Cracks

//One//

Elise sat up. It was too early for her to be awake, in her opinion. The sun wasn't even up yet. The sky was filled with dark, low-laying clouds, that hinted towards a large storm coming later. It was dark morning to match a dark mood.

Elise dragged herself to her bathroom and pried her eyes away from the floor to look into the mirror. She winced at what looked back at her.

A frail girl who was pale as blank paper looked at Elise. Her lavender eyelids fluttered and shaded her silver eyes from the world, while her plump pink lips sat chapped and raw. Her high cheek bones held lacy shadows from her long eyelashes. Elise lowered her eyes to the mystery girl's neck and torso. Protruding collar bones and ribs met her eyes. She was dangerously skinny, and was nearly transparent. A small birthmark peeked from under her shirt near her hip. Her long legs were thin, exaggerating her ankles and knees.

Elise sighed and brushed her teeth silently, then pulled her black hair into a tight pony tail. Today was not going to be fun. To be quite honest, no days were fun.

It was too soon to worry about breakfast, so Elise wiggled into her black jeans and running shirt, even though she didn't run much. She started biting her lips again, and made the almost-healed cuts burn with contact to oxygen.

Slowly, a ghostly light fluttered through the room, hinted towards the sun rising. Now it was time to leave.

~

Elise grabbed the dark brown apron from the metal hook tagged with her name. Dabbing on a slight bit of makeup, and adjusting her name tag, she walked to the counter of the small coffee shop she worked at. It was a small mom-and-pop type of place, entitled The Coffee Nook. It was a simple name for a simple place. A few tables were scattered around the beige tiles. The chairs were ratted and old, but cozy. A few enlarged photos of coffee beans and pastries hung lazily on the wall under a thin deposit of dust. The front door mat was trodden gray from years of wear. It was nice.

The front window had a display case with muffins, and chic shelves piled with croissants and breakfast items. The counter was wooden and sanded smoothly to the touch with typical coffee shop things littering the surface of it. Elise wiped down the tables, and turned on the OPEN sign in the window. The letters blinked in a slow eye-catching rhythm, and caught into a routine. Elise waited behind the counter and pulled out a magazine.

The door chime tinkled and Elise looked up. A woman with dyed pink hair stepped inside and examined the menu before walking up to the counter.

"I would like a small french vanilla please." the woman said politely. "With extra whip cream."

Elise walked to the counter and poured some black coffee into a small-sized mug and added some french vanilla creamer to it, making sure to top it off with extra whip cream and drizzled it with chocolate before handing to back to the pink-haired lady.

The woman paid and walked to the patio to drink her coffee outside. Another person walked in. This time it was a plump man with a gray beard and sour expression who was dressed in a gray business suit.

"Gimme a black coffee and a banana bread muffin.," he gruffed. "To go."

Elise did as she was told, but the man started to walk away without his muffin. She held the paper bag in her hand as the man started to walk to the door, squabbling busily to someone on his phone. He was quite a sight: balancing his phone on his shoulder as he was trying to open the door with his coffee in one hand and sugar packets in the other.

"Sir, wait!" she called after him, but he didn't hear her. He waddled to a small red Acura and squeezed into the driver's seat, with his face turning pink under the stress of his situation.

Elise scurried to the man's window and handed him his muffin just in time for him to thank her and drive off with his complete order. Elise stood outside for a minute and watched the man drive away. The contorted shadows of the towering trees shaded her from the partial sunlight. The air was stale and smelled like an on-coming storm. A small wind rustled the thick hedges and stirred the pine needles laying weightlessly on the ground.

She turned and started walking across the sidewalk when someone shouted to her. She turned to see a boy with thick brown curls and a panicked face barreling towards her on a bike that didn't look like it was slowing down. He crashed into her, knocking her down painfully, while his bike bucked him headlong down the ways. He landed flat on his bum, and looked at the girl he had collided with. She lay whimpering on the ground caged by his bike.

He cursed to himself and ran to her aid, throwing the bike to the side. Elise laid crumpled and scraped on the pavement, looking quite pale - well - paler than usual.

"Dammit." the boy whispered cradling her head on his lap. Her breathing was uneven and her eyes wouldn't open. He shook her awake, but her pupils wouldn't focus. She gagged a bit, and threw up bile into the grass leaving the boy shocked and disgusted. The woman with the pink hair noticed what had happened and rushed to the scene.

"I hit her with my bike." the boy said nervously. The pink haired lady did a quick check on Elise and furrowed her brown eyebrows together.

"Take her to the hospital." she commanded. The boy looked around wildly and nodded, flagging down a cab and gently setting Elise in the back seat.

"Take us to the hospital, and step on it!" he barked. Within minutes, they arrived.

"Help please! My - erm - friend needs help!" he announced to the lobby. A few idling nurses ran to him and Elise, before setting her on a gurney and wheeling her into a room. The boy sat dazed on a couch until the person at the front desk caught his attention. A nurse that had helped Elise into the room stood next to the desk with a clip board in hand.

"Okay sir, please tell us what happened." she said politely.

"I hit her with my bike, and...yeah. That's pretty much what happened."

"What happened after that?"

"She wouldn't wake up for a few minutes, but then she opened her eyes, and couldn't seem to focus. It was pretty gross too, because she hurled." the boy recalled jittery and sweaty. He felt guilty for what he had done, and had reason to feel so.

"So you don't know who she was? Do you know, the girl you hit?"

"No I do not know her."

"Okay, thank you. Would you like to see her possibly once we are done running tests?" the nurse probed. The boy shrugged and nodded, running a hand through his curls nervously.

~

"Sir, you can come in now." the nurse called to the boy sitting anxiously on the leather couch outside Elise's room.

He walked into her room, and saw her hooked up to a heart monitor and had an I.V. in her arm. He turned pale.

"Don't worry, she only had a minor concussion and a few scrapes. It wasn't too bad." the nurse reassured him and walked out.

He pulled a chair up next to Elise's bed and studied her. Her facial features were striking, but she was so thin. Her soft cheeks glowed with dried blood from a cut on her temple. Her hands and elbows were wrapped in bandages and her arms were stained with bruises. He felt even more guilty.

"What the hell-" a soft voice rasped. Elise opened her eyes some, and the boy straightened up next to her bed. Uh oh.

"Hi." he said awkwardly. Elise tried to focus on his face, but the bright lights were blinding her. "Before you ask, you're in the hospital. I sort of ran into you with my bike, and you got a concussion." he said sheepishly.

"Fan-freaking-tastic!" she growled.

"I'm really sorry about what happened. I was testing the brakes on my bike, since I had just taken it to the shop, and apparently they didn't work." he explained quickly.

"Who even are you?" Elise huffed.

"Oh, I'm Harry Styles."