this way and that by the careless winds.
A cruel chill crept viciously over Jen’s skin and bit at her exposed face terribly.
The clouds above had initially trapped some of the heat of the day, but in the occasionally lashing winds they parted obediently here and there.
That was a mixed blessing however, for even though they allowed the odd slither of light through, at the same time they let all of that encased heat escape up and out into the vast universe, racing out towards the ocean of stars that swam endlessly around the crescent moon.
For a second even the kind moon bathed Jen in its glowing light as she sat atop the roof gazing out at the shimmering ocean, no longer grey or black, but glistening white in the rich moonlight.
However, even as she looked out over the gorgeous view laid down before her, Jen still sat shoulder deep in gloomy thought, wrapped in melancholy so bottomless that it clutched her awfully tightly to its breast.
She glanced across at her sister sat beside her for a moment, and Clare positively glowed in the moonlight, her face radiant and her eyes untouched.
She had always been the prettier of the two of them, and now, at the very least in Jen's eyes, that was truer than ever.
“Jenny…” Clare breathed then, breaking the doomed silence that had fallen over them.
The clouds sealed together again and cast the two sisters into darkness once more.
“Is it going to be like this forever…?” She asked her younger sister, tears welling in her perfect eyes.
Somehow Jen heard Clare’s words perfectly, even over the sound of the music buried in her ears.
She sighed and pulled her earphones out, knowing she could not escape this.
Someone else looking in might not have known exactly what Clare meant by that, but Jen knew different.
She knew exactly what her sister meant.
Put simply, Clare was asking Jen if she would be miserable for the rest of her life.
But whether Jen wanted to admit that or not, was an entirely different matter.
She took a very deep breath, biting the bullet, but not knowing where this would lead.
“I can’t see the end…” She eventually replied, and that was perhaps the most honest statement she had uttered for months.
Clare was the only person she didn’t have to hide from.
She couldn’t even if she tried.
Her sister saw right into her very heart.
It was so hard to be as honest with other people as she was with Clare.
“That makes me sad, Jenny…” Clare replied honestly.
Jen sighed, but didn’t speak. She only turned up the music on her Walkman and put her earphones back in, desperate to drown out the truth.
“You really ought to tell mom, you know…” Clare said then, her voice carrying a reproachful tone once again, and Jen glanced nervously over to her at her words.
“No…” Her younger sister replied quickly. “I can’t…”
“You promised her.” Clare pointed out, and quite rightly so. “You promised you’d tell Mandy too. You can’t keep lying to them…”
“Please don’t tell them!” Jen almost begged her sister then, her voice pleading and desperate and stricken.
Clare pursed her lips and exhaled deeply, her glistening eyes sorrowful.
“You know I can’t tell them…”
And on those final, grief-stricken words, Jen did not reply, and turned instead