Broken Strings

Saving grace

Peter has definitely been my rock throughout this entire trip. If I were to count the times he’s saved my life I would need another pair of hands to help. Honestly, he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, he’s my saving grace.

“Are you alright?”

Of course not. In this moment we’re currently being chased by a couple that plan on killing us. I’m dehydrated, starved and exhausted. I feel as though I could collapse in a heap by Peter’s feet and die right here and now. “Not too great,” I answer him.

“I know that’s an understatement,” he chuckled with a half-hearted smile. His fiery red hair lay smoother atop his head than usual. His cheeks are brushed with dirt, bruises and a nasty cut to his eyebrow.

“How is your arm?” he looks down, inspecting himself.

“Sore,” he admits. I know it kills him to show weakness in front of me but I admire his honesty.

“How long have we been waiting here?” I ask. The roadside is riddled with small rocks and pebbles ready to trip us up. Where is the city traffic when you need it?

“I don’t know for sure,” he looks down to his wrist, “I lost my watch through there somewhere,” Peter flicks his head toward the forest, the way we’d come. “I think roughly half an hour? Something like that anyway.”

“Fair enough. Do you think we should push on? They might catch up,” Peter’s face brightens.

“I was going to ask but I know how tired you are, I didn’t want to push you to extinction.”

“I’ll be fine,” I chuckled. My brain says otherwise.

“Come on then,” I follow his lead and as my feet slap the tar they ache with every touch.

“We should probably distract ourselves,” I point out. It was my game plan when doing cross country at school. I used to distract myself with thoughts.

“Alright. Where do we go from here?” he asks. His face his serious and I realise that I have no clue.

“Straight ahead, to the next town, then the hospital for the both of us,” I chuckle.

“No ‘Lee. You know what I mean.” Of course I knew what he meant. He meant when we were safe.

“Uh. Well what about you’re Uncle’s house?” he ponders over the idea. “I mean of course, if you don’t want to then I don’t want to intrude.”

“No ‘Lee, you won’t be intruding. I think you’ve hit the nail right on the head. We should continue on with our original plan. We’ll see my Uncle, stay as long as he lets us and make new plans from there.” I was left with that thought for the next few minutes. What was I going to do? I can’t just live with Peter’s Uncle for the rest of my life. I can’t go home, my parents said they want nothing to do with me anymore. I’ve most likely brought it all upon myself.

“’Lee? Are you alright?”

“Not really,” I slump along the road side and slam my fist into the tar. Blood poured onto the black beneath me.

“Lee! Stop,” he gasped.

“I don’t know what to do?” tears boiled over in my eyes. “I have nowhere to go,” I cried. I felt Peter’s embrace around my body and I shuffled my legs to my chest as he held me close.

“It’s okay ‘Lee. Everything’s okay. You have me,” he whispered, “You’ll always have me.” I felt my breath slowly regain its regular pattern and breathed a heavy sigh. I looked up to see Peter’s steely grey eyes boring into mine, filled with tears, transparent like glass. “Don’t cry ‘Lee, I have you,” he soothed.

“Don’t you cry,” I whimpered. He let out a chuckle and his smiled was enough to wipe the tears.

“Here,” he gave me a hand up, “You realise that if you keep injuring yourself I won’t be able to afford the hospital bill,” he smiled wiping excess tears.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Don’t be. We all get a little fragile, some more than others,” he looked to me as if I was the base of his statement, which I could clearly see I was in fact.

“Thank you Peter, for all of this. Honestly where do you think I would be if you didn’t tell me to come by your house the night I left?” he smiled and looked to his feet. Shy? Surely not.

“Well this is how I see it. If I didn’t come then you would never have been followed by Nicole and Simon and you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Peter hold on. If you didn’t come we wouldn’t be like this. I was so different before you came along. Without you I would be a different person, I wouldn’t be myself. Without you I would have gotten off the train and boarded the wrong one, I would have ended up in some remote corner of the planet wishing I’d never left. Promise me one thing?”

“What’s that?”

“That you don’t regret coming with me?” Peter’s face fell and he stopped as if dropping his bag of thoughts. He turned on his heels and walked exactly three small steps toward me. His hand soothed the back of my neck where an ache throbbed. His other hand holding my waist where scrapes and scratches had begun to heal. His eyes focused on mine and his lips began to move, slowly but surely.

“’Lee I want you to know that you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in my entire existence, inside and out. Leaving with you is the second best decision I’ve ever made. Sitting at your table by the old oak tree was the first best decision I’ve ever made,” his lips crashed onto mine. I tasted the blood that rested on the both of our lips, his touch sent chills up my spine. “Honestly, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me, ‘Lee. You’re my saving grace. Amelia, I love you.”