Don't Save My Life

Chapter 6

(I know the formatting is insane so please excuse that. Also, this is not proofread so i am aware that there are plenty of mistakes. I'll come back and fix them. )

Emmet

She looked like she’d seen a ghost and for a moment I even considered looking over my shoulder to see if I could see it too. But her eyes stayed on me. Not in a way you meet someone new, but the way you look at someone from your past. She didn’t answer me for a long while, just stood there frozen in place.

Maybe I was wrong, maybe she was deaf or something and I was standing there looking like a complete douche. With this in mind, I could feel my cheeks warming up and I decided now would be a good time to apologize and leave with some dignity. Before I could do that though, she stood up. I didn’t get a chance to grasp what was happening when she began to run from me. The girl who’d been sitting at the table with her now looked up at me. She’d been watching as I approached and offered Willa a dance.

She stared at me confused, probably wondering the same thing I was, what did I do to make this girl run away? Except the girls expression wasn’t so much asking, it was as if she knew I did something wrong. She stood now; ready to take off following Willa. I stopped her though. Girls had this thing, when they weren’t tearing each other apart, they were tearing other people apart for each other. I’d never be able to talk to Willa if her friend was there.

So I asked the girl if I could speak to Willa alone for just a moment. She hesitated but sat back down, turning her attention to the movie that was being projected on the wall of the small restaurant shack.

I found her easily, sitting with her back against the wall in an empty life guard tower. When she saw me climbing up the ladder, I could see that she was weighing her options, and didn’t doubt for a moment that she might pull out some Laura croft moves and end up squeezing out the small built-in window. Before she could do that though, I put my hands out as if waving a white flag.

“Please, don’t run again. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I realized, this was exactly what people said when they did intend on hurting other people. I started to reword when she spoke, cutting me off. Her voice was small, not afraid, but not completely brave either.

“I know that.” She said, not taking her eyes off of me.

“Then why did you run?” I asked, settling myself on the ground next to her. She seemed to flinch when my shoulder touched hers, and suddenly I wanted to wrap an arm around her. I didn’t know why, but I had an urge to hug her and tell her everything was okay.

She looked at me, directly in the face now. The moonlight coming from the window reflected across her face, her dark eyes like hot coals, dampened from the rain.

“You don’t remember me.” she said, almost to herself.

The newspaper had spoke of me, pulling a girl out of the mall minutes after the bombing. I knew that she was the girl but I couldn’t help but consider who she could have been to me before the accident; a close friend, a girlfriend maybe? I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to her, but then why did she not say anything about it? Why did she get so scared when I came around?

“No,” I admitted. “But I want to.”

At this she turned her from my gaze.

“No you don’t.” she said finally.

“Why?”

“I did this to you.”

Her words were like sirens going off in my mind.

“What do you mean?” I asked, turning my entire body around to face her.

“My dad,” she said. “He bombed that mall.”

 "I know."

Before I could ask any more questions she reached in her pocket and pulled out the necklace that had caught my attention earlier. She put it in my hand before standing up.

“I know it’s too late for this, but for the record, I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused you and your family. Tell Benet I’m sorry I'm the reason Daisy was taken away. I know he loved her."

She left on that note, leaving me in the shadows holding the sparkling piece of jewelry in my hands.