The Price of Perfection (editing)

Chapter 2

I walked down the street, being careful not to step on cracks. They were the actions of a child I thought stopping myself, not a 16 year old girl.

I'd decided to wear a black cardigan over my top. Even though it was 25 degrees outside - that's considered hot for Irish weather - I knew that it would be useful for later considering I work at a bar.

I continued up the path, walking quicker when I crossed a bunch of teenagers looking at me in the wrong way. The graffiti-ed walls of the store greeted me and I took in the broken glass pieces in front of the door. Making a note to remember to pick them up later, I unlocked the door to the store and stepped over the glass.

Setting my purse on the counter, I pulled the stool over to make sure I had a clear view of the door. In these parts of town shoplifting wasn't uncommon.

Besides my job singing at the bar I had the job of minding the store in the mornings before school. After all, who else would bother to come down at half past 5 every morning, even Saturdays.

 Even though I worked for just under three hours everyday, the pay was still good. Higher than promised anyway. I think Sarah just felt sorry for me though. She's like a mother to me. I don't even think my own mother knows I exist. Just someone to pay the rent when she was too hungover to. Sometimes I even miss the times when she had hated me....actually no, not really.

For some reason, I just couldn't sit still today. After about half an hour of stacking and re-stacking everything so it was perfect I realised I was bored. Sitting down; standing up; pacing; tapping my fingers. I continued this until I coudn't stand the silence any longer and walked outside.

I felt the sun on my face and cringed, my eyes started to water as the contacts I kept almost permanently on my eyes moved. Losing my focus the world doubled and blurred. I stumbled backwards by tripped over the step that I somehow forgot was there, even after working here for over a year.

I remembered the broken glass while I was falling and tried to twist to avoid it but it did no good. My left arm landed in the glass and I felt a sharp pain in my hand.

My eyes were still blurry from the contacts so being careful not to move my left arm in case I caused more damage I carefully took the blue contacts from my eyes. They weren't exactly the colour of my eyes but were close enough.

I was used to seeing the world with them, even though I had gotten them when I was still twelve and my eyesight had significantly improved, I was used to them. Somehow, I felt different without them on. Like I did now. 

Blinking away the last of the tears, I squinted as everything snapped back into focus. I remembered the glass in my arm and looked down to see the damage.

There was quite a lot of blood but I didn't think it was that serious. I made to stand up so I could go get the first aid kit but fell back down on the glass with a thud. I cried out in pain as a few more pieces of glass lodged themselves in my skin and looked to see why I couldn't stand up.

Peering down at my leg - I still wasn't used to everything being so clear - I saw a large piece of glass in my leg. It had gone deep enough so that the pain was numbed but now that I focused on it, it was really starting to hurt.

Tears left tracks down my cheeks and for some reason, I started to cry. I know, embarrassing. I don't know why but all the frustration I had collected over the years suddenly came pouring out in big hiccuping bursts.

I could just about make out a person coming towards me but for some reason I didn't care. Cool, calm, collected Jade was gone. In her place lay this broken-down damsel in distress. I didn't like it one bit. Embarrassed at having snot-cried in front to of a stranger, I hurriedly tried to wipe away the tears. 

That's when I felt the hand on my arm. I'd never been to fond of people touching me so I automatically cringed. My vision cleared once again and I saw who the stranger was.

It turns out it's a person from my school. About a year older than me. Just my luck, eh? He handed me a tissue and I gratefully accepted it. After wiping my nose I was about to hand it back when I realised the idiocy of it and instead stuffed it into my pocket.

"Thanks" I said. Refusing to look the guy in eye after I had completely made a fool of myself. 

"It's alright...Your hurt" he replied, concern clear in his eyes. Well noted, I thought. Then sighed. No need to trouble the guy with my crappy attitude. 

Knowing I couldn't avoid the guy any longer, I looked up. The guy -  don't know his name yet - had nice warm brown eyes and light brown, almost blond, hair. I cleared my throat, touched by the concern, and said, "Yup". Clearly I wasn't capable of saying anything else.

Eric's P.O.V.

I looked into her eyes. Man their gorgeous. They were a strange mix of blue and green. Not turquoise, but kind of in swirls. Their were little flecks of grey in them as well. And then just to top it off they were just about the biggest eyes I've ever seen.

Realising I was staring at her, I quickly stepped inside my aunts shop and looked around for the first aid kit. When I found it I stepped outside. She was still siting where I left her and remembered her name was Jade. Sarah talked about how good an employee she was, 'always leaves things absolutely perfect' she had said.

I crouched in front of her again and gently took her injured arm. There were at least seven pieces of glass inside her arm but at least they hadn't gone too deep.

She didn't make a sound as I slowly took out a few pieces of glass but she winced as I poured antiseptic onto the cuts before putting bandages on. I repeated this for all the cuts until her arm was properly bandaged.

I looked up into her beautiful eyes and say there were tears in them, even though she was trying not to let them escape. Tentatively raising my hand I wiped my thumb across her cheek. She froze and blushed, looking away from me and towards her leg. I didn't realise what I was doing and I cleared my throat as I tried to avoid her gaze.

I saw that there was a still some glass in her leg. That was what had made her fall down. It was too deeply cut for me to simply bandage and I told her that she would have to go to the hospital to get it checked.

"I have to go to school" she frowned as she said it.

" It'll be hard to walk there, can you get a lift off someone?"

"I'll be alright", then taking the kit out of my hand she bandaged her leg more perfectly than I could have ever done. I stood up and took a few steps back as she walked inside and after getting a sweep swept the glass to the side to avoid it getting in the way of anyone else. After looking at her watch and making an annoyed expression she tapped her foot impatiently. 

"What's wrong?"

"Well besides the fact that I'm already late for school, I now have to wait for the owner of this store so I can finally leave" she snapped. I took another step back at her tone and she sighed again before shooting a sorry expression in my direction. 

"Sorry, it just hasn't been a very good day, or week at that".

"How about you go and I'll wait around for Sarah", looking at her wary expression I added,"Don't worry, I'm her nephew".

Her expression didn't change as she said " Look I appreciate you helping me and all, but I don't need anymore favours. I'll handle it"