Heal Me

Chapter 2

The boy or man -she could not tell- was simply standing there, under an old oak which had almost lost all its leaves. Sitting on a wooden bench, he was leaning forwards, his elbows pressing on his parted thighs, two strong hands lost in his dark, wet hair, resting on each side of his head. The freezing rain hit him mercilessly, yet he seemed to be feeling nothing, as this mysterious bloke didn't move an inch.

"What the-..." she whispered to herself, amazed by how he could endure the coldness.  But for the little clouds of steam that came out of his open mouth, she could have believed he wasn't even breathing.

Although she could not see so well because of the distance and the very light fog around her, his clothes seemed more than just damp. The white t-shirt, the thick deep blue jacket and the black jeans clung onto him as a second skin, hugging all the muscles of his body.

He suddenly rubbed his face with one palm and exhaled, his breath hot in the October air. She noticed how he moved his arms on each of his sides and straightened his back, looking up to the sky. He stood like that for a few moments, the heavy rain washing over him and, as she was completely and utterly puzzled by his behavior, she didn't even feel how the same thing was happening to her.

When he got up and turned to leave, she realized she was late for her exam, so she quickly began running away from the park, her lungs burning as her breathing got heavier by the minute.

When she dashed into the warm, crowded school, she ignored all the strange looks that the others were giving her and hurried to the English class. Sitting at her desk, she calmed herself down and inhaled deeply as the teacher passed her the blank sheet of paper she had to write her answers on.

"I thought that we should try a different approach. So this will be simple: write something sad." he stated loudly. Her head snapped up at him, confusion clear in her eyes. His decision seemed to have been taken on the spur of the moment and it was strange of him to do such a thing. But he simply laughed lightly at their surprised faces and sat in his chair, sipping some hot coffee.

She gulped, nervously twirling the pen around her fingers. What could she write? The world was beautiful to her; people simply didn't know how to live it, how to enjoy the good times and learn from the painful ones. Because she believed that no matter what road one takes, sadness leads to joy and that no matter how dark the night might seem, the dawn would come in the end.

She scribbled some nonsense for almost ten minutes as she could not concentrate. The scene with that man in the park replayed in her head like a broken movie, its speed increasing and decreasing unexpectedly, flashing, stopping and replaying all over again. She could not stop it, no matter how hard she tried to think of something else and focus on her paper. All she could see with the eyes of her mind was how engrossed in his thoughts he was, how carelessly he let the rain wet him. She only wished to know why.

Finally, she tried her fountain-pen at the bottom of the page and the first phrases she wrote were:

She shouted to him to come inside, that he was crazy, that he would catch a dreadful cold if he continued this foolish act. The rain poured down heavily on him but he just turned to her and smiled. This would be it; this would be last time they got to be together.

Seeing that he waited for her to join him, Melissa hesitantly stepped outside. Her clothes were soaked in a matter a seconds and she squinted her eyes to see him better through the curtain of raindrops.

"Meli..." he breathed out her nickname softly and her heart fluttered inside her chest. "Do you know why people love standing in the rain?"

"No..." she faced him with a frown on her pale face.

How he wished to kiss those trembling, parted lips to warm them up, to show them the love of a heart broken in so many pieces. But he couldn't, he knew he couldn't, not because of what the others thought, but because he had to leave for good and probably never get to see her again.

"Because people can't see them crying..."

~

Her mother had promised to pick her up from school today. When the last period ended, she neatly arranged her books in the locker, not hurrying, as she knew she had to wait a while. She didn't feel like sitting on the steps in front of the school, so she decided to go back to the bus station.

As she strode confidently in that direction, her thoughts went back to the early hours of the morning and she started walking faster. When she reached the park, slightly panting from the physical effort, her almost black eyes searched fervently for him. For some unknown reason, the peculiar boy caught her attention.

Why?... she could not really tell, yet she wanted to know more about him, as he had really intrigued her. It was as if he was a mystery that she had to resolve.

Narrowing her eyes, she tip-toed into the park, where there already were loads of children playing together and  laughing while having their relatives look after them.

Finally, she saw him, sitting alone on the same bench as this morning. If it hadn't been for his different clothes, she could have thought he had never actually left. So she took a deep breath and walked in that direction, her palms sweating as they did this morning.

"Uhm... M-may I sit here? The other benches are occupied." she stuttered, smiling kindly and hovering above him. She had no idea what he would say, especially that she lied. She did not know for sure if everything else was full.

His head snapped up as he locked gazes with her. A bit of his dark-hazel hair got into his eyes because of the sudden movement but her breath still got caught in her throat at their chocolate-brown enchanting color. But what stunned her the most was the pain... When she looked at him, the first thing she noticed was the sorrow, the overwhelming sadness, something that only grief or guilt could bring ...

His eyes were the ones of a child, so pure and truthful. It was as if she could see deep inside his soul, inside his heart and mind. And that scared her; she was afraid of discovering everything that he felt, everything that made him stay alone in the rain.

In all her 17 years of breathing she had never experienced the pain she felt now, only by looking at him. Who was this boy? How could he make her feel like this? How did he succeed in showing her another side of the world? A gloomy, depressing view of life that she had never seen before...

Her grin dropped as her soft, virgin lips parted and tears welled up in her eyes, but not as a sign of pity. No, it was not compassion that filled her heart, but curiosity. She felt the burning desire to know more about him, to understand, to make him smile...

But the innocent look on his face turned into a glare just seconds after, making her choke silently on the few tears in her dark-brown eyes.

"What makes you think this one isn't?" he rudely replied, looking in another direction. His voice was deep and masculine, yet somehow strained at the same time.

"Oh..." she whispered, amazed by his coldness. For a second, she looked at the ground with her eyebrows furrowed. Should she insist? This could have been the last time she saw him.

But before she could utter a word he tsked annoyed and sighed, making room for her, so she slung her backpack off her shoulder and went to sit down beside him.