Don't Save My Life

Chapter 14

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE REACHED THIS POINT!!!!  DAISY IS NOT DEAD. I'm so sorry to swtich things up on you guys but I did some major editing. Someone did die but it was not Daisy. I won't ask you to go back and re read the chapter but just so you know, Daisy was hurt very badly in the bombing and taken to the hospital. No one knows the extent of her injuries because her family moved her out of the state the moment she was released. So sorry for that.

(Before you read: I know the formatting is terrible at points and I am not exactly proud of this chapter because a lot of the style isn't there so please bare with me, I'm working on some newer chapters to make up for it.)

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Willa

Walking the trail was like reliving a vivid dream. The kind you awake from uncertain on whether what you just experienced was either that, or a nightmare. I knew it all so well, the hidden stumps that needed to be dodged as they lay in wait; camouflaged beneath the golden leaves. I knew the exact moment we needed to duck, the precise way to bend your head so that you wouldn't be whacked in the head by an oak branch. I even knew to walk, with my body slightly tiled in a diagonal, so as not to tumble down the semi-steep hill leading to Benet's old spot.

It had been months and I could still walk this trail at anytime of day or night, with my eyes completely covered. Despite the changes that our entire town had gone through, it was amazingly, still the same; everything about it. Well, almost everything. Daisy wasn't the one I was going with.

 "What do you mean this is Bennett's place?"

For once, I was grateful that it was Emmett's voice to snatch me from my thoughts. 

I stopped walking, tearing my eyes from the withered old cabin. He looked as if he'd just escaped a war. His nose was beginning to bruise the color of a plum against his warmly toned skin. Fallen leaves and pine needles stuck out from his hair at all angles. He tried to hide it, but I could hear him suppressing the heavy breaths that threatened to come out as heaves.

"We're almost there." I offered, unable to hide my smile. "You uh, you're not very good at this are you?"

"Good at what?" He snapped.

"Doing the opposite of what you're told." 

I used my boot to nudge a half of a beer bottle out of his way in case he was too flustered to notice it.  The last thing we needed today was any more blood.

"And I guess you're just some kind of fucking expert at breaking all of the rules? Finding all the secret hangouts and hooking up with guys in janitors closets?"

I didn't bother retorting, he deserved some venting time. After all, I sort of caused him to break his nose.

"Actually, I'm quite the opposite."  He'd caught up and I'd begun to walk again." I never get in trouble."

"Whatever." Was all I could get from his mumbling.

The next few minutes droned on as an endless array of deafening silence between the two of us, only interrupted by the occasional sound of a car back near the rode. As we got closer, I could hear music playing inside, and from the sudden changed expression on Emmett's face, I knew he'd heard it too. 

"Ready?" I looked back at him as I placed my hand on the knob and he actually smiled back at me. It looked almost manic, what with his current condition, but I couldn't help but feel a small pitter patter in my chest of something that made me turn back to face the door.