Sandcastles-A Novel (Through Chapter 7!)

Bee-ee-p! Bee-ee-p! Bee-ee-p! My alarm clock whines. I groan and turn over. Bang! My bedroom door slams open. “Time to get up!!!” my mother sing-songs. “Ughh. Looks like another school day, yet the last.” I mumble. I turn over and get out of bed. I put on my robe and walk over to the bathroom. I stare at myself in the mirror for a while. “Girl, you look like a mess” I tell myself.
When I get out of the bathroom, I go downstairs to breakfast. My mom is washing dishes when I sit down for breakfast. My older sister, Tiffany, comes sauntering down the stairs looking like a model as always. My mother thinks I need to gain a little weight so she is giving me these disgusting three seed granola bars with a ton of protein. When I finally manage to choke one down, I go back upstairs.
I put on my school uniform and put on my shoes. When I walk over to the bathroom, I trip over my own feet and fall on the floor!! “Ughh, the usual routine.” I mutter.
Ding! The door bell rings. Isaac is waiting for me as usual so we can walk to school together. I grab my backpack and walk out the door, slamming it behind me. “BYE MOM!” I yell. She yells something back, but I can’t decipher it. Isaac and I walk in silence down the main road to school. “So…...” Isaac starts, “How are you today?” “Fine how are you?” I mumble. “Good. Celestia, lately you seem to be really self-conscious around me. Did I do anything?” Isaac says. “No…..I can’t explain it but I almost feel shy around you…….” I say, my face turning beet red. “Well, looks like someone has their first crush!” Isaac says, smirking. This catches my attention. My head jerks upward and I give him a hard slug on the arm. “No I don’t!” I say, laughing. He starts laughing. “Yes I think you do,” he says, but I ignore it. We finally reach the school building and we walk in to the building together.
Our lockers are right next to each other so we both put our things up and take the books we need for our first class. Our schedules match exactly much to my ridicule the last couple of days.
Well I remember the day that I first started to like Isaac. We were working on our Science project for school. It was a Saturday, I think. Yes. He had gotten up to go get some glue and I thought, hey, he’s kind of cute. When he came back, I was embarrassed for thinking such things. I shrugged it off. But I keptliking him more and more. It was a strange feeling because I had been friends with him for twelve years. Why now?
Isaac led the way as we made our way to our English classroom, right after homeroom. I was too shy to say anything. When I sat down, a paper landed on my desk. I picked it up. It read:
Meet me by the apple orchard after school.

-Your Best (Guy) Friend For Life
Ughh. I couldn’t wait…..



Chapter Two; The Apple Orchard

Isaac

The school day dragged on and on like a slug on muddy ground. It was torture. I just wanted to get to the apple orchard after school to tell Celestia my secret. Lately I had been feeling very rested when I only had had two hours of sleep and talking so fast the person I had been talking to couldn’t understand my words. I had been very careful with Celestia because I didn’t want her to worry. My mom is WAAAY overprotective so she took me to the doctor and it turns out I am bipolar. It’s very mild, but the doctors expect it to get worse over time. I’m scared. From what I’ve heard about bipolar people, I could be really happy and then be depressed. This can’t happen to me. I won’t let it happen.
My last class was the most boring that it ever was. The clock seemed to be ticking extra slowly just to annoy me. The hands on the clock were clicking so slowly I wanted to scream at it. Ughh. It made me so mad.
Finally after 55 minutes of pure awfulness,
The bell rang. Thank goodness it was the last day of school because my mom thought I was going to a party until 11:00. Not what I intended to do. I jumped out of my seat and rushed toward the door. I found my locker and grabbed my things. I saw Celestia walking down the hall and our eyes locked for a second and then I hurried out the door. uI ran as fast as I could to the apple orchard and finally reached it. I sat down. While I waited for Celestia I thought about what she had told me this morning. How she had been feeling shy around me. I think she had a crush on me. Well that was surprising for me because I’m not much to look at. I’ve got black hair sort of long, I’m tall for my age; about 5’8, extremely thin, I’ve got very dark skin, and the only thing I like about myself is my eyes. I have startlingly green eyes. My mom calls them piercing, but I don’t think I’m a mean person. Just normal. Well, Celestia is pretty. She is tall for her age: about 5’5, has strange but beautiful violet eyes, very fair, pale skin, and long brown hair (about to her back) with natural streaks of dark blonde. She was very thin too. I really liked her the same way I think she liked me. I sighed. I should probably ask her to be my girlfriend, but I was nervous. I’d try when she got here.
“Isaac?” Celestia’s soft, musical voice interrupted my clouding thoughts. I looked up. Her violet eyes were building with concern. “Hey Celestia.” I said, looking up at her, a strange view for me. I was used to looking down at her since I was three inches taller than her! “Um, you might want to sit down. I don’t know.” I said, my voice sounding scared. She gently lowered herself to the ground and leaned against a nearby apple tree. “I have some bad news.” I said. She nodded her head and I braced myself for what I was about to say. “Celestia, lately I have been feeling very rested when I only have had two hours of sleep and talking so fast the person I had been talking to can’t understand my words. My mom got worried and took me to the doctor. Um….they found out I’m….bipolar.” I said looking away, my eyes filling with tears. Silence surrounded us. When my eyes were free of tears, I looked back at Celestia. She looked so sad it about broke my heart. Our eyes locked and I swallowed a building lump in my throat. There was nothing I could say. Nothing we could say. We stared up at the sky and let the silence wrap around us.



Chapter Three: Why?

Celestia

“Please, please can we pretend nothing is wrong?” Isaac asked. I nodded my head yes. I decided to call my mom and tell her I’d be with Isaac. I called her and she said I had to be home at 11:00. Well, I guess I would be with Isaac until I had to go home. It was growing darker so I checked my watch. It was 7:00 so I still had four hours until I had to go home. Wonderful. We decided to go out for pizza so we wouldn’t be hungry when we got home. We stood up and grabbed our things to go. He had always been taller than me but now he looked even bigger.
I grabbed my backpack and slung it across my back. Isaac picked up his and we walked in silence toward the road. “Listen, Isaac, if there’s anything I can do, please let me know.” I said. He nodded his head. We walked to the pizza parlor and walked in.
Isaac ordered us a large cheese pizza and two cokes. He had enough money to pay for it. I stared at the green and yellow tile on the table and plastered the image into my head. Isaac cleared his throat and I looked up. “If I ever get mad enough that I hurt you, get away from me as fast as you can.” he said. That scared me but I was confident enough he wouldn’t do that. “You would never do that to me,” I said softly, but those words sounded odd to my ears. “I will always stand beside you no mater what happens.” He looked angrily at me, “Are you sure about that?” he replied. I nodded my head yes but I wasn’t sure about my own decision. The drinks and pizza came soon afterwards and we both ate almost nothing. Isaac paid the bill and we gratefully walked out of there.
“Please can we pretend nothing is wrong?” Isaac asked. I said yes so we decided to go to the park and hang out. The park we picked was deserted when we got there. I sat down on a swing and scuffled my feet in the dirt below. Isaac sat on the slide and looked up at the moon. We sat there for a long time and just talked. Isaac finally cut the conversation short and decided to walk me home. When we reached the sidewalk of my house, Isaac turned me to face him. “Please don’t say anything to your parents, OK? I wasn’t supposed to tell you yet. My parents are going to talk to yours about a vacation tomorrow and then tell them.” He said. “Yes.” I replied. “Goodnight Celestia.” He said and then walked away. I opened the door, said goodnight to my parents, and then ran to my room and flung myself on to the bed.
Why did this have to happen to him? Why not me? Why? I would gratefully go through this instead of him. At least it was summer. Three months for me to spend time with him. I slipped out of my school clothes and pulled on my pink tank top and sleep shorts. I walked to my bathroom and brushed my teeth. I finally stopped and put my toothbrush up. After I shut the light off in the bathroom, I drug myself over to the window and opened my window up. The fresh breeze seemed to calm me down. I walked over to my bed and got under the covers. The news about Isaac seemed to finally sink in so I crumpled up in to a ball of sadness and cried my self to sleep. Why?






Chapter Four- The Vacation Invitation
Isaac

The next morning I woke up feeling very strange. MY head was all clouded and I felt very groggy. Maybe all of the two hour sleep nights were finally catching up with me. Ughh. My mom yelled for me to come downstairs so I pulled myself out of bed and thought about last night with Celestia. The park was nice, but I knew she was still worried about me. At least we would be going on vacation hopefully next week.
After I ate breakfast, my mom told me to get ready to go over to Celestia’s house. I yanked on a black t-shirt and my faded jeans. My shoes were downstairs so I ran down the stairs to get them. My mom and dad were waiting to get in the car, so I hurriedly yanked on my shoes and ran to the car.
The car ride over to her house gave me some time to think. The beach would be fun if we could go. The last time we went was really fun. When we pulled up in front of her house, my breath caught in my throat. I was worried about what her parents would say about me being bipolar. I didn’t want everyone to know, just my family and Celestia’s. I opened the car door and saw her curtain close suddenly. I chuckled to myself. That was Celestia. Waiting on me to get here.
Celstia’s mother, Mrs. Swanson, opened the door with a big smile. She wouldn’t be smiling after she heard about me. She invited us in and told me to go up to Celestia’s room if I wanted. I agreed and walked up the stairs. When I reached her room, her back was facing me. I walked up behind her and put my hands over her eyes. “Guess who?” I said, jokingly. “I give up” she said, playfully. I lifted my hands off her eyes and she turned around. She was wearing a pink summer dress and had her hair braided down her back. “Yeah, my parents are telling yours about my issue.” I said, fidgeting. She looked sad all over again. “They were also asking if you guys wanted to go to the beach again like we did last year.” “Ok cool. Do you want to go downstairs?” she asked. I agreed so we tiptoed down the stairs and walked into the living room. Celestia’s parent’s looked shocked and my mother was crying. My father was just sitting in a black chair staring at the floor. They all turned their eyes on me. I suddenly felt scared. “Isaac, sweetie, we’re so sorry.’ Mrs. Swanson said, shocked. I nodded my head.
In the end I found out that we were going to the beach in a week. I was glad about that. I would get to spend time with Celestia as her boyfriend and best friend. I guess that was very good, but I was still worried I would hurt her. I just couldn’t. That would hurt me just as much as it would hurt her. I would control myself.















Chapter Five- The Beach
Celestia

The day for the beach had finally come. I was very glad. Last time we had gone to the beach, it had been very fun. I had my suitcase packed and I was wearing a blue summer dress over my light green and blue bikini. My flip-flops were annoying me but I decided to keep them on because we would be at the beach in an hour. My sister Tiffany was at summer camp (THANK GOD!) so I had the whole backseat to myself! Isaac and his family were following us in their car right behind us.
My mom was singing along to some P!nk song on the radio and it was getting so annoying! I shoved my headphones on and turned the volume of my iPod up loud. My dad owned some little island on the coast of Maine so we had to take a small ferry to the island. It was deserted though, so we had it to ourselves!!
After the ferry had dropped us off on the island, we decided to unload our things and take it to the small cabins on the beach (we each had our own cabin. YEA!) After I was done unpacking, I decided to go to the beach. Isaac and my parent’s had decided to go to some gross fish restaurant, so Isaac and I were stuck here alone. I grabbed my beach towel, slathered on some sunscreen and headed out on the beach.
The salty air wrapped around me, welcoming me home. The faint cry of seagulls echoed in the distance. I slipped my dress off and adjusted my swimsuit. I pulled my flip-flops off and dove straight into the water, head first! When I came up for air, I heard laughing. I saw Isaac laughing in the distance. I gave him my best smirk. He yanked off his shirt and was wearing some swim trunks underneath. He ran from the edge of the cabin right into the cold water. This time it was me laughing at him. He splashed some water in my face, so we ended up having a water war. “Do you want to build a sandcastle like we used to?” he asked, suddenly. “Sure.” I agreed. I got out of the water and pulled my towel around me. He shook his hair like a dog just to make me laugh and I did. I got the sand ready, while he grabbed a bucket and got water from the ocean. When we finished the sand castle, it was a masterpiece. I laid my towel on the sand and stretched out. Isaac grabbed his towel and laid it right next to mine. We talked for a while and made another sandcastle.
A storm seemed to be forming so I grabbed my towel and walked inside. Isaac said he would be just a minute. I took a shower and put on some fresh clothes. When I finished, I looked out the window. Isaac was standing right next to the water. A giant lightning bolt cracked in the sky. I opened my door and screamed, “Isaac! MOVE!” He didn’t seem to hear me so I ran closer. The rain and hail was pelting down now. I got right next to him, “Isaac! Come inside!” I yelled and tugged on his arm. “LET GO OF ME!” Isaac roared. I shrunk back, but didn’t let go of his arm. “I SAID LET GO OF ME!” Isaac roared again his eyes piercing into mine. He yanked my hand off of his arm and threw me on the ground. I landed in some rocks and my head hit a sharp one. I could feel blood dripping out and my legs and arms hit something that felt like glass. I could feel cuts, blood, and sharp pain, but I couldn’t make it go away. Right before I gave in to the darkness and fierce pain, I saw the terror in Isaac’s eyes from what he had just done to me. A giant wave came on the beach and threw Isaac and me into something hard and sharp. I couldn’t breathe. Suddenly it was all darkness.





















Chapter Six- Hospital
Isaac

I woke up in a bright room with white walls. The last thing I remembered was Celestia on the ground, hurt, because of me. Then a giant wave had thrown us into my cabin. I couldn’t believe what I had done to my best friend. I felt terrible mentally and physically. “Celestia? Where’s Celestia?” I mumbled. “Sweetie? Isaac?” my mother said. I opened my eyes fully. I was in a hospital bed and my mom and dad were right next to my bed. “What happened to Celestia?” I demanded, sitting up quickly. Ouch. That hurt. “Well, she lost a lot of blood, she has a broken leg and a broken wrist and elbow, she has a lot of glass still in her other leg and she has a massive cut on her face, right over her right eye.” my mother said. I gasped, “And it’s all my fault,” I said, like I couldn’t even believe it myself. Suddenly a wheelchair rolled into my room. “Is Sleeping Beauty awake yet?” Celestia jokingly asked. I gasped. She looked utterly awful. My mother had tried to downplay it! Her casts were huge and bulky, she had an oxygen machine, and her cut over her eye was huge. She had a head bandage on also. I couldn’t bear the sight of my friend all hurt like that. I pulled my head away from the sight like a train wreck and stared at the sheet on the bed. “We’ll leave you two alone here.” My mother said, shutting the door of the room. Silence wrapped around us. “Isaac?” Celestia said, her musical voice tearing at my heart, “I’m not mad at you. I’m really not.” That caught my attention. “You should be. You should hate me forever.” I said, my voice dripping with anger, and fear. “I’m not.” She said, running her fingers along the length of her cast. That made me even angrier at myself. I couldn’t believe how hurt I had made her. She gently patted my hand and looked into my eyes. I leaned back on my bad and we talked. It felt good.
















Chapter Seven- Rehabilitation

Celestia

The hospital time was long…..and boring. I mean, have you ever been told you had to stay in the hospital for a month and been happy about it? I thought not. I was moved into Isaac’s room, to our enjoyment. He was still very upset about what he had done, but he was recovering mentally and physically. The hospital had put him on bipolar pills to try and help him. The only issue about them was that they made him sleep during the day, and be awake at night. I had stayed up with him one night so now our internal clocks were in proportion with each other. We never got in trouble for staying up late because the hospital knew about the pills.
Our parents had decided to leave us at the hospital and were staying at the beach houses. They came back for weekly visits, though. Isaac was only supposed to stay in the hospital for two weeks but he begged and pleaded with the doctors so much, they decided to let him stay until I got out of the hospital.
I really hated it. I couldn’t get up, no walks except I could be wheeled around the hospital lobby on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. I felt trapped, a young bird trapped in a cage. No freedom. It really sucked, if you already couldn’t catch my drift!
I did have some good times in the hospital, even though it really was boring. One of the fun things Isaac and I liked to do was sing. LOUDLY and off key (he was! NOT me!!) and then the nurses would come in and shush us. It was really fun!
I woke up one day to find Isaac’s bed empty, and made up. I sat up and looked up. Where was the clock? I glanced at it, and found that it was 2:30 in the afternoon. About the time I would normally wake up. But where was Isaac? I rang my bell to signal the nurse. She came in; about three minutes after I had rang the bell, looking alarmed. “Sweetie, what’s wrong?” she said, looking concerned. “Um, where is Isaac?” I said, curiosity filling my voice. She looked confused. “I don’t seem to know.” She said, “I’ll go ask.” She hurried off and I concentrated on brushing my hair, with my left arm. Really difficult for me, because I had a cast on the other arm. I waited about ten minutes and then a blond male doctor came in. I recognized him as the doctor who had fixed me up when I first came to the hospital after the storm. “Hi Celestia. How are you?” he said, obviously stalling. “I’m fine.” I said, “But where’s Isaac?” He fidgeted and picked at his finger. I waited, patiently, but inside I was kind of angry. Did they think I was too immature to handle the truth? He took a deep breath, “Sweetie, Celestia, we came in last night to check on you guys, and we found Isaac trying to strangle himself. We had to take him to the rehabilitation ward because we didn’t want him putting you in danger. We’re going to have to run some tests on him this morning because obviously the pills aren’t working, and we think he did some serious damage to his brain, from not enough blood. I’m sorry.” He said, concluding his explanation. I took in a sharp breath, “I want to see him, to tell him everything is ok.” I said, bracing myself for a fight. His answer sure surprised me. “That won’t be a problem, little missy. He’s been waiting for hours for you to get up.” The doctor said, smiling.
I was happy they would let me see him. Inside, though, I was very sad. He tried to kill himself, even though we were best friends, and he obviously didn’t care enough about me to try and handle his disability. I was a little crushed, even though I knew it wasn’t his fault. It was selfish, but I couldn’t help myself.
The nurse who had come first talked to me that morning wheeled me to the rehab ward. I braced myself for what I was afraid was going to happen.
When we got there, she had to check
and make sure it was okay if we went in. The lady at the desk said it was okay, and gave me a cheery smile. I didn’t return it. The grey walls of the hospital seemed to be even gloomier when we tried to find his room. My head started to hurt, but I ignored it because I wanted to see him so much. When we finally found the room, “Nice Nurse Lady” knocked on the door and we went in. There were lots of wires and machinery all crowded in the room and it was really stuffy. Isaac was lying on the bed and was staring up the ceiling. The nurse left the room and told us that we could ring the bell if we needed anything. I nodded my head, and thanked her. “Isaac?” I said, trying to be cheerful. He looked over at me, but didn’t say anything. “Isaac. I don’t care if just a couple hours ago you tried to kill yourself. I mean-I do, but I’m not upset that you tried. You have a disability that you will get over hopefully, but….” I said, tears filling my eyes. I looked over at him and was surprised to find him crying, tears spilling out onto his cheeks. “Cele-“ he tried to say, but got choked up. “Cele-, Celestia, I’m so sorry.” Isaac said, crying, “I don’t know why I did it, I just felt like I had to. The thing is, it was like heaven at first, but then I looked over at you and it was instantly hell. I am so glad the doctors came in at that moment and stopped me because otherwise I would be dead at this point. I’m so sorry.” He said, sobbing. I pushed my wheelchair over to the side of the hospital bed and pushed the rail down and pulled myself, with one arm, up on to the bed. I hugged him and he collapsed in my arms, crying. A doctor came in at that point and I glared at him. “Please leave, NOW.” I said, fiercely. He looked surprised and then instantly shut the door. I turned my attention back to Isaac and just let him cry.
After we had been there about ten
minutes, he stopped. “I want to show you something.” He said, pulling down the hospital gown a little bit. A blue and black line was indented into his neck. It was the imprint from him trying to strangle himself. I gasped and my hand flew to my mouth. I instantly pulled it down and pretended not to notice anything. He looked ashamed and I immediately felt bad for reacting like that. “It’s ok, it will fade.” I said, trying to be helpful. “No it won’t. Maybe the line will, but the painful memory will always be there.” Isaac said, glaring at me. I felt awful. I tried to be helpful, but ended up making everything worse.
He calmed down a little later and then we talked about home. School, summer jobs, and camp seemed to be a lifetime away. The summer wasn’t over. We could make the best of it when we left.