Perfectly Spoiled

Perfectly Spoiled Chapter 2

So this is the second chapter. Thanks to anyone who has read the first one. Please comment and vote if you enjoy it.

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I stood at the top of the multi storey car park, looking down on all the people passing beneath me. They looked so small. I didn't want to hurt anyone when I landed, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't be around to feel guilty if I did.

Lifting my head I looked at the last thing I would see. Warehouses, turned into plush flats. The tops of the trees in the park, swaying in the wind. Grey clouds blocking the sun. I loved the city. I wouldn't have a chance to miss it.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. This was it. No more basketball. No more fake friends and being popular yet alone. No more pretend...

A unfamiliar voice coming from behind me made me jump and stumble a little. I caught myself, my heart drumming in my chest at how close I was to falling over the edge. It didn’t fail to occur to me that I shouldn’t be feeling relieved that I didn’t fall. I wanted this, didn’t I? That was why I was up here. But I didn’t have time to think about it, I wanted to see who it was who’d startled me.

“I thought it was you,” a guy from my school said as I turned to face him. I didn’t know his name, but I recognised him. Better than I would most people at our school. He was the guy Leah said was always staring at me.

“You shouldn’t be up here,” I told him stupidly. It wasn’t difficult to guess what he’d say after his unaffected shrug.

“Neither should you. I won’t tell if you don’t,” he said, but it wasn’t just a joke. He meant he wouldn’t tell anyone about this. Well it didn’t matter if he did or not, because I was sure it’d be in the papers by morning. “I know you don’t know who I am but...”

“I know who you are. You’re the guy Leah complains about because you stare, longer than everyone else,” I interrupted. It wasn’t an accusation, just an observation. I never minded that he stared. Why should I? I knew most people just thought I was a bitch; it was nice to have someone outside the popular crowd pay some positive attention to me.

“I didn’t really think you’d ever notice. Not that that was the point. I’m not going to ask you why the most popular girl in school has decided that, “ he struggled to find the right word for a moment, “this is a good idea, because I’m not one of those ignorant enough to believe that being popular is an enjoyable experience,” he rambled, clearly losing his calm composure. It didn’t matter. Calm composure or not, I was jumping. I refused to be one of those bald, frail teenagers in hospital, so pale they look like they already died and have come back to haunt the place. That would not be me.

“Do you have a point? Because, I may not have plans for the rest of the day, but I’d really like to get this done. Standing here is giving me a little vertigo and I’d rather jump than fall ungainly due to lack of balance,” I told him, trying to stare him down. I’d had practice in scaring people off. Inside though, I was terrified. I kept wobbling a little, each time giving me minor heart palpitations, but I was trying not to show it. I’d made up my mind, hadn’t I?

“So if you don’t have plans, how about going for a hot chocolate or something? Its pretty cold,” he said, looking at the threatening grey clouds.

“In case you didn’t catch on, I didn’t make plans because I won’t be around to see them through,” I sneered. He was starting to wear on my nerves, and I really didn’t want to have to do this in front of him.

“You won’t do it,” he stated simply.

“Oh of course!” I cried, “because you know me don’t you? Everyone knows me. Millie Spencer, popular girl and everyone thinks they know her, but you all know nothing,” I ranted. He’d gotten to me. I wasn’t sure how, but he had, and suddenly I was spilling this speech about how no one stopped to really get to know the real me, and I had no real friends. The biggest commotion this would cause among them would be over who was to become the new me.

When I’d finished with the most honest thing I’d said in years, he had the decency to look a little shocked, before speaking again.

“When I made you jump and you almost fell, you sighed in relief when you stopped yourself. You won’t do it,” he shrugged.

That was it.

“How dare you tell me what I will and won’t do!” I fumed, storming towards him, ready to hit him or kick him or just scream in his face. As I got close to him, he grabbed me with both hands and pulled me too him hard, backing as far as he could from the edge of the roof, his arms like steel around me.

And without me realising what he was doing, he’d saved me. For now.

He shook as he pulled me inside the fire escape door, shutting it behind us and slumping to sit at the top of the stair case, arms still fixed around me. That’s when something in my brain clicked.

“You didn’t know I wasn’t going to jump did you?” I asked quietly, not wanting to remove myself from the arms of this guy, even though he was essentially a stranger. I didn’t even know his name.

“Are you kidding? I thought you were going to jump, right in front of me. I was trying to work out how quickly I’d be able to get to the edge to grab you if you went for it,” he told me, his voice shaking slightly.

“So...so why did you say I wouldn’t?”

“To piss you off. Enough for you to come towards me to hit me or something, close enough for me to grab you,” he explained. I wasn’t sure what to say next, so I figured I’d try and start the way most normal meetings start.

“What’s your name?” I asked him. The shock began to set in, and I started to shake, causing my already aching body to twinge in protest.

“Nathan Fields. Everyone calls me Nate. So how about that hot chocolate?”