Saving skies

Chapter 6

The knocking on the door doesn’t stop, Bryce has been standing there for half an hour and I haven’t left the ground where I am laying down, crumpled.

“Anna” he tries to call to me again. “Anna, please talk to me… I’m sorry… I don’t know what I said”

I break down into tears again, my sobs wracking through my body and the noise carrying out to the hallway, where Bryce stands.

“Anna” Bryce whispers, almost inaudible “please come out.”  Slowly I stand up and look at my face in the mirror. My hair is tangled, my eyes are red and my face has puffed up from the tears. I look horrible. But I realise in that moment, I don’t care what I look like. So I turn around and unlock the door.

I breathe in and out, trying to control my anxiety as it stayed in my chest. He stands directly opposite from me, hands in his pockets, looking at my feet.

“My parents died in a car crash when I was 14 when we were coming home from a dance comp and I had to live with these foster parents who were horrible and drunk and I was losing myself so eventually I just left” I blurt.

Bryce stares blatantly at me, before slowly processing what I said.

“God, I’m sorry Anna” Bryce he tells me, trying to comfort me as my breathing becomes erratic. He walks forward and pulls me into a hug, his hands wrap around me and he starts circling his thumbs on my back. Suddenly everything I wanted to say becomes jumbled and nothing I tell him seems to make sense.

“I’m sorry if you don’t like me” I tell him eventually.

“W-what?” he stutters back.

A tear falls down my face, finally, and all my emotions fall with it.

“If you don’t want me here…”

“No, don’t go there. I’m not letting you sleep on the street. Of course I like you, why wouldn’t I?”

“Because you never talk to me and just give Nick funny looks when I say things all the time”

“I don’t hate you Anna”

“But you called me a slut?”

“No, Anna. I didn’t mean that. God, I was drunk and that guy is the biggest sleazeball in town! What the hell would I have told Nick if I had seen you struggle and get hurt by him! I was mad, I didn’t mean it!”

“So why haven’t you said anything?”

“Look, the first time I saw you on the couch, I was pissed because it was like Nick had just brought another charity case home” I give him a puzzled look. Another charity case?

“I was the last charity case; do you know how I ended up here?” I shake my head at him and wait for him to continue.

“My dad was drunk all the time and my mum left… so eventually so did I, I just ended up here because I had no other place to go”

“Oh” I whisper, mostly because I have been complaining about my life, and I don’t know anything about anyone else. Bryce pushes me back from his hug and wipes the tears from my cheeks.

“I’m jealous that you get the attention because you need the help. I’ve had the help” He says. “I don’t have to go back to work today; my boss let me take the afternoon off. Do you want to eat some soup?” He asks me.  I nod and he opens the door to his room.

“Sit down on the bed, I think you need to sleep somewhere decent for a bit, I’ll get the soup”

I lie down on top of the mattress, and tuck myself under the covers. As soon as I am comfy, I realise how tired I have become. Crying for extended periods of time exhausts me. Which is usually why I don’t do it.

I haven’t cried since the first night at the foster home. After they locked me in my room at seven, and hadn’t given me sheets to cover my bed with in the middle of winter. I cried myself to sleep as I shivered in my freezing room.

Soon, Bryce walks back into the room. He is carrying the two bowls of soup we were eating out of before. I sit up and he sits beside me, handing me my bowl.

I eat silently, slowly chewing the pieces of chicken and swallowing them. I don’t want to be the first to talk. If Bryce wants to say something he can just say it. When we are done he takes the bowls and moves them to the ground.

“Do you wanna watch a movie?” He asks me suddenly, with excitement.

“I guess” I answer.

“Ok, I have Cars or… well Cars at the moment, is that ok?”

“Yeah” I reply.

Bryce moves to collect his laptop and sets it up on the bed. I scoot along so he can fit next to me on his double bed. I hadn’t noticed, but his room was really neat. There is a small bookshelf with a collection of worn out books, a poster of Kurt Cobain on the wall next to it, a cupboard and a window. He also had a map of the world on his cupboard door, with red dots on places and lists next to it.

Bryce sits down next to me and his gaze follows mine to see where I’m looking.

“What are the dots on the map?” I ask

“Places I want to go” He replies

“And the lists?”

“Things I want to do when I’m there.” He says, and presses play on his computer, so our conversation dies out and is replaced by the talking cars.

I smile to myself at his answer. Wanting to travel. It’s just what I always wanted to do. Backpacking through Europe and Asia… Maybe even going to North and South America if I have enough money by the end of it.

Half way through the movie I feel Bryce slump down next to me, I turn my head and see that he’s asleep. His head rests on my shoulders and I slump down too, losing interest in the movie.

I look over Bryce’s features. His strong jawbone, straight nose and prominent cheekbones. His skin isn’t tanned, but also isn’t pale. He is still wearing his fluoro orange electrician’s shirt, and his dirty shorts. He looks so peaceful with his eyes closed; the harsh look on his face disappears. There are no worries etched into his face.

His hand jerks closer to mine, covering them. Then he grips onto them and holds them tight. I wonder if he is awake, but I am answered when he starts sleep talking.

Not English, just blubbering nonsense. But the nonsense becomes terrifying and he starts to sweat, moving about in his sleep. He must be having a nightmare. He starts to yell out and scream. So I stroke my hand through his hair in a desperate attempt to calm him down.

“Shh” I whisper “Shh, it’s ok”

And then I lay my head down next to him.