Someone else's mind

Chapter 7

A few days after that, Emily said she was feeling a bit better and wanted to get out and hang. I told her that it was a great idea so we went out and just walked around, I noticed on her that she wanted to say something, but she was completely quiet.

Go on, say something to her!

What? Why?

Well duh, she wants you to say something!

Okay..?

“Hey.. Are you really okay?” I asked Emily, looking down at her arms which she was keeping in her pockets.

“What? Oh, Yeah. I’m fine” She replied quickly and looked in another direction.

“Just a question.. If you don’t mind” I said, trying to get her attention. She looked back at me with a confused look on her face. “The person you were talking to a few days ago.. is that the cause?” Emily stopped, she stood there looking at me with tears in her eyes. The sun made her hair golden as it lit up her whole face.

“No.. He’s not.. He was trying to help me..”She sniffled. “He didn’t do anything to cause this!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know..” I said back while slowly walking towards her. I had no idea what I was doing, it wasn’t me moving.

“I just-... It just.. happened.. it just happened, and I’m sorry I told you all of thi-”

Suddenly she stopped, because suddenly, I was hugging her. She was just as confused as I was. We stood there quietly for some minutes, hugging. I still don’t know if I did the right thing, but at least it stopped her from crying.

Perv..

Excuse me? I was helping her!

Pff yeah sure.

She stopped crying! I helped her!

What if she HAD to cry?

What do you mean?

Mate, Girls cry to vent. It’s their way of letting off steam

Oh..

Stupid..

HEY!

I stepped back and saw how Emily almost began yelling at me, but she didn’t.

“Why did you-..”

“I didn’t want you to cry”

“Oh..”

There was this awkward silence between us when we walked to her house, none of us knew what to say after that hug. It was just randomly awkward, before she closed her door she told me she’d text me later since we didn’t really talk so much. I walked home kicking away rocks from the road, I was stupid for hugging her, I’m pretty sure I ruined my chance to help her. I didn’t even know I wanted to help her.

Ashamed, and tired, I walked into my room and crashed on my bed. I had forgotten that Emily was gonna text me, I had almost fallen asleep when she sent a text. I slowly grabbed my phone and opened her text.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E: You still awake?

M: Yeah.. What’s up?

E: Why did you hug me? The real reason, I don’t think the real reason was that you didn’t want me to cry..

M: Well.. Uhh.. I mean, hugs are a way for comforting, right..?

E: Sure… It was just so sudden..

M: I’m sorry, I didn’t think before I did it.

E: It’s okay.

----------------------------------------------------20 minutes later----------------------------------------------------------

E: Mike..?

    I did something stupid.. Are you there..?

    Please help..

M: What’s wrong?

     What did you do?

     Emily?

E: Just meet me outside..

    I’m by the Trophy bridge…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was serious, she could’ve done anything. I had to hurry, I rushed to the kitchen where we had our first aid kit. The clock was probably 11 pm, my mom had fallen asleep on the couch as usual. I packed down everything from the kit to my backpack, but the rubbing alcohol was gone.

Goddammit, where was it? I didn’t have time to find it, I went to the small cabinet mom stored her alcohol in and grabbed her polish alcohol. 96% ought to be enough to work as rubbing alcohol, she doesn’t even drink it. She got it as an unwanted gift, I sneaked out of my house and ran down to the bridge above the train tracks where I saw Emily standing. She was leaning against the fence wrapping her arms around her, she was coughing. I was terrified as I came closer, but I couldn’t just turn around and run away. The closer I came the more scared I got, it was like living in a nightmare.