Used To | Teen Ink

Used To MAG

July 1, 2010
By KateKale BRONZE, Farmington, New York
KateKale BRONZE, Farmington, New York
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Of course it's happening in your head, Harry, but why on earth does that mean it's not real?" -Albus Dumbledore <3


“It feels wrong, being back here,” Jeremy remarks, his tone casual, as though we are strangers on a subway car, discussing the weather. “You know, after everything.”

I nod, even though I know he's not looking, letting the breeze carry my agreement away. In all honesty, what I have to say to him about us doesn't matter. Hasn't mattered for the past five months, not since the last time we were here.

I slant my eyes toward Jeremy, categorize his appearance. Torn jeans and a faded Stanford sweatshirt, the embroidered letters frayed around the edges, washed-out, just like his college career. Almost like he knows what I'm thinking, his arms cross across his thin chest, unconsciously protective. Looking away from him makes the bittersweet ache behind my ribs just a little less painful.

Shaking from a combination of nerves and the cold, I step toward the hand-constructed 7-by-8-foot cabin before us. The sharp lines of its childish architecture and wide, staring windows are all the same, the gray paint has not changed, not even by a shade. But the place feels different, cold, as though the owners have gone on a permanent vacation.

Despite his words and probably against his better judgment, Jeremy ambles toward the cabin's porch, legs awkward and weak like a toddler learning its first steps. The shaking in his hands, the tightness of his jaw – every inch of him screams for me to go to him, take that trembling hand in mine, hold him close and whisper quiet nothings meant to soothe.

I don't move, don't say anything, don't offer assistance as Jeremy struggles to get the key in the padlock. Finally, there is a twist of his hand, the awkward grating of metal, fingers slipping ever-so-slightly. And then the shining metal chain falls into his hands, the place unlocks, opens, and the door squeaks as he pushes. Just like it used to.

“Ladies first,” he says, feigning gallantry and forcing a smile as he gestures for me to proceed. I don't buy the act. I know this, know him, know that the look in his eyes means he's scared to go first, afraid of what we'll find. If, indeed, we find anything.

My feet move without my conscious instruction, a puppet tied to strings. The door is five steps away, three steps, one. Crossing the threshold is easy. It's what's on the other side that's hard.

So hard. Because I remember.

This house is a monument to our relationship, a microcosm of every good thing we had – friendship, love, lust, all those summers spent burning the midnight oil and talking ourselves to death. We were a work of art, he and I, all complementary colors and harsh brushstrokes, I with my icy calm and Jeremy with his firecracker backtalk. We had it all – mutual respect, kinship, history. Our stories tangled for as far back as I could remember. I know him like I know the hours of the day, like the turning of the seasons; after so long, he's become predictable.

Like now. I hear him behind me. Three steps across the grass outside, two more past the threshold. Cue soft sigh – now, an uncomfortable shuffle of his feet, the clearing of his throat.

I know this cabin like I know him. Hardly needing to look, I know, know the sturdy wood floor, sandpapered smooth by our footsteps, constant moving-in and moving-out and rearranging furniture. The broken chair in the corner, indestructible when we were young, weakening every year until it finally buckled under the weight of his newfound teenage muscle and long limbs. Like Goldilocks and the three bears, nothing is ever just right anymore.

I turn around, sweeping the cramped space with my eyes. Posters of long-forgotten bands plaster the walls, and a time-frozen Tiger Woods stares down from next to the window. The fireplace is full of cold gray ashes and half-burned paper hearts, leftover from our Anti-Valentine's Day celebration. Half a chess set, a lonely white queen surrounded by enemy pawns. One of Jeremy's old sweatshirts, the one from that night, the night that changed everything. I glaze over the last item, afraid of the memories it brings dangerously close to the forefront of my mind.

Every inch of the place breathes him, is layered with the smell of his hair and ivory soap, and I inhale, closing my eyes, reaching for the fuzzy edges of that younger Jeremy, the innocent one who taught me to play chess on this same floor. But the memory slips away like water through cupped hands, and I look at him, real-life, solid Jeremy, standing across the room in a square of light cast through the window.

“This was our first kiss,” he mutters, a bitter edge leaking into his voice like acid. “Right here. I was 14, just a kid, and you were so … pretty.” his voice breaks, and he cuts himself off, looking down. I watch him while he's not looking, let my eyes trace the furrowed lines of his forehead, the darkness under his eyes that speaks of little sleep and lots of worry.

The past months have been hell
for me. But in all my self-pitying ­diatribes and crying fits, did I ever once stop to think about him? Jeremy, by my side, holding my hand while we sat together on white-papered hospital cots, strong and stoic and so very serious for the first time in his life. The light in his eyes had shattered at the first solid evidence that this was real – heartbeat monitors throbbing to the pulse of something small and vulnerable, something that should have made us ecstatic, on top of the world. But timing is everything, and ours is all wrong. I feel like we're running a marathon and trying to step backwards, reverse-ordering our relationship like inexperienced fools.

I look up at the four letters spray-painted on the ceiling two years ago, when being young was our A-card rather than a burden. Love, the plywood ceiling reads, clumsily written in all capitals, bleeding red paint like an open wound. Internal scoff, look away and down, try to hide the tears in my eyes. We were just kids; we are still just kids. What did he know – what did I know – about love? About anything?

“Jeremy?” My voice fades like thunder under high-pressure clouds, smothered by the tension in the room until his name sounds tenuous on my lips, like this could be the last time I say it. Here, on the very same floor where we built and destroyed bridges between our teenage hearts.

“Yeah?”

“I-I don't regret it,” I stutter, tongue-tied, nervous, and pathetic. I want to say so much more: It isn't your fault. We can get through this, together. I'm terrified, so please just hold me, like you used to.

But the words don't come, sticking inside my chest like unfinished letters to a former lover, and Jeremy doesn't speak, eyes still on the floor, black hair hanging limply in his face. His expression is blank, unreadable, and the silence speaks more than every word he's ever said to me.

“Jeremy?”

He looks up, and in a half a moment, a heartbeat, I realize how different this Jeremy is from the shy boy who kissed me so nervously that first time. The spark in those green eyes is gone; the fire in his expression has burnt itself out. The 17 minutes it took me to tell him he was going to be a father stole the last years of his innocence, of his youth. I remember the look on his face, terrified and blinded by some glaring light, like a three-day-old kitten who's just opened his eyes, just seen the world for the first time.

And now all that's left behind in those empty eyes is a desolate sort of resignation, the grim realization that this is all there will be for me and him. Just ourselves, each other, tied together by an invisible thread of duty and obligation. The children who learned to love in this cabin are gone, ghosts swept under our aged feet like dust under a rug. Out of sight, out of mind.

“I love you. I always have,” I say, half to convince him, half to convince myself. The assurance is empty, falling flat on our deaf ears, the concept as foreign as explaining physics 10 years after one has studied it.

“I love you, too,” Jeremy mutters, like it's shameful. Maybe it is.

Later, we trudge back to his parents' house, through the woods and across a field of shin-high grass that clings to our legs like Saran Wrap. Months ago, we would have held hands. Now our arms hang limp at our sides like plants that someone has forgotten to water.

“Not what it used to be, huh?” Jeremy asks with a half-hearted smile and a thumb hooked over his shoulder, in the general direction of what was once everything to me, to both of us. His 18-year-old shoulders hunch like an old man's against the unseasonably cool summer air.

“No.” I wrap my arms around my convex stomach, imagining that I can feel that second heartbeat. “We're not what we used to be.”


The author's comments:
Please reveiw - constructive critisism is very much appreciated!

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This article has 32 comments.


on Apr. 4 2016 at 4:31 pm
Aaliyah02 SILVER, Pflugervile, Texas
6 articles 0 photos 33 comments

Favorite Quote:
" If you can dream it, you can do it"

Okay so they are expecting a baby? I am wondering why they aren't all happy? So whats up with them I have to find out. I really like the story it seemed almost real, like I could feel it! Really wonderful job! Keep writing I am wondering what happens when they leave to go to his parents house, do their parents know about the baby?

on Nov. 9 2012 at 8:52 pm
MakingLemonade BRONZE, Murrieta, California
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
Everything in this room is eatable, even *I'm* eatable! But that is called "cannibalism," my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.

Amazing Work. I love the plot line and how you show the characters emotions.

Ray445 BRONZE said...
on Oct. 24 2012 at 12:43 pm
Ray445 BRONZE, Havre, Montana
3 articles 2 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
You were the lighting in that rain. You can still shine in the darkness- Snake-MGS 4, GOP

What i had orginaly thought was happening was moving away from each other. Then she said she doesn't regret it. that ruled that out. then by the end, i realized that a pregnancy worked. This was good. It held me to it and threatened to never let me go.

Carter13 said...
on Oct. 7 2012 at 11:15 pm
Carter13, Eager, Arizona
0 articles 0 photos 5 comments
I really really love this story. It has such a unique plot compared to so many of the other "romance" stories. This is a topic that too many of us teens can relate to and it addresses the fears and feelings of growing up too soon, and consequetly losing something that could have been yours. Disappointment, confusion, anger, fear, and hope are all included in such a beautiful way. Really, just an outstanding piece.  

on Aug. 6 2012 at 9:54 pm
writer3499 GOLD, New Bedford, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 196 comments

Favorite Quote:
"it's impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all-in which case you fail by default."
-J.K.Rowling

I think this amazing!! Such a great story line and I bet alot of people can relate to this.  Great job..would you mind commenting on some of my work?

on Aug. 6 2012 at 9:54 pm
writer3499 GOLD, New Bedford, Massachusetts
11 articles 0 photos 196 comments

Favorite Quote:
"it's impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all-in which case you fail by default."
-J.K.Rowling

I think this amazing!! Such a great story line and I bet alot of people can relate to this.  Great job..would you mind commenting on some of my work?

on Feb. 8 2012 at 12:54 pm
GingerLily BRONZE, Aulnay-sur-Mauldre, Other
3 articles 6 photos 78 comments

Favorite Quote:
"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world" - Oscar Wilde

This was amazing! I did not expect that ending, and had to read it again to make sure I understood it. You presented it really well.

on Jan. 21 2012 at 8:57 am
ginger1993 GOLD, Colorado Springs, Colorado
11 articles 0 photos 27 comments
Wow the ending really surprised me! great story!!!

on Jan. 18 2012 at 10:26 pm
Calligraphic SILVER, Shavano Park, Texas
5 articles 4 photos 23 comments

Favorite Quote:
"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight." -Phyllis Diller

I was so suprised, I was expecting a disease... a fatal wound... a death... you know.. something menacing from the hospital I totally did not expect the ending. I really liked reading this piece!

on Dec. 11 2011 at 11:37 am
whateverjuliet BRONZE, Miami, Florida
3 articles 3 photos 89 comments

Favorite Quote:
true love never dies,it only gets stronger with time.

so beautiful :)

on Dec. 10 2011 at 2:28 pm
UnwantedNinja GOLD, Pretoria, Other
17 articles 0 photos 70 comments

Favorite Quote:
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney

Makes me want to cry.

Sooooo Beautiful :)


ps13795 SILVER said...
on Dec. 1 2011 at 12:59 am
ps13795 SILVER, Baguio, Other
9 articles 5 photos 43 comments
Good job on this one. It's awesome! I was hanging on to every word. Very nicely written. Keep up the good work! :)

on Nov. 11 2011 at 4:15 pm
SweetTart BRONZE, Monclova, Ohio
4 articles 0 photos 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
~Robert Frost

ahhhh this is so amazing and well writen and played out. iiiiiiii loved it!!!!! Keep writing!!!!!

on Oct. 12 2011 at 10:24 pm
StarryRoss GOLD, Albuquerque, New Mexico
19 articles 0 photos 30 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Writing is the socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." -E.L. Doctorow

I agree in that i thought it was kind of leading to them being old or moving away, and i was about to ask how old they were, not saying the surprise part was bad and that it should be predictable but yeah. I really loved all your similes and metaphors, they weren't cliche at all, it colored the story and made it refreshing. I really liked your voice too. Also only other minor detail, in the very very beginning, you kind of painted the picture that she was needing Jeremy's attention and he was this distant, solid figure. Then all of a sudden, she has to comfort poor Jeremy who's trembling to go in, i guess as a reader that threw me i thought you had set him up with a different personality type i just didn't know from the past couple details, he'd respond like that, but that's just my opinion, it was really good!

on Oct. 10 2011 at 7:58 pm
austenite77 GOLD, Appleton, Wisconsin
13 articles 0 photos 58 comments

Favorite Quote:
Die my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do

Truly Lovely!

on Sep. 15 2011 at 7:40 am
tianna-alexa BRONZE, Minden, Nevada
4 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.
— Eugene Ionesco

As well as pretty much everything that comes out of John Green's mouth.

I hate when I use the wrong type of "Your," and catch it after I publish it. xD

on Sep. 13 2011 at 10:32 pm
tianna-alexa BRONZE, Minden, Nevada
4 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.
— Eugene Ionesco

As well as pretty much everything that comes out of John Green's mouth.

This was beautiful. I stared at the page for five minutes, trying to collect my thoughts and form something to say, one word that captured all of my emotions and opinions, and that's the best I could come up with: Beautiful.

In a way, it is. The way you describe the characters - fictional, yes, but real, like I could almost hear the blood coursing through their bodies - was beautiful. You're diction, perfect, always choosing the right words and placing them so eloquently, one after another, like a river's effortless flow. The dialouge. The setting. The structure. The feelings. Beautiful. And, perhaps most of all, the build up: mysterious and intense, so much so that it kept me glued to the page and unwilling to get my pizza out of the microwave until I devoured the very. last. word. And believe me, not many things can seperate me from pizza. (But not to go off on a tangent!)

Yes, this was beautiful. But it was so much more. It touched my heart and filled me with emotion and love and pain for the two characters.

And this was when I knew that your story was more than beautiful, but a symbol of hope. That, despite all the simple-minded teenagers whose primary language is most definitely speak chat, and whose main concern is Facebook and IMing and a vocabulary limited to "awesome," and "omg," there are some extroadinarily talented teenagers out there as well.

Keep on writing, my friend. Keep on writing. And when you publish a book, and be the next big author of the century, I won't be in the least bit surprised.

- Tianna


on Sep. 13 2011 at 11:09 am
tinejohnson SILVER, Eagle Mountain, Utah
5 articles 0 photos 29 comments

Favorite Quote:
I am awesome and everyone knows it. If you dont know it than you are not worth my time.

I thought this was brilliant. I loved the way that everything led up to the end, the way that you could almost guess what was happening, but it was a mystery enough that you couldnt tell for sure. Very well done. :)

on Aug. 13 2011 at 11:30 pm
lunalovegood32, Silver Spring, Maryland
0 articles 1 photo 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has- margaret mead

i really liked it but i was kinda confused and didnt really inderstand wat was happening till the end

on Jun. 24 2011 at 6:47 pm
singingwriter14 BRONZE, Chester, New York
2 articles 0 photos 42 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Some days you're the statue. Some days you're the pigeon."

Wow. This is absolutely amazing. So real. So powerful. So tragic. I love it! :-)