Save Our Sorry Selves

Chapter 8

Monday

The dark-skinned boy had no idea who was pulling him. He just knew a girl was. A girl that seemed to be a mystery. He swore he was just with another girl that he was crying over. But who? Who could possibly make him feel such an awful way? He felt heavy, desperate, lost. But why? 

That's when he slowly started to shift back into his reality, his cruel reality. The girl that he left behind had been significant to him. She was his lover, his soulmate even. Her blond hair was sprawled on his lap like a fan. Her forehead, bleeding from a hole dead center. But what was her name? Why had she been his soulmate? 

Ah, yes. Sophie had been her name. It had to have been Sophie. No other name had to have fit her smooth completion, her albino lashes covered in mascara. Her dead gray eyes stared back at his terrified ones. 

He then remembered how he was now being pulled by the wrist, like a child who was lost, a child that was frozen, because that's exactly what he was. A lost child that was frozen by shock, who couldn't move for himself, lost in a sad, sad world, that only hurt over and over again. But he still couldn't figure out for the life of him who was pulling him. 

She seemed desperate, scared, but most of all determined. Her short brown hair swished in a graceful way he didn't think was possible. Her lighter skin was glistening from sweat, but nonetheless still somehow appealing. She turned around and screamed something at him. But he didn't understand a single word she had said. She repeated it again, her soft lips saying the words in such a smooth way. Her hazel eyes were on fire and finally set his eyes on fire too. 

She repeated the words again, this time being loud and clear. "Luke! Can you run on your own?" Was that his name? Yes, yes it was, because if she said it was, then surely, it was. Was Sophie really his soulmate? Maybe he was mistaken. This girl had saved him from whoever had caused that bullet to rip through that dead girl's skull, who was now bleeling out on the floor. That explained the deep red all over his hands and chest.  That dead girl was not his soulmate. This angel, this savior, was. 

He realized who she was. It all clicked in his head as if the light switch had been triggered and turned back on. Atlas. "Atlas", he whispered under his breath. "What?" She said breathlessly from running.

 It all made perfect sense now. She was the one for him. How could he have not seen it sooner? The secret makeout session they had. The stolen glances they shared when everyone else in the room wasn't paying attention. The inside jokes, the hidden secrets they shared with only each other. It took him the shocking death of his now ex-girlfriend to realize every built-up emotion he was hiding from her and from himself. He was in love with this girl. Ever since that forbidden kiss, even before, he knew he felt for her in a way that he couldn't even feel for Sophie. But Atlas saving him, practically dragging him away from the train wreck, was something the average person wouldn't do for anyone, and knew deep down Sophie wouldn't do that for him. Sure, it all sounded crazy to come up with this whole conclusion all in a matter of minutes, but it felt right. 

"Yea, I can run on my own now, thanks." He finally managed to say as she turned back again to glance at him. She immediately let go of his hand, as if knowing he would be okay. But he really wanted her to still hold his hand because he was still a lost child, and she was the only one that would be able to find him bring him out of the lost world he was in. 

**********************************************************************************************

I was breathing in and out, my lungs screaming for oxygen, but to no avail. Luke had finally snapped out of his daze and was running alongside me. His messy black hair bounced on his head. He took a toll but had somehow been able to bring himself back pretty quickly. But that's what you had to do in order to survive in a scenario like this. If you sulked and kept thinking about who died and who hadn't, you would eventually end up dead too. I still hadn't had time to even process Peter's death, then Lexie's, and now Sophie's, a good chunk of my friend group already crossed off the list.