Ashling

Chapter 27

I'm so excited at the fact that Cassandra's waiting for me outside, that I don't even wait for the elevator. I take the stairs and run down twelve flights. By the time I reach ground floor, I'm panting and my legs are deficient of oxygen. My legs can't breathe. Wait. What did I just say?

I rush out the door, my heart beating fast at the thought of seeing her. But she's nowhere to be seen. She said she's waiting outside, so where'd she go? I look around and my gaze falls on a head full of curly brown locks. I smile as I realize that it's her. But my smile fades as soon as I notice that she's talking to the old man who sits in a corner and asks for money.

As I approach her, I observe that she's smiling and talking very politely to the man.

"Hey.."

She turns slightly and grins widely when she sees me.

"Hey, you! You took long to come downstairs." She teases me.

"Yeah, um.." I begin, but I don't complete my sentence. It feels a bit awkward making small talk in front of a man I don't know and have never liked.

"Tyler, meet Mr. Edward Johnson." She introduces us cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you, son." The man gives me a toothless grin and I give him a nod in return.

"Um.. You called me down..?"

"Yes! Wait." She says and turns towards the man. "It was a pleasure knowing you Mr. Johnson. Take good care of yourself."

He smiles says, "You take care of yourself too, angel. You take good care. And, thank you."

"No problem at all." She warmly tells him and then turning towards me, signals me to walk.

"Did you know, Mr. Johnson used to be a plumber? He had a proper job! You'd look at him and you'd think that someone like him has always been on the street, begging for money to make his living."

I don't know why she's telling me all this. I'm already having a hard time trying to understand why she would talk to him in the first place, and now she's discussing his story like my life depends on it.

"You said you bought cookies for me." I interrupt her before she could continue.

"I did. But I gave them to Mr. Johnson.. I saved you five." She says sheepishly and hands out a box.

I'm pissed. For some reason, I'm insanely pissed.

"Why bother? You could've given him all of these."

She doesn't notice my bitter tone, because she laughs and says, "Well, I could've, but I wanted you to try some. I made these." She shyly tucks her hair behind her ear.

"I have to go, got some work to do." I turn around and begin walking.

"Wait!" She holds my arm and stops me. "Are you actually mad that I gave some cookies to a man who has probably not eaten proper food in days?"

I look sideways. "Whatever."

"Have you talked to him before? Do you have some sort of grudge against him?"

"How hard is it for you to understand that I don't give a shit about that man?" I lash out at her. "I don't bloody care how long he's been sitting there or if he has had proper food. I don't care if he was a plumber before. I don't like him. He just sits there doing nothing, begging for money."

She just stands there limply, her lips parted and her breathing slow. Then all of a sudden her eyes take a ferocious light and she clenches her jaw.

"For someone who was satisfied with his job as being a plumber, who had no complains, he made one small mistake. He fixed every pipe in every house he was called to. Little did he know that he would over look his house. Little did he know that his own house would be the most damaged one, the one with the most leaks."

I don't know where she's going with or what she's trying to say, but her eyes have such determination to make her point, that I can't bring myself to speak.

"His wife put their one year old son in the bath tub with his toys. It was empty when she left. She went to check up on the food but it took her long and by the time she came back.."

She takes a ragged breath and softly says, "The child had drowned."

My breath hitches as I hear this and a shiver runs down my spine.

"Apparently the pipe had a leak and it burst. To make things worse, the sewerage canal regurgitated water. The flow was so fast, that it filled the tub in only a few minutes. His wife was so traumatized, that she committed suicide. She hung herself... This man hasn't been able to work properly ever since that tragedy."

She's crying now. Tears are slowly making their way all the way down her cheeks and all I wanna do is hold her tight.

"I didn't.." I begin. "I didn't know.."

"Well of course you didn't." She taunts me. "How could you? When you never once gave that old man a second glimpse. How could you? When you never once stopped and tried asking him how he's doing. How could you? When even though you have hundreds of dollars in your wallet, you couldn't afford to spend a couple of quarters on him."

Her words are like knives that are stabbing me again and again with their harsh truth. And I can do nothing to stop it because deep down I know that I deserve this.

She continues, "You think you're some magnificent person and the rest are just ordinary people. You proudly walk around like you fucking own this place. Well, news flash Tyler! You are just as mundane as everyone else! You are just as human and inhuman as everyone else! That man has done nothing wrong to you, he has never caused you any trouble! No one's asking you to buy him a house or do something extravagant for him, but the least you could've done is stop for a second and ask him how he's doing. You could've shown a bit of compassion towards someone who's lost everything."

"Cassandra, please.." I try to say something, anything, but every word stored in this universe has rejected access to me. Because I am speechless, I can't speak.

"All you had to do, was care. That's it. But you arrogant, self-centered son of a bitch, you are so involved in yourself and your car and apartment and job and your good looks that you simply don't give a shit! Even if you didn't wanna stop and talk to him, you have absolutely no right to judge him without knowing him!"

She looks at me with pain in her eyes her next words are like a slap on my face.
"Guess what, Tyler? You aren't the only one who's damaged."

With that, she turns around and briskly walks away. I just stand there, stunned at everything she said. She was raging with hurt and anger, she defended someone she didn't know, because he needed to be defended. She was protecting someone who has never once been offered a helping hand. She was simply being human, something that I haven't been in a while.

And even though I feel so embarrassed and ashamed, even though I feel pathetic, it is in that moment that I realize that I am unconditionally in love with Cassandra Evans.