could you live for me?

don't jump!

His eyes blinked once, blinked twice, blinked three times, enough for him to distinguish his surroundings. 

"Ah.." He had begun to realise. 

"Right, I'm still at school" He tried his best to scan his surroundings through the watery mask that stuck to the inner corners and lashes of his eyes, as any person would experience when just waking up from a deep sleep. He had fallen asleep during the history lesson. Mr Santiago's tedious lecture droned out any liveliness or sense of energy from within him, and so naturally, his eyes began to droop, the pauses in between his blinks grew longer, and now, here we are. 

It surprised him that neither the teacher or the students around him noticed his heavy breathing and the pool of drool beside his mouth, but after rubbing the remaining tired tears from his eyes, he understood that he was not the only one dozing off today. The freckled blonde sat slumped in her chair, the folds of her neck holding on ever so tightly together, her head pointed downwards. Her gorgeous auburn hair formed a makeshift mask, concealing Mr Santiago from the truth of her slumber. The eshay attempted no disguise however, his arms and legs spread wide apart like a starfish as the mucus bubble from his nose grew bigger and bigger until you think it might pop, then settling down once his snoring quiets. Mr Santiago knew better than to awake the sleeping giant, and continued on with his lesson.

The boy that observed all this, funnily enough, began to feel drowsy again, but the shrill chime of the school bell awoke him. The freckled blonde, the eshay, and all the other students arose from their seats in a zombie-like fashion, greeted the history teacher, and off they went to collect their bags for hometime. 

Phone. Bag. Jacket. Missing something? No, that was all the boy had to mind everyday, back and forth from school. He had never experienced the unending excitement of going out with friends after school, or ever had the pleasure of being asked to go bowling, karaoke, or any other frivolous form of entertainment by anyone. Tossing his backpack over his shoulder, he reminisced the happiest days of his childhood, when hours were spent chasing around cousins and sometimes titos across the dirt in worn down slippers, extending short scrawny arms in an effort to shoot a muddy basketball into a frayed net, and oh, the buko ice candy, that savoury, yet sweet, yet irresistible frosty delight that made every sweaty trip to the store worth it. 

Reality came flooding back in an instant however,  as the stoplights beeped incessantly and the little walking man, all lit up in green, called for him to cross the street. His house was not that far to go, just a few turns around the block and back to his room he would go to hide in from mother. Suddenly, a piercing wind blew dirt and leaves to his face as if pleading him to look up. And there she was. A girl, not much younger than him from what he could observe. Nothing about her appearance was very striking, except her hair. Long, smooth strands of ebony black fluttered in all directions, it reached her hips, and the thin locks of her fringe danced across her heavily flushed cheeks. Eyes stained by tears and arms outstretched, much like the "starfish" eshay who had slept in class. High up on the balcony rail she stood, carefully on the tips of her toes, she gestured her head down, smiled, and was about to finally release when-

"DON'T JUMP!"

With a turn of her head and the quietest whisper, she shattered his world.  

"Hi Angelo."