Thomas Sangster (a collection of short stories)

Smoke

Your POV

I raised my eyebrows due to the horrid sight in front of me: a cloud of smoke is escaping from under and above the crevice of my neighbor's door. As far as my memory stretches out, that middle-aged lady moved out about two weeks ago. A new tenant? An electric circuit, perhaps? Regardless of the cause, I dropped  my groceries and immediately sprung towards the door. I began to bang my palms on the door hoping that the person inside, if there is any, would open it. A minute flew by but there was still no response from inside. The smoke only thickened and darkened. I grabbed my handkerchief and tied it around the bottom half of my face, covering my nose and my mouth, and without thinking any further, I bolted towards the door. In a blink of an eye, my body pinned the door onto the ground. The pain that traveled through my shoulder was almost unbearable. After regaining my strength back,  I got up on my feet and frantically searched the apartment. 

I ran down the hallway the led straight to the living room. There I found a slender figure laying down on the wooden floor; the figure was a boy coughing. I made my way towards the helpless person and crouched down in order to help him get on his feet. I placed his right arm over my shoulder and, with all my might, dragged him out to safety. 

"Are you okay?" I asked before realizing that he's obviously not okay. I shook my head in frustration and called for emergency. Within ten minutes a firetruck and an ambulance pulled in the parking lot followed by four firemen and two medics. They placed the blonde lad on the stretcher and inside the back of the ambulance. 

"Ma'am, you're a relative, right?" One of the medics asked, "alright, get in the back." The medic answered his own question and before I could even process what just happened, I was pulled inside the vehicle.

I remained silent throughout the entire ride because I was too frightened to disturb the medics who were frantically working on regulating the boy's breathing. When we arrived, they quickly unlocked the back door and brought the boy out. 

"Ma'am, please remain in the waiting lounge until you've been summoned," the same medic said before rushing inside the hospital. I stood there, stunned. I wonder what happened to my groceries. 

Two hours passed and there was still no news about the boy's current condition. I was getting quite worried despite not knowing who he is. Several minutes passed, my concern gradually turned into boredom; I want to leave. I was planning to make lasagna earlier, dammit. 

I placed my elbow on the arm chair and burrowed my chin in my palm. I sighed deeply before drifting off to sleep. My eyelids abruptly fluttered opened  due to the odd sensation on my lips. The lanky boy, who I saved earlier, is in front of me; our lips are connected and I could feel the swirling motion of his tongue. I've never been the type of person who can manage to quickly recollect their thoughts after waking up, but today was an exception. I immediately shoved his shoulders away which caused him to stumble backwards and land on his bottom. I stood up and clenched both of my hands into a fist. 

"You piece of shit," I said as I wiped my lips with the sleeve of my inner sweater. "I-I can't believe you did that."

"You saved me, right?" He said, "thank you." He stood up and smiled at me.

"Why-"

"I kissed you because I've always wanted to. Couldn't help myself because I know it will never happen, you and me," the blonde boy explained.

I exhaled and suppressed the anger that increased inside of me. I can't break here, not with all the people around; I'll cause a scene and that's the last thing I want. 

"Please don't come near me again, ever," I said. "I'll be leaving now."

I bit the inside of my right cheek in attempt to alleviate my anxiousness. I walked past him and through the hospital doors. I took a taxi home.