Wings

Atlanta again

"We should go, we really shouldn't linger here." I tugged on Franny's arm and started walking. But she was firmly planted on the pavement. "I'm not moving. I'm staying... To confront my fears." I laughed, trying to wipe the fear away. "N-no, this isn't about fear, it's dangerous here. And if you're here on your own... Your like... A proper target for foul-play. Come on, we're going." She looked at me and my, if looks could kill. "No we are not, that back at the station. That was cute, but this will help me." I sighed, there's no way I could shift her. "Fine, just let me take you somewhere that might even scare you." She looked at me trustingly. "Okay," I smiled and took her hand. We walked in through the gate we had gone through before, a couple of months back, the one with a raggedy sign. Except this time there was a new sign, still with slight mispellings it read 'you may not entry, residence only' it must have been typed up by Mrs Croft, the landlady, a fat lady, always walking around with a cigarette in her mouth, she had a baby, but it never seemed happy. She never went to school and therefore any building notices were mispelt, I knew because I practically lived in this building... It was my second home. We walked around the back of the high rise flats and up one of the fire exits. It was a set of very rusty green metal stairs. "No way." Franny said. "You can't make me. That is a proper safety hazard, it's not even funny." I stepped up onto the first step and held out my hand. "No. Nu-uh I refuse okay." I sighed. And stepped down onto the floor again. "Well I'm not leaving you out on your own." I pleaded. "Please, it's safe I've been up there at least thirty times last year. It's safe. Trust me." I stepped back up onto the step again and re-held out my hand. This time she took it and stepped up. Then we climbed another and eventually she let go of my hand. We got to about the middle step when I said "see? This is safe and easy." That's where I was wrong, as soon as I said that, she slipped, one of the stairs had fallen through and she was dangling through the gap. She screamed "pull me up!! Willy pull me up!!" I was panicking slightly, I had sort of lied to her about it being safe... Had I? I bent down over her. "I can't pull you up, I'm not strong, just stay calm. You'll have to drop, it's the only thing you can do, it's not too far, just remember what I told you before in the carpark." The fear disappeared off of her face and it turned into confusion "You have a surprise for me?" I giggled... Like a little girl. "No. You can't fly unless you let yourself fall." She smiled. Took a deep breath and dropped. She landed on her knees and had scuffed her hands, but nothing too major. "Remember what I said. What a load of chiz." She smiled at me, but not like her normal smile, she suddenly looked full of meaning, her eyes sparkled and connected with mine. I jumped down the gap she had fallen through and helped her up. "Someday," I said slowly, not letting go of her hand but squeezing it tight, "you'll understand the true meaning of it." She stood upright now and looked me in the eyes. "Where did that lead to anyway?" I pointed to the roof, I used to sit up there, and get away. The others would sometimes come up too. She smiled, she obviously liked the look of it. "Want to come back to mine?" I asked, politely, I needed the toilet, and I was hungry, but she was obviously okay due to her response. "Naw, I have a better idea... Let's do something fun before it gets to dark." It was  2:00 and we'd been together since 9:00 this morning, but we weren't funned out that easily. "Like what?" I enquired, suddenly I was seeming like the afraid one. "Nothing dangerous okay?" She shook her head. "Nope, I have something in mind." We did everything that afternoon, we started rolling down hills and running through shopping centers and going all about town. Nothing dangerous, we were just friends, having fun. That's all I needed to be happy, I forgot everything, I forgot about Trick and Bryce and Paddy and Atlanta, it was fun. And even when it started to rain, we carried on running, and we never stopped, not once. The one thing that saddened me is that although we were practically best friends, she still couldn't trust me... She couldn't trust anybody. Not since her Dad left, love had broken her. She had made up her mind that she'd never fall in love.