If I Save You

Chapter Three-Sirens

                  

What the hell happened to you?"

Ethan doesn't answer my question at first, and I don't answer his, either. His eyes darted away from mine, and he started to play with his feet, shuffling them around on the ground, kicking pebbles and watching them scatter away.

"I had to start taking care of my mother around the time you and Callum stopped coming to see us. She's really sick"

"Oh" I remember a lot about Ethan's mom. Her warm smile, her kind attitude, the way she took me and Callum in her home. But...for some reason, I can't remember her name.

She did so much for you, and yet you can't even remember her name?

Can't you?

"If she's sick, I want to see her" I blurt out. When he shakes his head at me, his eyes starting to cloud over, I get desperate. I try to meet his eyes, but he can't even face me anymore. "Please? Ethan, please?"

"I don't know...I mean, she needs rest and everything, but..." he catches my desperate expression, and gives in with a sigh. He scratches the back of his neck, his hair slowly fluttering in the breeze. I glance at all the tall apartment buildings surrounding us, and at the bright, cloudless sky as I wait for his answer.

She won't even remember you, idiot. Why do you suddenly care so much?

"Because" I mutter to myself, making sure that Ethan wouldn't hear. "I owe her that much"

"Fine" Ethan mumbled suddenly, I widen my eyes, and a small, tiny smile spreads on my face.

We both left the roof, however I took one last glance at the railing. Right now, I would've been dead. I would've hit the sidewalk-or road-a while ago. Police sirens would've been wailing, and flashing red and blue lights. An ambulance would've came too; paramedics would've burst out from the ambulance, and tried their hardest to save me. But in the end, they wouldn't have been able to. A swarm of pedestrians would crowd around, jaws dropped, their eyes wide with horrified shock as they would've stared at my lifeless body. I would've been dead.

As Ethan slinks back inside the apartment building, I grab the doorknob of the heavy EXIT door, and without taking another glance at that railing, swing it shut.

My eyes take a few moments to adjust to the lighting in the hallway. Everything is so dark-probably because I was outside in the bright sunlight for a while.

Ethan leads me to room 208, and pulls out a small, gold colored key from his pocket, and unlocks the door with the twist of his doorknob. He pushes it, and the door creaks open.

I squint inside. The entrance hallway is really messy, the dark green carpet is stained, the coatrack beside the door is empty expect for a dirty, shiny red raincoat, and shoes are scattered around the hallway, along with crumpled up newspapers, soda cans, and McDonalds paper bags.

Ethan inhales sharply through his teeth, like a backwards whistle, when he sees his home. "Its messy...I know, but its hard to keep it neat"

I walk carefully inside, trying not to step on anything, and take off my blue sweater, placing it on the lonely coatrack. For some reason, it was really hot in here, and it smelled really funny, kind of like Campbell chicken noodle soup and toothpaste.

"Ethan?" a weak, frail voice suddenly called.

Ethan frowned, his gaze directed down the hallway, as he kicked off his shoes, which had dirt caked onto its soles, and had its fabric wearing off. "Mom?"

He forgets all about me, and leapt down the hallway.

"Ethan-wait" I splutter. I quickly kick off my own shoes, and shuffle down the hallway, my socks skidding on the carpet.