Head Above Water

Chapter Two

"You'll regret it if you do."

Lilith fell back on her heels, her back hitting the ground as she began crawling backward away from the river.  She stumbled to her feet, clutching the towel closer to her neck.  "This is private property, I'll call the cops."

The guy held up his hands, slowly coming to a stop where he was standing.  "Okay, but you might as well call on yourself then because the river is also private property.  I live right on the other side of it."

Lilith was breathing hard, her heart beating out of her chest as she feared for what this guy wanted.  "Alright, but what are you doing on this side of the river?"  The guy shrugged, his hands finding their way into his pockets.

"I overheard you talking to yourself, figured you could use someone to talk back.  You're not really going to do it, are you?" He watched as Lilith opened her mouth to answer, but quickly shut it as she eyed the river.

He moved a couple of steps closer to Lilith, taking a seat on one of the rocks bordering the water.  He cleared his throat, trying to get her attention away from the thought of potential suicide.  "I'm not going to hurt you if that's what you're thinking.  I just want to help you.  My name's Beck."

Lilith sighed, feeling her shoulders relax.  "I'm Lilith, people call me Lil though."

Beck had kind eyes and an even kinder smile.  "Listen, I don't know what it is you're going through, but I can promise you that killing yourself isn't going to fix any of your problems.  You'll regret it the second you act on those thoughts."

Lilith frowned, moving back to her spot on the edge of the river.  "That's what everyone says, but do we actually know that?  Maybe it's better on the other side, there are no more world issues, people won't make me feel like literal crap and I can just be alone."

Beck shook his head, staring out into the middle of the river.  "You have no idea what you're talking about."

Lilith gave a small sarcastic laugh, "Nobody actually knows what we're talking about when it comes to this."

He shrugged, "I don't know, therapists seem to have a pretty good idea."

Lilith stood up, stepping away from the water.  With plenty of her family members working in the medical fields, she had grown up around people constantly bashing the idea of therapy, unless it was physical.  Her parents were strong believers that therapy was all a joke, that you could only be sick in a more physical sense, that mental illness was just created by some sick bastard looking to profit off of impressionable teenagers.  While that may be partially true, Lilith never understood how they could just brush off mental illnesses altogether.  They were, in a sense, a physical illness, just deep down in your brain.

When she first started having small depressive episodes, it scared her that maybe she had one.  Anytime she'd try to bring up the topic, her parents were quick to shut her down and let her know that it was just in her head.  They weren't wrong, but they weren't helping her either.  In order to please her parents, she stuck to their word.  Anytime something revolving around the idea of therapy was brought up, she just repeated what she was constantly told growing up.

"Oh, don't even start.  Therapists are just as sad as the rest of us but they've found a way to profit off of our sadness to make themselves feel better.  But one day their money runs out, and all they're left with is their own sad thoughts as well as everyone else's which will manifest into their own until they've got no other choice but to end their misery."

Beck chuckled to himself, earning a glare from Lilith.  "So, you've already heard the therapist speech?"

"Plenty of times," Lilith scoffed. 

She watched as Beck walked closer to her.  She got a closer look at his features, noticing how dark his eyes were.  His hair was curly and full, the color almost matching his eyes.  She couldn't help but compare him to Chase from Zoey 101, but not as big of hair.  His build was just average, as if he spent most of his days sitting in his room eating junk food and playing video games, but was lucky enough to have a quick metabolism to keep him slim.

Lilith averted her eyes to the water once more as he stood directly in front of her, giving her the slightest smirk.  "Great, then we can just skip to the hard part."

"Excuse me," her head whipped back to his direction, only to find empty space.  She looked all around, spinning in a circle just trying to find this man.  "Beck?"

Her mind was racing as her eyes were skimming all the darker areas in the forest.  It didn't make sense to her that he had just disappeared in a matter of seconds with no trace.  She called out his name once more, "Beck!"

"Lilith!" She turned away from the river, back in the direction of her house.  She was surprised to hear her name being called back but was hoping it would've been Beck calling to her.  Instead, it was just her older brother, Leo.

"Leo," Lilith ran towards her brother, still frantically looking around for any signs of Beck.  "What are you doing out here?"

Her brother laughed, his hands resting on her shoulders as he noticed her freaking out.  "I'm looking for you, what the heck are you doing out here?  What are you trying to find?"

His eyes tried to keep up with her's as she looked around, but Lilith only shrugged as she began to give up.  "Nothing, I just thought I saw something."

Leo smiled down at her, an eyebrow raised in concern.  "Alright, well let's get back to the house.  Dad's grilling out tonight."

She looked behind her once more as Leo's arm found it's way around her shoulder.  He gave her a firm squeeze, before walking a step ahead of her.  Leo pushed branches and sticks out of the way, making a more clear path to the house.  Lilith made a mental note of the path for the next time she walked down to the river, which would be sooner than she was originally planning.

That Beck guy made an impression on her, and she wanted to learn more about him.  More specifically, what he had meant by 'fun stuff'.  You don't just jump from the topic of suicide to fun stuff unless you're a psycho or some crazy random man you find in the woods. 

Her family would never let her out of their sights if they knew what had occurred in the forest, or they'd quite possibly shove her into a mental institute, so she decided to keep her mouth shut.  At least until she learned more about what Beck wanted.

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