How to Tie a Noose

Chapter three

Chapter 3

By the time last period rolled around I was starting to wish I hadn’t faced the day. As the bell rang signalling the start of last, I dropped my feet down from the toilet and opened the stall door cautiously, peering out around it before walking out when I was sure there wasn’t anyone in there with me. I grabbed my bag from its hiding spot; well it’s not really a hiding spot, everyone knows about it. It’s a hole in the floor covered by the garbage can; everyone puts stuff there that they don’t want teachers to find. Below my bag was multiple small plastic baggies full of god knows what, from what I could tell it was mostly just pot but who knows what else people had hiding in there?

I stuck my head carefully out the bathroom door and when I was positive the coast was clear I stepped out and limped for the door to the right of the bathroom.  When I stepped out into the cool air, I breathed a sigh of relief; I was almost home free, I just needed to get around the corner from the school to the bus stop and I’d be safe.  I was just limping around the corner when I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard a oddly familiar tsk as someone (presumably the person who was holding me back) clucked their tongue at me. I sighed and took a minute, closing my eyes to try to think of an excuse before turning around to see who had caught me. What met my eyes when I opened them was a shock, a casual smirk on his face and laughter in his eyes the one and only Kai was standing behind me.                                      “Ditching without me?” he asked and for a second I thought I saw his smirk waver, but as fast as it happened it was gone and I passed it off as my imagination.                                                                                        “Why would I have to ditch with you?” I asked almost thinking I heard him wrong. His smirk became more pronounced as he said, “Oh come on now, did you expect anything less? I watched you try to kill yourself the other day of course I’m not going to leave your side!” He started walking and after a few steps looked back at me, his eyes squinting (quite attractively I might add) from the sun, “well are you coming?”

The Nerve of this guy! This.. This... “Kyler” is the exact kind of guy I hate! “Don’t get ahead of yourself Kyler!” I shouted at him but before I could continue he interrupted me. “Actually, I told you my friends call me Kai.” He said over his shoulder with a wink. I let out a shriek of anger and he turned around, amusement clear on his face. “Who said I’m your friend?! In fact I don’t want anything to do with you so just leave. Me. Alone!” my voice got louder and more intense with each word as I said this, the smirk finally fell off his face as he turned around to look at me. “Let me see your wrist.” His voice was clear and calm but for some reason it captured me; my hand trembled as I moved it to slowly drag back my sleeve, I tried not to wince as the fabric rubbed against the still fresh lines crisscrossing my wrist but I failed. As soon as I had pulled the sleeve up fully, I looked back up at him; his eyes had lost their witty charm and lightness and were now hard as he stared down at my wrist. I started to pull my sleeve back down but he reached across and stopped me, gently pulling my arm back out so he could continue to look. “You say you want to be alone, but if I leave you alone won’t you just do this again?” he murmured to me, so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. He started lowering his head and raising my wrist and before I knew it he was gently kissing my arm. “Come on, we can chill at my house. It’s only a 15 minute bus ride and no one is home.” He moved his hand down from his arm to my hand and gently pulled me to the bus which was now pulling up at the stop.

Kyler’s POV

The bus ride to my house was silent. Ryou kept her eyes out the window she was leaning her head against making it obvious she didn’t want to talk. To be honest I was shocked she had even come with me, but it might be because I hadn’t exactly given her a choice. I still felt sick thinking about her cuts, I didn’t want to leave her alone ever, I never wanted her to feel so low that she had to subject herself to that pain.. The idea of letting her leave my side, or even my sight frightened me. When we got to my stop, I stood up and without thinking I grabbed her hand, before I could pull her up she ripped her hand from my grasp and I looked down in surprise. Her eyes were dark and her face had a scowl on it. “Don’t make a habit of touching me. Just because you caught me off guard once doesn’t mean I’ll let it happen again.” I sighed, getting Ryou to fall for me was going to be more difficult than I thought..

“This is our stop.” I said without looking at her, I started to move off the bus and paused at the door, looking out the corner of my eye to make sure she was following me.  When I was sure she was I continued off the bus and started walking to my house. I honestly doubted she’d follow me, but when I heard her limping steps behind mine I smiled. I made sure my smile formed into more of a smirk before I turned around to face her, stopping and crossing my arms over my chest. “Need some help girly?”