THE BIG FISH
Madison Henley
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER ONE
Meredith was pulled out of her dark sleep when her phone buzzed. She hit snooze before rolling over to find her roommate, Keliah sleeping, her back facing her in bed, knees cradled to chest and hands in a prayer position. Meredith's eyes looked out the window at the morning sky before fluttering her eyes back shut. The second time she woke up, she was startled. Her phone was right beside her pillow and blasted the alarm right in her eardrum. Her eyes flickered to Keliah who had been undisturbed by the sound. She closed her eyes, trying to remember why Keliah ended up sleeping in her room when she remembered they stayed up the night before watching movies and Keliah got too lazy to walk ten feet to her room. Meredith knew they were running late but didn’t want to disturb the young forward. Instead of kneeing Keliah in the back, she simply stepped in places of the bed where Keliah's body parts weren't laying and padded her bare feet for the bathroom to take a shower.
Cold beads of water slid down Meredith’s body and she arched her back adjusting to the temperature. She rested her forehead against the tile shower. The water caused goosebumps to appear all throughout her body. Meredith liked the cold; it mirrored how she felt inside. She just stood there, forehead pressing up against the wall, eyes squinted shut as she concentrated hard and told herself not to think about. You were doing so well. You’re strong. Meredith bit her lip hard enough to draw blood letting a groan of frustration escape her lips. Usually she could fight off the urge to cry but after yesterday, it was back to ground zero. She lazily turned the nob of the shower and stepped out, wrapping herself in a white clean towel. She stared at herself in the mirror and chuckled. It was hard not to feel sorry for herself. But no, Meredith was strong. She put the thought in the back of her head like she did daily and continued on with her life as if her heart wasn’t shattered. She put on her homeless gear of an olive men's pocket tee and black shorts and brushed her teeth before unlocking the bathroom door and walking back into her bedroom. It all looked the same. Keliah’s sleeping position had changed but that was about it. She opened the blinds, letting the bright sun scan Keliah’s freckled face.
“Rise and shine!”
Keliah flickered her eyes, adjusting to the brightness before opening them completely.
“Ew. Sun. Must. Go. Back. To. Darkness.”
Keliah pulled the comforter over her head and tossed around in her bed.
“Keli, wake up. We have class to go to.”
“Your point?”
Keliah muffled through the covers.
"You're failing French."
Keliah furrowed her brows in her pillow.
"Dix minutes de plus s'il vous plait. I am at the top of my class."
Meredith grabbed her long board from underneath her raised bed while shaking her head.
"Your toaster strudels are on your desk. They suck when they are cold and those were the last two."
***
Meredith ended up leaving Keliah to her warm bed and cold strudels, walking to class alone. She tapped her pencil, drawing mindless drawings in her notes, completely tuning out her professor’s lesson. She couldn’t think straight right now. Or she couldn't think gay for that matter either. Seeing Gabrielle on television yesterday was nerve racking. She nearly went into cardiac arrest in the lounge room when she saw her face. She hadn’t seen her in so long, she was starting to forget the very own features of her face. Her blinding smile, piercing blue eyes, the way her eyebrows told every emotion she was trying to hide. She clenched her jaw, her face wincing, trying her best not to think about it but she just couldn’t. The caption on the television alone made her want to jump off a cliff. Gabrielle Bright returns to the United States. It had been two years. Two years, one month, eleven days and—Meredith checked her watch—nine hours since Gabrielle moved across the country to go play professional soccer. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that her girlfriend, the woman who once said she would never leave her side, had left her. Meredith couldn’t talk to anyone. Not her friends, not her family. No one knew how badly she struggled with her identity. No one but God and God had betrayed her. God took the only thing precious in her life away from her without reason. She didn’t know who to blame and she sure as hell wasn’t going to blame herself so she blamed God; for her aching heart, her excruciating headache after crying too hard, her lost in all her faith. She didn’t understand why He had done this to her. She didn’t deserve any of this. She prayed and prayed for Him to send her some answers as to why this had happened. But nothing. She prayed for Gabrielle to come home and for her doorbell to ring and it
