This story is inspired by a girl called Sarah M. who was waiting for a ferry to take her ot the mainland where she had what I'm going to call, a tck moment. It's not polished in anyway but I wanted to get something out there. Here's the first section. Hope you like it!
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I had always loved the feel of the morning sun on my body as it warmed my sheets and gently stirred me into consciousness. I sighed, and stretched in bed like a cat, not yet opening my eyes to the day ahead. I was supposed to be heading to the mainland to pick up Charlie!
My eyes shot open and I bolted out of bed, scrambling for my phone and praying that I would still be on time. The clock read 7:21. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” That was the only word my mouth could form as I ran to the bathroom to clean up. I changed and snagged an apple and a couple granola bars, stuffing them into my backpack. I would lose precious seconds untying my bike but hopefully I would gain them back if I pedaled fast enough. In my hurry, I ran in to a man with blonde hair (uncharacteristic for the small island I was on, but that thought barley registered as I apologized furiously while pedaling away).
I could see the last few passengers boarding the ferry 20meters away from me, and so I urged my legs to move faster. The salt stained wind pulled my hair out the pathetic ponytail I had put it, and the sun beat down its traitorous heat on my back. I parked, tied up my bicycle, and ran to the ferry entrance. It had departed, but I calculated that if I got a running start, I could make a leap of faith…literally. Just as I was about to jump, a pair of hands circled my waist.
My body whiplashed as I was suddenly pulled in a different direction and landed on top of the blonde foreigner who I had run into earlier. “Karma’s a bitch,” I groaned as I rolled off of the stranger. He stood up and offered me his hand with an expectant grin. I ignored it and helped myself up, storming past him and heading to the schedule board even though I knew that the next ferry wouldn’t leave for another hour and I’d be late. I loved my little island, but its dependency on the ferries to get to the main land occasionally made me wish I lived there instead.
With a defeated sigh I sat with my earphones and a book on a nearby bench to wait for the next ferry. It must have been about 5 minutes before I realized that the person who had sat next to me was actually talking to me. “Excuse me?” I said looking up, “I had my headphones in I didn’t hear anything you just said,” By the end of my sentence I realized I was looking into eyes the color of the ocean with a frame of hair the same color as the damned sunlight. It was the man who had stopped me from—
“Well I was just saying that the least you could’ve done was said thank you to me for saving your life even after you almost ran into me with your bike,” the expectant smile was back and all it infuriated me.
“Thank you?” I asked, “you want me to thank you?”
“Well, yeah. I just saved your life. The least you could do is thank me,”
I couldn’t believe this guy. On some level I knew I was being rude but what had started off as a bad day had just turned into a shit day from this stranger who made me late for something important and then had the audacity to tell me to thank him for it. I decided to give Mr. Sunshine a piece of my mind.
“There’s no way in hell I’m thanking you,” began my tirade, “all you did was make me miss the ferry when I was this close to making it!” I held my fingers a centimeter apart to emphasize my point.
His cocky grin came back for the third time. “You do realize that someone of your stature would have missed that jump. The ferry was almost four feet away from the pier. You would’ve been late and soaked if I hadn’t stopped you. So I’m waiting for my thank you.”
And then he dared to insult my height. At 153cm, I was the tallest I my family. “Maybe,” I condeded” but then I would’ve gotten to the mainland on time instead of being stuck here for another hour and a half!”
“Well what’s so important over there that you’d risk your life for?”
His words put a cap on my temper. The emotions I kept bottled up were about to all come flooding back. But I was skilled at shutting them into the basement of my mind. So my reply was brisk, “None of your business,” I turned back to my book, subdued for now.
We sat like that, me ignoring him and pretending to read, him staring at me pretend to read, for a painful minute. I refused to break this silent game that I had set up with this man and stubbornly sat there. We were almost onto minute two when we both cracked. Our voices merged at the same moment and then ceased to be at the next beat. An awkward silence was left in the wake of our words. “You go first,” I insisted.
“I wanted to offer you a ride to the mainland.” He said seriously. “I have a speedboat by the private docks and I could probably get you there before the ferry even arrives. I’ve obviously upset you and I’d like to make it up to you,”
“You don’t even know me,”’
“And?”
“And what makes you think I’d get in a boat with a stranger?”
“Hi, my name is Chris,” he outstretched his hand towards me, “And you are?”
Years of being dragged to countless diplomatic events with my parents made my response automatic. “Sarah,” I put my small hand in his larger one and we shook. When his grin came out this time, I couldn’t help but return it.
“See, now we’re no longer strangers. Will you let me take you to where you need to go?”
Like most other parents, my parents had always warned me not to go into secluded areas with strangers. I deliberated: if I didn’t go with him, then Charlie might be gone when I got the mainland, and I had to go get her. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t. It had been strange not having her with me for the past 6 months. My need to be with the one stable aspect of my life overcame my fear of possibly being raped, or murdered, or sold as a sex slave… sort of.
Besides, I thought, if there’s one thing I had learned from my lifestyle it was that help could come from the most unlikely of places and the most unlikely of forms. “Okay,” I agreed, “but, if you turn out to be some kind of rapist/serial killer/sex slave dealer, tell me before I get on the boat with you,”
He laughed at my comment, “I promise I’m not,”
“Yeah? Well, the cute ones usually are,” I mumbled under my breath.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing,” I exclaimed. Probably a little too brightly. The morning sun warmed our faces as we walked the short distance to the private boats. We were unaware, though, of the storm clouds brewing behind our backs.
