In The Eyes Of a Saint

F I V E

Something pulls me back, my head hits the concrete and my leg scrapes against a piece of metal. I stare up into wide green emeralds with flecks of gold. My breath catches in my throat and my fingers bend around something soft.

I gulp, still staring at the emeralds. Something moves under me and suddenly I'm standing up instead of on top of something.

I finally look around the emeralds and see a face.

Bright green eyes with flecks of gold. A mop of wavy dark brown hair on top. Full, pink lips. A perfect nose and slightly sharp cheekbones.

My heart races faster and my breath quickens. I can't tell if it's from seeing him or from the anger slowly entering my veins at the fact that he stopped me.

"Why did you do that?" I hiss and his eyes widen, head tilting to the right a little.

"Why were you about to do that?" His hands move from my shoulders to my upper arms. He holds me tightly and I try to push him away. I think he thinks I'm going to jump again but it's just because I don't like people treating me like the way he is now. Like I'm broken.

"It's none of your business. Now let me go." I try breaking away from his grip again but his hands just tighten. "I'm not gonna jump, you moron! You're hurting me!" His eyes widen a little and I'm still struggling when he lets go so I stumble back a little. I quickly right myself before I fall and get hurt.

"I-I'm sorry. My name is Erik. Wh-what's yours?" He keeps looking around, a few drops of sweat trickling down his forehead. I watch him wipe his sweaty palms on his sweats and roll my eyes, crossing my arms.

"I'm not broken or crazy." I walk up to him and place my hands on his shoulders. I spin us around so I'm facing the ledge and he's standing closest to it. "Is that gonna make you stop sweating and being all nervous?" He gulps and I drop my hands. He's only an inch or two taller than me so I can easily look into his eyes.

"I wasn't nervous," he says and I roll my eyes again. At this point I'm more annoyed than angry.

"You kept looking around, you were sweating even though it's not hot, you stuttered, and you kept wiping your sweaty palms on your pants. I've felt with nervous people before. You were nervous." He shrugs and sticks his hands in his sweatshirt pocket. We stand in silence for a minute when I drop my head, pinching the bridge of my nose and sighing. I am so going to regret this. "My name is Noa Lional. Nice to meet you Erik, but I was just in the middle of something so can you please go?"

"You're joking, right? I'm not going to just walk away and let you do that. Plus, you're bleeding." He points to my leg and I see a large cut going down the side of my calf. It's not bleeding a lot but there is blood.

"So? It's not gonna matter when I'm dead so please, go. Away."

"No. Come with me." He reaches down and grabs my shoes and note in one hand then takes my hand with the other. He starts dragging my towards the roof door but I pull back. It's useless though because I don't have shoes on and it hurts my feet and my leg is sort of numb. Except for when I try to use it.

I eventually give up resisting and by then we've gone down almost one flight.

"Hey! Let go of me!" Erik stops walking and turns to me. "I'll follow you but you dragging me hurts and I'm bleeding so I suck at walking right now. Can you just help me down the stairs instead of dragging me?"

"Sorry," he half-whispers and puts an arm around my waist on my right to help me walk. I limp along down a few more flights of stairs.

The hallway we go down is just like the rest of the building but it seems different. Almost like no one else is around. I looked around the apartment to check for any smokers or someone who'd hang out on the roof in the morning. Looks like I missed someone.

"Give me a second." I watch Erik fumble around with his keys before finally getting them in the lock. He pushes the door open and smiles at me. "Come on in."