If I Save You

Chapter Two-Some Sort Of Saviour

                  

Before, I never considered my life to be complicated. Everything was so carefree. The only worries I had was convincing my parents to let me stay up late to watch TV. They were good responsible parents, but when I batted my eyelashes and gave my Mom my award-winning, cute little six-year-old girl grin, she would sigh playfully and let me stay up until eight to watch one more episode of Backyardigans.

But my carefree, innocent life died, like a free, soaring bird shot down by a hunter when I was eight, when Mom got into a car accident.

My Mom was always just a genuine good person. It's rare to find somebody like her. She always reminded me of a lantern, guiding everybody through darkness. Whenever my feelings would get hurt from mean girls at my school, I'd go running to her, and she'd caress my hair and say calming, soothing words.

It's why she would volunteer to drive halfway across the city to help people. She was heavily involved with this group of people that would help provide shelter and blankets, and food for homeless people. It was an icy, snowy day in December, and she had to drive through the busy highway with the icy roads and speeding cars. Dad told her not to go. Me and Callum told her not to go. But she firmly said that there's people out there lying in the streets, freezing cold, that needed her help, and she left the house with her winter jacket on, with mittens and a scarf without saying another word.

The roads were icy. A car, a truck, actually, was speeding a little too fast. Apparently, his tires started to skid down the highway, his truck spun around, hitting my Mom's little Toyota, which crashed horribly into a tree. Dad said that her car actually flipped over. She didn't survive.

Dad changed after that. He used to be a creative, inspiring person. Then all he was melted away, like a lightbulb turned off. Kind of like what happened to me.

My mind snaps back to reality. To the guy standing in front of me-the guy that stopped me from killing myself.

"Who are you?" I ask.

The guy who has ruined everything has icy blue eyes that look red around the edges, as if he had opened his eyes in a chlorine-filled swimming pool one too many times. He has a long, straight nose, and messy rusty-colored hair that could be dark brown or an auburn red. His lips are thin and pale, and pressed together tightly. He has a dark blue hoodie on, and torn, frayed jeans that look a little bit too big for him.

He still has his hand on my shoulder. He's squeezing it so tightly that it hurts. I step off the railing, and shake his hand off my shoulder. It drops, and he shoves his hands back into his pockets.

"What the hell where you thinking?" he hisses at me. I have to admit, I'm a bit taken aback. He looks angry. His hand shoots out of his pocket and he points to the railing with his index finger. "That drop-you would've been killed. Either you're really goddamn stupid...or..."

He suddenly notices my facial expression. The way I stood trembling with pure fear when I stood on that railing, ready to jump. His eyebrows furrow together, and he bites his lower lip. "Oh. You-you were-"

"Thanks for noticing" I snap, and walk away from him, my shoulder brushing his. I pass the decaying picnic tables and head for the EXIT door, not giving him another glance. "Goodbye"

"You're not even going to say thank you?" he suddenly blurts. I stop in my tracks, and clench my teeth together. My trembling fingers form a shaking but horribly tight fist. My fingernails dig into the palms of my hands. "I saved your life, you know"

I spin around, and stare at him straight in his icy blue eyes. And then I realise something...

My memory flicks back to a long time ago. Me and Callum are in the nice single mother's home. She's made us tea, which we are gratefully sipping. Her adorable kittens are sitting on our laps; the one Callum's holding is playing with the small buttons on his shirt, and the one that had claimed me as its seat was purring softly as I gently ran my fingers through it's fluffy, soft fur.

The boy, the single mother's son, was sitting across from us on the couch, a wooden coffee table with tons of stains and hatch marks separating us. He looked as nervous as ever, his eyes were downcast and he was playing around with his fingers.

"You don't speak very much, do you?" Callum noted. His tea finished, he placed his empty mug on the coffee table, and cupped his chin in his hands, and started to drum his fingers against his jaw. I watched him curiously. Callum had never spoken to the boy before, and neither have I.

The boy shook his head very slowly, his rusty coloured hair falling into his icy blue eyes. He whispered a faint, soft "No".

"Tell us your name" Callum persisted. "Come on, just your name"

The tips of the boy's ears turned red. He rubbed at his eyes, which were red around the edges. "Well...um..."

"Geez, Callum" I stopped threading my fingers through the cat's fur, and it lifted its head and flicked it's tail at me like, "Why have you stopped, human?" but I paid it no attention. I turned to the boy. "You don't have to tell us your name if you don't want to"

"No, it's...okay" he said again with that faint voice. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hands. "I'm Ethan"

"Cool name" Callum said, and leaned back against the sofa, nearly squashing the kitten that had abandoned his lap. The poor cat squealed and ran off, and I slapped Callum for almost sitting on a cat.

"I'm Hallie, and the pretentious idiot over there is my older brother" I point towards my brother with my thumb, and he gives me a nasty look. "Nice to meet you, Ethan"

"Nice to meet you, Hallie" he whispers.

"I know you" I say, squinting at the guy. "You're Ethan"

He tilted his head at me. "And you're Hallie"

I remember him from all those years ago. His nervous, scaredy-cat attitude. His faint voice. The way he never looked either me or Callum in the eye.

And look at him now. A tough, hard, determined, some-sort-of-saviour guy.

"What the hell happened to you?" I ask.

"I could ask you the exact same thing" he replies.

Thanks for reading! <3