Living life on the edge

6 | Care for you

!Tw: self harm/scaring!

Karl hummed a small melody to himself as he traced the same path he had for the past decade. The cliff never really changed, plants grew and died, the occasional tree grew inches taller, berries sprouted from the lively bushes, but apart from that, it still had the same feeling it did back when they were teens.

This time however, was a little strange.

As he approached the last stretch of his journey, he saw a dark silhouette sat in their usual spot. The figure sat just like they did, their legs dangled freely over the edge. 'Great' karl thought to himself, he didn't know who it was, his father always taught him not to speak to strangers. And it couldn't have been nick, nick was always later than karl. Karl couldn't even remember a single time where he was later than nick.

He puffed up his chest, building the courage to go over and speak to them. "Um hi" he muttered quietly. The shadow jumped, scaring karl too, "karl what the honk u scared me" "nick?" He asked.

"Why are you so early?"

"I'm only 5 minutes early why are you so early?"

"I just needed time to myself" nick replied, an angry tone in his voice.

Karl put his backpack to the side and lowered himself to the ground. "Hey what's on your mind?" Nick bit the inside on his cheek. He knee bouncing against the sharp rocks. "Nothings wrong karl" "you sure?" "yes" he responded with no hesitation "gosh why do you always have to check if I'm okay, I've lived my whole life being told I'm useless to my family, I've been forced to do what they want, why do you want to know about me, its never about me is it" he continued.

"Nick..."

Nick looked up at Karl's handsome face, tears gathered in his eyes. "You all I've got, both my parents are dead, all my friends went on to bigger lives, your the only one who cares for me, and i want to care for you... and only you" he put a caring arm around nicks upper back and rubbed his thumb against his shoulder. They were close to each other. Close enough to smell the faint cologne from nicks smart white shirt and fresh dough from Karl's red apron. They both looked down at their feet swinging back and forward over the edge. Karls head fell gently onto nicks broad shoulders, his arm becoming heavy also. It dropped back to the floor. Purposefully landing on top of nicks rested hand. He held a tight grip to nicks fingers.

Also nick didn't seem as relaxed as Karl did. His fists clenched as he shook his head lightly, trying not to give in to Karl's passionate gestures.

Eventually, he pushed himself out of his sitting position and threw Karl's hand away. He walked back toward where he came from, just like he did every night.

But karl followed him.

"Nick?"
"Nick look at me"
"Nick why are you leaving so early its still ea-..."

Nick turned. His cheeks lathered in tears, he stared blankly. Suddenly he began to roll up his long sleeved shirt, pointing the inner part towards Karl's view. Thats when he saw them. The scars. Criss crossed across his arm like a pattern. His mouth turned dry as he struggled to swallow back the lump of emotions forming in his throat. "Is that from the- the rose bush u were talking about?" Nick said nothing. He just rolled up his other sleeve. Revealing the actual open wound from the rose bush. Guess not.

It was too much for nick. Like being stopped on the top of a rollercoaster, looking at the large drop in front of you, the anticipation of when they are going to drop, you never know. For nick, it was then.

He fell to his knees, his head pounded into his hands, like the pounding he had felt in his head all day. Karl ran over to the curled up body and kneeled to the side of him. "Nick its okay I'm here... you've got me... don't worry everything's fine"

Nick sobbed into Karl's small chest, karl rocked back and forward as he looked into the sky to find two stars looking down on him. He smiled. They would be proud, they always taught him to be caring. They told him it would become useful at some point in his life. That time was now.

After about 10 painful minutes, nick sat to face karl, wiping his blurry eyes to see the handsome figure in front of him.

"So, what actually happened?"

"Well it started at 5am, I'd only been asleep 2 hours, i woke up to loud knocking at my door, and as i got to my door i heard arguing...my mother and father arguing. I couldn't hear what it was about. So then i went out and they acted normal, next thing i knew me and my father were arguing in the back of the carriage because he wouldn't tell me where we were going"

"Oh" karl responded.

"And then..."