Chapter 1: Recovery

Sybil's father gave her a wink as if they were friends. She didn't want to look at him. They had never hated each other, not by any means, but they were never particularly close. He was trying to comfort her, she thought, though he wasn't doing a very good job. Having broken up with Larry a week ago, Sybil had been unable to function how she usually would. She had been completely silent at breakfast with Edith and Mary arguing across the table. Luckily they were taking the attention of their parents and Sybil was allowed to wallow in her little pool of sorrow without drawing too much attention to herself. So when she stood up to leave the room Robert gave her a wink, but she didn't really appreciate it. He had almost no understanding of what was between her and Larry and had no idea how much emotional turmoil she had been dragged through when he had broken up with her. In just one week she'd managed to start biting her nails, avoiding all eye contact possible and being unable to sleep even hours after she was knackered to the point of collapse. She had also been caught multiple times playing with her hair, being extremely quiet and pushing her food around her plate, rather than actually eating anything. She decided that the only way to get away from her family was to get out of the house completely. She chose to go for a walk around the woods, where she was certain that she wouldn't run into anybody that she knew.

She kicked up the mud and the rocks as she wandered aimlessly through the collection of different trees and flowers. She was looking down at her feet, trying to clear her head of all the jumbled thoughts that filled her mind, leaving no space for anything that was actually useful to her. She was distracted from her internal monologue when she heard a frantic rustling of leaves above her. Her gaze shot up and she saw a bat flying above her, appearing to be flying away from something, as if it were frightened, but after a brief glance, she couldn't see anything that looked at all threatening. She did, however, wonder why a bat was out at such an hour. Perhaps something had happened to it, but she couldn't do anything, even if she wanted to. She had no experience with animals other than her horse throwing the odd shoe or Isis feeling a little bit down. She kept on walking for hours, not caring about how much her parents might be worrying about where she was. She probably should have told someone where she was going, but she wanted to be absolutely certain that she would be alone and that nobody would try to come after her.

Eventually, she came to the point where she needed to rest her body, so when she reached the next bench, she sat down on it, thankful to rest both her feet and her lungs. She hadn't noticed it, but she had gently sped up and by the time that she reached the bench, she had reached a rather considerable speed, matching the speed her mind was going. After a few minutes, she noticed the smell of fresh mint. It was pleasantly light, airy and cool, reminding Sybil of the times she'd used fresh mint when cooking with her mother years and years ago. She'd always loved spending time in the kitchen when she was little. It gave her something to do and made her feel worthy as a child and young teen. Now, though, being eighteen and with a broken heart, she missed those times and wished that she could be young again, caring only that she dropped an egg on the floor or that she used plain flour rather than self raising flour in the birthday cake.

More time passed, Sybil being unable to get up either the mental or the physical strength to keep going. A young man, slightly older than Sybil, walked up to her, taking a seat on the bench next to her. "Are you alright?" the man asked her.

"Yeah," Sybil said shyly. She had never been good at talking to strangers. As soon as she got to know someone, she was loud, boisterous and not at all afraid to make her opinions and feelings clear, but it took rather a lot of time to get her out of her shell. The man smiled at her, aware that she was far from okay.

"You just look a little down, that's all," he said.

"Life's just not going the way I want it to go, but I can't really do anything about it, other than give it time, so I'm a little bit stuck," Sybil replied.

"It'll get better. Things will improve, but sometimes it takes longer than you think it will," he replied, reassuringly. "I'm Tom, by the way," he added, realising that he hadn't introduced himself to the woman he was talking to.

"I'm Sybil," she said, offering him a warm smile.

"Umm, did you know that you've torn your dress," Tom said, alerting Sybil, just in case she didn't know.

"What?" Sybil said as she looked around to her side, taking in the sight of her damaged knee length, full circle dress. "Bugger," she said firmly, inspecting it closely. "Sorry," she said to Tom, realising what she'd said.

"Don't worry about it. I've heard worse. I've said a whole lot worse," Tom said.

"Oh, damn it," Sybil said, knowing that the tear was irreparable. "I love this dress."

"It looks good on you," Tom said, giving a slightly cheeky grin. Sybil's eyes sprung up instantly to meet his. With a gentle smile she asked,

"Are you trying to compliment me?"

"Yes," Tom said confidently. "It brings out your eyes and shows off your figure."

"Thanks," Sybil said shyly. "You're not so bad looking yourself!" she replied boldly.

"Thanks. Where were you off to, anyway? It's unusual to come across a woman like you around here who isn't walking their dog."

"I wasn't really going anywhere. I wanted to get away from my family and clear my head," Sybil said. "As I said, things aren't going great right now."

"If you want someone to talk to, I'm happy to walk you around for a while," Tom offered.

"That would actually be really nice, but I don't want to put you out of your way."

"You're not putting me out of my way. I come here quite often just for some fresh air. I don't need to be anywhere today, so it'd be my pleasure to walk you around for a while."

"Thank you," Sybil said. With that, the two of them stood up and they both began to make their way around the paths of the wood.

"So, what's wrong?" Tom asked simply, leaving the question open for Sybil to answer however she wanted to. She trusted Tom for some reason that was unclear to her, so she felt that she could open up to him without any problem whatsoever.

"Long story short, I've just come out of a four year relationship, and I'm kind of distraught about it. I don't really want to hang on to it, because I know that he cheated on me, but after four years, it's a little harder to let go than I wanted it to be."

"Four years is quite a long time, to be fair. I don't blame you. Four years ago, I came out of a four year relationship and it took me a while to get out of it, but after about two weeks, I realised that there were better things to do in life than mope about a woman who obviously doesn't love me anymore."

"Four years ago? How old are you?" Sybil said, shocked that he could have got into a relationship eight years ago. He didn't look very old at all.

"I'm twenty three. I started going out with her when I was fifteen," Tom said.

"Oh!" Sybil said, shocked.

"How old are you, if you don't mind me asking," Tom wondered, knowing that many women were sensitive about giving their age away.

"Eighteen. But I'll be nineteen in a month's time," Sybil replied.

"Ooh," Tom said, sympathetically. "I don't know how I'd cope if I found out that my girlfriend was cheating on me when I was eighteen."

"Well, to be fair to him, he didn't keep it a secret. He shagged her and then broke up with me the day after, and he told me why he was breaking up with me and everything. He didn't leave me in the dark and expect me to figure it out myself, thankfully. He was good in that way, and he'd always been so kind and loving, but I'd rather it ended where it did, rather than ending up marrying him and having to deal with him having a full-blown affair."

"I suppose that's true," Tom said thoughtfully.

"Why did you and your ex split up after four years?" Sybil asked.

"She just said that she didn't love me anymore and that we'd grown apart too much and that I was a completely different person to who I was when we first started dating, which I don't think is strictly true, but I didn't mind too much. At least she didn't drag me on any longer than that."

"So, we've both had our ups and downs," Sybil stated. "Have you been with anyone since then?" she asked.

"No. After having my heart broken once, I didn't want to risk it being fractured again by another faulty relationship. I guess I'm kind of scared now that my heart won't survive another gone wrong relationship," Tom answered.

"We're all a little bit broken and there are some things that will never heal completely, but they'll scar over. There'll always be a reminder of them there, but after a while, they stop hurting and you can continue in the normal way, even if you do return to those memories every once in a while. Things go wrong. Accidents happen. But time keeps ticking and the world keeps turning and soon enough we all realise that we've got a life to live and that we can't live it properly until we let those feelings scar over and sit as a gentle reminder that, yes, things do go wrong, but actually, that's what makes life so fantastic and so remarkable in a way that no science or logic can feasibly explain. Life's such an interesting thing and there's so much good stuff to smile about, but most people don't realise it until we're too old and weak to do anything about it because we spend too many years of our lives worrying about what other people think of us and how much we mean to everyone else. But, in reality, the only thing that really matters is your own happiness. And it may sound a little bit selfish, but, to be quite honest, if you're cheerful and are willing to be happy, then others around you become happy too. Some things aren't important in life and some things are. The hard thing is sorting each different aspect of life into one of those two piles, but there are always so many things going on that far too many of those aspects of life get put into a pile in the middle because we don't have a clear idea of what exactly should be in the important pile and what should be in the not important pile because nobody ever told us. There weren't ever lessons on it at school and life doesn't come with an instruction manual. Each of us is left to figure everything out ourselves and advice from others is usually rather pointless because something that's important to one person could be utterly unimportant to another, and everybody is unique. Nobody is the same as somebody else, so it's surprising just how much people nowadays are reliant on the decisions or opinions of others. Your own opinion is really the only one that counts and your own opinion is the only opinion that you should be listening to and if you listen too much to the opinion of others then suddenly you become controlled by the rest of the world and not by your own head and that's rather a frightening thought really. Power over one's own body is what we all think we have, but, in actual fact, it's the one thing that most of us don't have and won't ever really have until we realise that to value one's opinions is to control one's life. But the sad thing is that most people won't ever realise that because that's exactly what we're taught not to do. We get taught at school and through media that it's other people's opinions and feelings that matter, but really, nobody should be worrying about anybody else's feelings. Everybody should be in love with themselves. It's alright to love other people – your parents, your fiancé, your child, but they should never be at the top of the list. Loving yourself is the best way to start life. That's the best way to lead a life that's worth leading and that's the best way to have a life that you'll actually enjoy, a life that will create memories to keep forever. Love is the best thing in life, but one must love oneself before one loves anything else at all."

Tom stood back, astonished. Never in his life had he seen anyone say something so moving and so from the heart in continuous prose without any prompts from anything other than their own feelings. He stopped walking, his mouth open and his eyes wide. "You know so much more about life than most seventy year olds know, Sybil. You're far too understanding to only be eighteen!"

"I read a lot and I'm into politics. I like people who say what they really think, no matter what other people say of them. I'm surprised I just said all that though, to be honest. I've never done something like that without stalling or anything. I've always had to think about things before I say them when they're that sort of thing. Maybe you just bring out the best in me," Sybil said. Then she paused to think and realised something. "This probably sounds a bit odd because I've known you for the best part of ten minutes, but do you want to go out for dinner tonight, just you and me?"

"I'd love to," Tom replied softly.

"Alright then." Sybil rummaged around in her bag and found a scrap piece of paper and a pen. She quickly wrote some things down and gave the piece of paper to Tom. "There's my address and my mobile number." As she handed it over, her phone rang. She answered it once she'd found it at the bottom of her bag. "Hello? Yes, I know. I'm sorry, but I'm a free woman, I can do whatever I like. Fine. But I'm going out tonight," she smiled at Tom when she said this. "A friend. Oh, alright. You're such a pain, Mary. Okay, but you'll have to give me half an hour. Bye." She hung up and frowned at her phone. "Sorry, that was my sister. Family emergency at home. Why don't you pick me up at seven and we'll go for a meal? Make it a surprise. I'm fine with any food apart from sushi – I've never been able to deal with that. But you'll have to tell me whether I should dress posh or not. Fire me a text about that once you know where you want to take me." Tom nodded and smiled at Sybil. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and ran off to get home on time to see her granny.

All the way home the only thing she could think of was how lovely he was. She remembered his smell – his gorgeous smell. She didn't know what it was, but it was absolutely glorious. And then there was his Irish accent. She assumed that he hadn't been in England for too much of his life, or he'd have lost the accent when he was younger. And when she lifted up to kiss his cheek, she had placed her hand on his arm, and gosh was there a lot of muscle there! Maybe Tom was just the man she needed in her life. Maybe this was how she could start a new life away from the pain of family and miserable pasts.

As soon as she walked through the front door she was met by Mary. Although they got on rather well, Mary was often wondering where her youngest sister was and was acting as a second mother that Sybil certainly didn't need. "Where were you?" Mary asked sternly.

"I went for a walk, if you must know," Sybil replied, taking off her shoes.

"You went for a walk and in the space of time that you went for a walk you organised going out with a friend tonight?" she said suspiciously.

"Yes."

"You could have done that from home. That didn't require a walk, Sybil."

"No, that didn't. But my brain needed some fresh air and some time to think, so I went for a walk."

"Fine. Granny's in the drawing room, by the way." Mary followed Sybil into the drawing room to meet with the rest of their family.

"Good morning, Granny," Sybil said as she went over to give her grandmother a light kiss on the cheek and a soft hug.

"Good morning, dear. Now, tell me, why did you leave the house this morning without telling anybody where you were going?" Sybil looked around, wondering who had told her grandmother about her morning's activities. Nobody gave anything away.

"I didn't want to make a fuss and I wanted to be alone. And I had my phone with me anyway. Things weren't as bad as people have made them out to be," she said defensively.

"And I hear you're going out with someone tonight?" she said, still wanting to find out every detail of her youngest granddaughter's life.

"Yes."

"Whom?" she asked firmly, prompting Sybil to elaborate.

"A friend."

"Yes, but whom?" her grandmother asked again.

"His name is Tom and I'm almost nineteen. I'm my own person, I don't have to tell you lot everything about my life," she stated as she stormed out of the room. She wasn't really angry with her family – not exactly, but she wanted to be able to do what she wanted without being interrogated.

Later that day, about an hour after lunch, she was sat at her desk doing some work when her phone buzzed. She picked it up and saw:

One New Message
Number Unknown

She looked at the text. It was from Tom.

This is Tom Branson (that random guy you met in the park). Go posh tonight. Be as dressy as you like. Can I pick you up at 6:30 instead of 7? Tom xx

Sybil quickly saved Tom's number and replied to his message.

No problem on the timing. Looking forward to it tonight. See you later. Sybil xx

Sybil placed her phone down on the desk and continued working.

It was at about six that Sybil realised that she still hadn't got ready and that she only had about half an hour. "Shit!" she remarked. She immediately stopped what she was doing and ran over to rummage in her wardrobe. From what Tom had said earlier, 'It shows off your figure,' she could guess that he liked the style of dress she was already wearing (but preferably without the tear). She chose a similar black dress that was quite formal. It had a very dark blue pattern on it that could hardly be seen, but in the right light, it really did look gorgeous. She took off her ripped dress that she had been wearing earlier and quickly slid the posher one over her head, expertly doing up the zip in the centre of her back. She flung the dress she had been wearing all day on her bed and then went to her drawer to find a pair of black tights. She carefully slipped them on, trying not to ladder them and then found a little bag that she could use to hold her phone, purse and keys. She usually brought a book or two as well, but she had a feeling that she was not going to be getting bored tonight. She brushed her hair through, letting her natural waves fall loose. She put in a pair of simple silver earrings with a matching necklace. She touched up her makeup, keeping it similar to what she'd been wearing when she first met Tom, but wore slightly heavier eye makeup and wore red lipstick to replace the plain lip gloss she had worn previously that day. She managed to find a pair of heels that she knew were comfortable and that she knew went well with her dress. She didn't want to be caught out in a few hours' time with her feet killing her, making it impossible to enjoy the night, so she opted for comfort as she didn't know where Tom was taking her.

Sybil didn't have to wait long before the doorbell rang. Sybil grabbed a black shawl and left her room, wrapping it around her shoulders as she padded down the stairs on the balls of her feet to find that Edith had answered the door to Tom. She had led him into the hall and Edith was just about to go and fetch her sister, but turned around to see that Sybil was already walking down the stairs. Edith turned to leave once Sybil was down the stairs so she wasn't intruding on Sybil and Tom's evening, but she turned back briefly to say to Tom, "Don't bring her back too late or dad will never forgive you."

"I won't. I promise," Tom replied. He then turned to Sybil and said, "You look beautiful."

"Thanks," she said with a gentle smile. The two of them then walked out of the door and Tom opened the passenger side door to let Sybil in. Tom then walked around the front of the car and got in the driver's seat. "So where are we going?" Sybil asked.

"It's a surprise."

I wrote this a while ago, but then didn't upload it because I didn't feel at all confident about it. Hopefully this fic will go on for a while because, having read through it again, I actually quite like the story line. Please review if you have a spare minute, and I hope you liked this little story.