The One He Let Go

Dean

TW: mention of cutting.

((Check end of segment for note!!))

I let out another breath I didn't know I was holding. Jimmy stopped talking again. I didn't know if he was done, I didn't know what to tell him, I just didn't know. I looked up at him sitting above me. I thought he'd be crying, honestly. That was a sad story.. Even tugged at my heart strings a little bit. Still does, but Jimmy wasn't crying. My guess is, he was waiting for me to say something, but what's the first thing you say to a kid who tells you he came home to find his mom cutting herself? Well, I'll tell you the first thing I said.
"It's 7:13, Jim."

Then, I'm not sure what happened. It all happened so fast: I heard Jimmy say, "what?" and before I knew it, he was falling, and I'm not even exactly sure how I pulled it off-must've been some rush of adrenaline or something, but I somehow caught him and ended up under him, breaking his fall. Got the wind knocked right outta me. I caught my breath and I felt Jimmy pull me up. He asked if I was okay. Told him I was fine, and then he hit me! It stung more on the inside than it did on the outside, but it was still a pretty solid punch. I didn't even know what it was for cause I just saved him from possibly getting hurt, so I was like, "Dude, what the hell!" and he said, "It's past seven, why didn't you say anything earlier!" Like this guy was really gonna yell at me for not telling him the time when I practically just saved his life, and I don't get a thank you? I was in shock. It was unbelievable. Then, he started to walk away from me, to head back home. I couldn't believe he was pissed about that. I was trying to be considerate! You don't just interrupt someone in the middle of a story like that just to tell them, "hey, you gotta go, time's up!" No, I wanted him to finish for his sake and my sake. I remember going after Jimmy, grabbing his arm, and telling him, "Hey, relax! I just broke your fall! You coulda gotten seriously hurt." And I told him why I didn't tell him the time. I could tell he was still mad, but I don't think he was mad at me so much anymore. I think he was actually more mad at himself after that for being so pissed off in the first place, especially since all he said back to me was, "You're right. I'm sorry." I didn't want him to feel so bad about it so like the kid I was, I tried to lighten the mood, make him feel better. Gave him a little punch in the arm and said, "Don't sweat it, but you owe me for being your landing pad." After that, we laughed, he smiled, and it seemed better, and I felt okay to let him off on his own again without worrying about if he was still mad at me. I was kinda worried about Jimmy's mom though. I really hoped she didn't do anything bad that day when Jimmy got home late. It bothered me that entire night.

When we were kids, we didn't use the phone or internet much. The only way we really got to talk was seeing each other. And, boy, was it the biggest relief to see Jimmy the next day and hear him say everything was fine when he got home. He brought up the whole falling-out-of-the-tree thing again though and apologized for being kind of a jerk about it. I told him that it was really okay and I was kidding about him owing me. I just didn't want him to get hurt. I mean, he was all his mom had, and he was the best friend I had so, yeah, I'm gonna make sure he's okay. That's why I was a little upset that he took a swing at me. Didn't he see I just didn't want anything happening to a kid I consider kind of like a little brother? It actually helps a lot that I'm a little bigger than him, cause I broke that fall pretty good, but anyway, he just kept insisting that he really did owe me something. He's a really persistent kid, so I went along with it. He would've done something for me anyway, regardless of how many times I'd tell him not to, so why not just allow it, right? Besides, Jimmy's always been a good guy. Even if he never had to owe me anything at all, I know he'd always find a way in that big heart of his to do something good for anyone else but himself.
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NOTES: I kind of don't want to do this writing style anymore because it limits the details I can put in the story. I will admit it does have more of a personal feel, but with characters having different voices, it's harder to come up with things to write as I feel that I need to get more in detail with certain things. I'm sorry if you like this writing style, but I think I'm going to change it. It's an appropriate writing style for some things, but I think the choice I made in making this my writing style for this particular story was a mistake. I'm gonna change it up for the rest of the story so it's easier and hopefully better for you guys to enjoy. I may have short chapters of the characters points of views written like this in the future, but my main writing style will be like a normal third person perspective narrative. Let me know what you think about this decision of change, please! :)