SALLY
His face was shocked. My face was shocked. Through my tired eyes I saw my book lying in front of his feet, open. Tears popped up in my eyes but I winked them away. I wasn’t the person to cry. No. I was the strong one. “How could you, Jack?!” I shouted at him. He looked at me and I could see he searched for words. I picked up the book and closed it. “What’s wrong with you?!” I shouted again as he didn’t answer me the first time. I grabbed my hoodie in anger and went out the room. I slammed the door behind me and ran down the stairs. I jumped in my military boots and ran out the door. As I ran I pulled the hoodie over my head and kept my book safe under my arm. I ran over the street and into the park near the house. The last bus already went, so I couldn’t go anywhere. I needed to keep calm and keep the little warm I had. It was being so damn cold. The winter would soon be here, and that was something the weather didn’t let me forget. I leaned my back to a streetlamp and sat down on the ground. I hugged my knees and wished for the night to be gone so I could jump on the next bus home; yes I called it my home. I hadn’t lived there for too long, but this house with teenagers that were kind of like me, really felt like home. For first time after dad died, I actually felt proud over calling that my home. If I had my phone I could’ve called Milly, but that was under the pillow in the bedroom. I couldn’t go back to get it now. I needed to stay here, or get far, far away in a second.
I slowly opened my book and started to write. I wrote as fast as possible to keep my fingers warm, and not to think too much of what I was writing. I liked that I could go back to the pages and see how upset I was when I was writing it. I never fixed mistakes, and I never checked over what I wrote. I just wrote as it fell into my head.
I closed my book and put it between my stomach and my knees. That was the place I felt was the safest place right now, even I knew no one would come and take an old book out of a teenager’s hand. I hugged my knees tightly and stared dead in my light blue pyjamas pants. In the pyjama pants my mind started making up dreams. I could see me and my dad, being together again. It was one way that could happen, but I promised dad. I would make my life be good, never do something bad to myself, left alone suicide.
Someone sat down beside me. I knew the smell. I didn’t need to check who it was, I knew exactly who it was and I felt his arm around me. “Are you okay?” he said and put a blanket around me. I looked out in the air and hugged my knees even more. “Jack?” he asked. I nodded slowly and felt him press me closer against him. His muscular arm around me kept me warm, and I felt pretty safe near him. “I thought that.. He was sitting on your bed and talking mad to himself so.. yeah” he half-laughed but changed to serious pretty fast. He knew I didn’t find it funny. “Sal, he’s just stupid.. Don’t care about him..” he said to me. I felt him staring at me and turned a little more against him. “Zack. He read my deepest secret.. He knows everything I didn’t want to tell anyone about!” I said and stared out in the air again. He pulled me closer to him as I shivered like crazy. “Maybe he needed to know” he said and looked at me. I stared at him suddenly. What was he saying? How could he take his part of this? “I mean.. He has heard you talk about something that make you feel bad, and good friends will try to help.. Yes, he should’ve got it from you and not read it in a book, but hey.. It’s Jack” he said and locked my eyes. I was confused. Was he protecting Jack but at the same time trying to help me? That didn’t seem right. I had so many comments I could’ve thrown out to him, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to make him feel bad. I really felt safe in his company. I needed to change anyway. I was such a bitch to everyone, being impolite. At least I could change with some people..
He wrapped the blanket around both of us now and came a bit closer. He seemed to freeze too and I leaned in to him. I shivered and a lonely tear fell to his knee. Shit. Please don’t say he saw it, please. “Sally, are you crying?” I closed my eyes hard together. Why was I becoming weak in his arms? Why? I was always the person everyone thought couldn’t be anything else than mad or happy. I liked that view people had on me. “Please, I don’t force you to tell me what’s wrong, but I’m here, straight beside you actually, if you need me” he said. I laughed to myself. He was adorable where he was sitting making small jokes out of everything. “My book tells it all” I said and handed him the book. In the same time he grabbed it I couldn’t stand what I actually just did. I hated that people knew my story and I just wanted everything to be all right, but now I just gave whole my story to the muscular body beside me.
He closed the book and looked at me. He put his one hand on my neck and moved my head so I was staring him straight in the eye. “Your dad was right.. and believe me.. You’re an amazing girl, no one will make it better in life than you will” he said consistently. Usually I would say something like; ‘yeah right’ or ‘Yup, I’m the best person alive’, but I didn’t. I just stared at his eyes. The beautiful shiny eyes that were staring back in mine. What did he do to me? Why didn’t I be impolite or rude?
He locked my eyes, before his eyes moved to my lips, and then to my eyes again. I joined in the same game, before we caught up in each other’s eyes again. “We s-should probably get back in, don’t you think?” he said. I shook my head and looked away. He put his hand on my neck again and stared me straight in the eye. “It’ll be okay, I promise. You can sleep in my room.. I won’t let Jack talk to you before you’re ready for it” he said. I smiled weakly without taking my eyes away from his. He looked at my lips again and we started the same game. Eyes-lips-eyes-lips. “L-let’s go” he said and stood up. He pulled me up and kept me close to him. We were still freezing, both of us.
