found / mgc

chapter eight - heroes

-Ella's POV- Time: 3 am

I climbed out of the car and it took me a few seconds to realise that I was standing on my feet.

I turned at Michael and he gave me a smile.

"Maybe I should go alone. You are the celebrity. You can't die."

"I won't die. You won't die."

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. It felt really warm and safe. Just like home.

***

The cabin wasn't situated too deep in the forest and it was very small. The door was already open and this seemed incredibly ridiculous. Why hide a girl and leave the door open? Too ridiculous.

And as I stepped inside I felt something cold hitting me hard on the back of my head. I heard my body hit the ground and I heard people fighting.

My eyes were half shut and I swear I could see a blonde crying in the corner of the room.

I used the last bit of force I had to drag my body towards that person and I looked into the same lost eyes I looked into a while ago. Susan's eyes.

But someone pulled me back and I never, ever hit someone that hard with my legs. I heard that person swear. He spit on me and someone else came from God knows where, pulled my hair and hit me in the stomach area hard.

I heard Susan scream and cry and I heard people yelling in a foreign language and the room was spinning but all I could think about was Susan and the pain I felt all over my body.

A gunshot.

A gunshot made my eyes open and the room stopped spinning.

Suddenly all I could hear was Susan cry and only Susan cry.

I also started crying. I dragged my body to Susan again and held her in my arms. I cried so hard that it hurt my throat.

Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do. And I decided to get up.

-Michael's POV-

Ella and I helped Susan stand up and we called the police.

Of course they asked us hundreads of questions.

An ambulance took Susan and another one took the man I shot to the hospital.

After we answered all their questions Ella hugged me and I admit that I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her self respect.

We both decided to walk to a bar in the middle of nowhere and drink a beer to celebrate that she was right. She felt so pround of herself. Then we checked into a motel, the worst place on earth.

"You could have had anything else in the world." I said.

She smiled up at me. Filthy as she was, covered in blood and dirt, she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And then her lips met mine. I knew that nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed her.

-Ella's POV- the next morning

He was sound asleep, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He hadn't been shaved recently, and he looked rumpled, dissolute and beautiful. Like a fallen angel. I moved to stand in front of him.

I'm making space for the unknown future.

Michael opened his eyes slowly "I am not a morning person."

***

When I got home my parents had already heard what happened.

Kate and Mark heard too.

The whole school considers me a hero.

Susan's parents called me and told me how grateful they were and thanked me over 50 times. Unfortunately, I didn't speak with Susan that day. I really wanted to talk to her but I understood that she isn't in the best place.

The following weeks were weird. Everybody knew who I was and, all of a sudden, I wasn't my friends' shadow. Some people knew me as Susan's guardian angel and others as Michael's girlfriend. And that didn't bother me a single bit. I didn't hear from Luke, Michael told me he was sick. But I met the other band members and they are the nicest people. Nicer than Mark.

When Susan came back to school, she looked for me and asked to meet after school. We discussed for hours and I am happy that she is alive and that she wasn't mad at me or Michael for what we did that night. Since I helped her, time started passing again. I didn't feel stuck anymore.

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after. So, the next morning, Michael realised something was different.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm right here" I said.

"I know, but it feels like one percent of you is somewhere else, where is that one percent?" he said.

I don't know what he meant by that, but I smiled at him anyway and changed the subject.

/////

(a/n)

this ain't the end.

this is just the beggining.

xx