Fire Escape | l.h

no. 4

I slept most of the day. There was a dull ache in most of my body, and a stinging pain in my lip. I had a splitting headache.

My parents still weren't home. I figured they stayed at the fancy hotel their dinner was at. They do that a lot. I figure it's to stay away from me. Lord knows I'm a pain.

I hadn't bothered to look in the mirror, but I knew I looked horrendous. I could feel my lip throbbing and my my muscles ached. I hadn't moved an inch since I laid down here this morning.

It was 3:30 when I heard a tap on my window. I slowly moved my head in its direction. Jade.

She smiled and waved. I motioned for her to come in.

"Hey Luke. I have most of my classes with you. Why'd you skip? I was ex- oh my god Luke what happened?!"

I forced a small laugh out of my mouth.

"Is it that bad?"

It felt strange talking with my lip.

She came and knelt down next to me, inspecting my face.

"Who did this?"

"Who do you think?"

Her features fell, a fiery look clouding her eyes.

"Calum?! Luke, why don't you tell anyone?"

I sat myself up, immediately groaning with pain. Jade helped me up the rest of the way.

"Nobody cares."

She looked at her black boots.

"Look. I know I just met you yesterday and everything, but you're a really nice guy. And I consider you one of my only friends here. So, I care. Don't I count as somebody?" She said, smiling at the end.

I felt my stomach flip. She couldn't care for me, could she? I'm a suicidal psychopath.

"Yeah, I guess."

Jade laughed. It was a beautiful sound.

"Let's get you cleaned up, yeah?"

I slowly followed her to my bathroom, then proceeding to sit down on the edge of the tub. She got a washcloth and wet it, slowly but firmly pressing it to my lip.

"Shit." I hissed.

"I'm sorry." She said, pulling back.

"It's fine. Tell me about your first day."

She was extremely good at telling stories. She never left out a detail. She told me how she couldn't open her locker, so she waited there until somebody "nice looking" walked by. That's when she saw Michael, a guy with really red hair (not ginger either) and had really cool band tshirts and loved pizza. He opened her locker, and showed her around the whole day. They were going to a party this weekend.

Man, he's already cooler than me and I haven't even met him.

"You wanna go too? I told him about you and he really wants to meet you."

"Oh. I don't know."

"Please?"

I didn't know if I could handle someone else. I'm already having a hard time with one person.

I opened my mouth to decline, but my parents came bursting through the door.

"Luke! Where are you?" My mother called.

She opened the bathroom door and stared for a minute.

"Um, Luke, who is this? And what did you do to yourself this time?" She demanded.

I took Jade's hand in mine and brushed past my mother, walking towards my room. It still hurt to move.

"I'm fine." I spat, finally getting in my room, slamming the door behind us.

Jade sat on my bed, playing with her fingers. I noticed her fingernails were painted a dark purple, so dark it almost looked black.

I opened my mouth to apologize for my parents, but closed it. I decided on something else.

"Jade?"

She looked up at me, her bright green eyes boring into mine.

"You wanna go somewhere?"

She smiled a bit, and softly nodded. I smiled right back at her.

"Let's go then."

She followed me down the fire escape, until we reached the sidewalk. I had gone down this fire escape many times, going to the same place I was now. I had obviously never taken anyone there with me, so I was nervous. My hands were clammy. I stuffed them in my pockets.

I tried to ignore the pain I was feeling as I walked along. I hated Calum. I don't know why he started bullying me. I guess I was just the odd man out.

"So where are we going?" Jade spoke after a few minutes.

"You'll see."

She didn't ask anymore questions. We walked the 5-6 blocks until we reached the park. I saw confusion etched on her features, so I took her hand.

"We're almost there."

Then I led her to my favorite spot. It was on top of a big hill, that nobody really went on anymore. The grass was so tall, you could lay down and it'd look like you disappeared.

I sat down, patting the spot next to me. She laughed and shook her head, flopping down beside me.

"So we're on a hill. Would you care to tell me why?"

I grinned.

"This is probably my favorite spot in New York. I found it one day when I was just walking around the park. Whenever I got mad at my parents, or was thinking too much, I'd come here. But this is really the best time to sit here, because you get to watch the sunset, and you can see it really well."

I motioned to all the buildings you could see.

"And at night, when it's pitch black dark, you can sit here and see all the lights from the city. It's honestly really calming."

So then I told her about my love for admiring the buildings of New York. How I liked looking up at them, how they always shown bright during the darkest nights. How they always calmed me down, captivated me.

And she listened. I've never had anyone really listen like she did. And after I was finished, she told me about her love for dandelions. She liked how people had so much faith in them, that'd they'd count on it to make their wishes come true. How they could fall apart and still be beautiful, dancing in the wind.

And I listened. Not only did I listen, I watched her. How she smiled and her eyes looked even brighter. How her hair lay perfectly around her face. How she laughed. I think I liked admiring her more than the buildings.

And once she was finished, we just laid there, watching the sunset in a very comfortable silence.

I remember telling myself that if I could do this every night, I just might be okay.

-----

Hi guys! Thank you so much for the votes and support so far.

Can I get 2 votes for the next chapter?

-Savannah ♡