Fallen Love

1 - LITTLE BIRD

Arael sat quietly at her desk near the front of the classroom with her usual friends standing, gathered around her table. Some were sitting on the desks around them and others stood. They were talking about some or other party that weekend out on the edge of the woods around 50km from the school by Brimpton Beach.

Usually she enjoyed talking about upcoming parties and who's house they would meet at for pre-drinks before going. She knew they were underage what with still being seventeen but she was less than a month away from being 18. So it wasn't that bad, right?

Her friends were still rambling on about the party and who they thought would hook up with who and how many people which people would end up trashed beyond belief. However, her usually socially eager self couldn't bring her subconscious to care about the party at the moment. She just sat, absently staring out the biggish window at the beautiful rosebush she had grown to love looking at.

Over the past three years of being in this class for at least one hour a day she had watched the bush grow into the beauty it was today.
For some unknown reason though, the bush didn't bring her the usual comfort today.

She shifted in her seat. There was this uneasy feeling churning in the pit of her stomach but as hard as she tried to shake it off, she couldn't. It was almost as if her body knew something bad was coming even though her mind did not. As if something was warning her to be careful. But careful of what? There was nothing wrong.

Regardless of her telling herself that nothing was wrong and it was just like any other day, her palms felt clammy and her skin prickled. A mild case of pins and needles across her whole body was all she could compare it to.

She studied the beauty of the yellow roses on the bush. Some still just little buds yet to open their eyes to the world. They were minding their own business as everyone and every thing mostly should, only gently swaying as the wind nudged and flirted with them. It was early spring and everything was slowly becomeing more colourful and warm. Trees began stretching their branches out after their long, cold slumber; leaves beginning to shyly make an appearance one after another. It was as if each leaf waited for the last to tell them it was safe before it came out and beckoned the next one to join them.

Something caught the corner of her eye and she turned to see the roses wilting away while the leaves grew darker and larger. Her eyes widened with shock and horror at her beautiful roses as the size of the thorns increased with the leaves, the now brown and wilted roses overpowered by them and the evil they represented. The bush was now something she would expect to see in a horror just before seeing the monster for the first time. She felt the feeling in her gut come back full force and with an added twinge of pain this time just for good measure. She groaned silently.

The feeling only intensified when she felt a familiar hand on her soft cheek. Though the hand was cold it did not soothe the burning of her skin and instead only fed the flames.

"Are you okay, Arael? You look kind of nervous and a little... scared", Heath said quietly while the others carried on speaking.

Heath was her boyfriend of two and a half years but she had been meaning to break up with him for a while now. It was weird and it saddened her, but lately, every time he touched her, warning signs went off. Not at her, but at him. It was like something was warning him off through her but only she could feel it. It broke her heart because she loved him with everything in her soul but she had also always listened to her gut because when she didn't... To put it bluntly, things turned to shit.

His light brown eyes searched hers as she looked up at him, his dark blonde hair looked messy as if he had constantly been running his hand through it due to nerves or stress or even just to get it out of his face. She noticed his lips were turned into a slight frown. They were chapped and she could see a small crack in the skin on his bottom lip.