Laughter

• Elizabeth Clark, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2013

When I was in Year 8, two of my best friends were twins. Jayden and Brooke. They were practically inseparable. It didn't bother me because unlike my siblings and I, they never fought, they had different opinions but always respected each other.

Then out of the blue in the middle of Year 10, Jayden got sick, really sick and everybody knew that he wasn't going to live for much longer. Brooke became closed off and refused to speak to anyone. Slowly Jayden got worse, until one day, he fell asleep and never woke up. Brooke still came to school the next day, I'll never understand why she did that, but she was no longer the bubbly girl we used to know. A piece of her had been torn away. And nobody could replace that.

She was put under special watch but she never did anything. She just continually stayed quiet, her grades didn't even slip but she grew apart from her friends until we gave up trying to talk to her.

In Year 12, a few weeks before graduation, somebody cracked a joke and as we all laughed, an unfamiliar sound joined in. A clear, beautiful sound. A laugh that hadn't been used in years. Brooke's laugh.

She came up to me after that lesson and held my hand in hers, she never spoke to me again after this but I'll always remember what she said, "Y'know it feels good to laugh, it's good to feel something."

I'll never forget those words. Brooke graduated at the top of our class and at her university.

I don't know what she's doing now, but I'll always remember those words, they stick out vividly in my mine, a reminder of the boy that never got to live his life.

"It's good to feel something."