You Only Live Once

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

            Time slowed down as my entire body slipped off the edge and I was left dangling from the edge of the roof by my fingertips over open air. My heart was pounding in my ears as I tried to pull myself up but I felt the stitches in my hand open and my palms started bleeding making it even harder to get a hand hold. A drop of blood hit me on my face and I looked down.

            Sierra, Sophie, and Abigail were standing right underneath me looking up worried while the rest of the group ran up. Kaitlin and Stoudt were standing a little way off watching me struggle to not fall; John, Jenny, and Jake were nowhere to be found.

            I felt a hand brush against my shoe and then John shouted, “Alena let go we’ll catch you!” Blinking I looked down and saw him and Jake leaning over the railing with their arms held out to catch me. Taking a deep breath I looked up at the clouds and with a prayer to who knows what I let go of the roof.

            Air hit me as I fell and just as quickly I was jerked to a stop only to slip out of John’s hold. Right before I could fall again a hand grabbed my arm and I stopped again swinging over the ground by a few feet. Still in shock I looked up to find Jenny staring back with determination in her eyes as she tried to haul me back up.

            Right as her fingers started to slip on my wrist, John and Jake reached over and together the three of them hauled me up to safety. My knees gave out the second my feet touched solid ground and Jake had to catch me before I went crashing to the floor. Tilting my head to look at him he asked, “Alena are you hurt anywhere?”

            Licking my lips I croaked, “My hands reopened.” The three of them bent down and Jenny let out a gasp when she got a good look at all the blood covering my hands and arms. John took off his shirt and wrapped it around my hands keeping them tightly pressed together before he bent down and picked me up; I rested my head right over his ear.

            Walking through the playground John commanded, “Jake go run and get my car and drive back; we’re taking Alena to the hospital.” With a nod Jake ran off but was left in the dust when Sophie sprinted by him shouting that she would do it; got to love the track team. When he got to the curb, John sat down with me on his lap while we waited the rest of the gang decided to run up then.

            Chloe popped up first and the second she took a look at my hands she started freaking out, “Oh my god what are we going to do!” John shot a look at Dustin and he gently tugged her away and gave her a hug while she struggled to form a complete sentence. I was just closing my eyes tiredly when I saw Kaitlin’s boots in my peripheral vision.

            “Wow that was really something,” she sneered down at me and I stiffened making a move to get up but John’s arms tightened around me. “I mean seriously,” she continued looking at her chipping nails, “Most of us can climb up there without the need to become an attention whore.” This time John let me go without saying anything as I scrambled to my feet and walked up to the bitch snarling.

            Unwrapping my hands I sneered, “Oh really I’m the attention whore? At least I don’t carve hearts into my body just to get a sympathetic look when you should really be locked up in the psycho ward.”

            “Oh really at least I don’t over exaggerate injuries to get attention.”

            “I nearly just fell to my death and you say that to me?”

            “I’ve bled more than that slitting my own wrists,” she said and then slapped a hand over her mouth while I grinned triumphantly; score, Alena 1 Kaitlin 0. Uncovering she said, “At least I don’t pretend to get raped to get attention.” Oh she did not just say that.