End Of Innocence - Chapter 3
"Jeff," Chase said softly as she tried to get his attention. After an hour of searching she had finally found him alone on the roof of the hotel. He was standing so close to the edge of the roof, staring out into the cityscape. "Jeff," she said again a little louder. "Jeff, let's go inside, we can talk or I can leave you alone, but let's just go inside."
He stood motionless with his back turned to her. She started to walk towards him slowly, stopping only a few inches behind him. She could smell his cologne mixed with the faint smell of alcohol. Not knowing what to do, Chase continued to stand behind him quietly, hoping that he would acknowledge her presence.
"Growing up, Matt used to talk about wrestling and becoming the WWF champion. Now that will never happen," Jeff said, finally speaking after what seemed like forever to Chase. "He used to talk about getting married and having children, that will never happen now. Shane was finally getting the push he deserved, now that's over. They're gone Chase and so is Sarah. What is left for me?"
Chase didn't know what to say. She couldn't even begin to understand how he must feel. Sure she had lost her best friend Trish when the plane crashed and she was close to most of the others on the flight, but known of them were as close to her as Jeff had been to Matt and Sarah. She couldn't imagine what she would do if Andrew had been on that flight.
"I hadn't seen Sarah in two months," Jeff said, once again breaking the silence. "The last time we saw each other we fought the entire weekend. We fought each time we talked on the phone since then. We were supposed to get together next week when Matt and I went home for dad's birthday. I was going to break up with her because it didn't seem like things were working out. Then here she was coming here with Matt to surprise me and now she's dead. I will never know exactly why she was coming here, all I'll know is how much I wanted to break up with her as she was dying. I don't know what's going on, I've lost everyone."
"I'm here Jeff, I'll always be here," Chase said as she reached over and wrapped her arms around her friend in hopes of comforting him even a little bit. As he started to cry again, tears welled up in her already puffy, red eyes. Together, they fell to the ground holding each other and crying. Letting every ounce of pain filter out of their bodies with each gut-wrenching sob.
Hours later as the sun began to rise, Chase looked at Jeff, who had sometime in the midst of all the crying, fallen asleep in her arms. Brushing his rainbow colored hair away from his face, she noticed how peaceful he looked while he was sleeping. The only mark from the night's horrible news was the frown he wore on his lips. Chase wished she could wipe away all the pain her friend was feeling, he didn't deserve any of this, none of them did.