight years but there is the occasional toe-step.
Her heart leaps again, like how it has that many years ago under the spotlight, but this time they aren't being spectated by a huge audience. It's just them. Alone.
His head slowly dips down towards hers.
Friends my ass.
Soon she has suddenly decided to fist her hands into Will's midnight hair and kiss him like nothing is more important. She shocks both of them, but he responds quickly by pressing his lips against hers with equal measure.
Her arms wrap tighter around his neck, and he says "I love you" in between kisses.
After that, nothing really worries Tessa anymore.
.
.
.
fin.
A/N: hope you liked it(: please review, i'll probably post more of these up soon or something. about wild wishes, i dont think a chapter is gonna be posted soon. after all i was halfway through the chapter when my mind went blank again
please review, love you guys, bye.