Small Stories

What Happens

•••

The sky was an unending cloudy gray and the atmosphere was sickly humid. The bustling city of people readied their umbrellas.

"Do you want to share an umbrella Yumi?" Akira said as she took out her purple hyacinth and purple hydrangea patterned umbrella while walking.

"Yeah sure, I didn't bring my umbrella with me," replied Yumi. Her carefree eyes landed on the distant glowing stoplight that was located in the middle of a heavily trafficked intersection. They needed to cross that to get to their destination. "but," she added in a sing song voice. "If you want to make the most of today, forget umbrellas exist and enjoy the rain with me!"

Akira let out a light laugh. "Yumiiii, only kids do that, people would make fun of two teen women doing that." Her post-laugh face turned into a reminiscent smile. "It would be fun though."

"Exactly, and who cares what other people say."

Akira didn't repond but she tightened her grip on the umbrella in her hands for a moment.

"Uhm hey, Akira, I gotta tell you something," Yumi said, she looked nervous underneath the dark colored umbrella they were sharing.

"Hmm? What is it?" Just by looking at her best friend she knew something was amiss.

"I'm not enrolling for college next year."

It sounded like a coin dropping on the floor, clear and reverberating, "wait, what?!" Akira exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's no big deal though, I want to play the drums in a band and rise to be the next big thing!" Her eyes shone with optimism.

Akira felt reluctant to reply, but she did. "Are-are you sure you want to do that? That's a pretty big decision in your life."

She shrugged it off, "I'll get there when I get there. I didn't really like college anyway, plus I'm pretty sure I'm failing math. Or was it called calculus?" Yumi went into a deep thought but let it go.

The rain started to fall, and the thunder miles away roared.

"It's either joining a band or commiting suicide, i need my beauty sleep in my coffin." Yumi dramatically tilted her head and put the back of her wrist on her forehead.

"Yumiiiii, please don't talk like that. It's not funny." Akira's hands tensed around her umbrella. "Joking about suicide isn't something that should be normalized. I mean what if you suddenly blurted that out to someone who was about to commit suicide?"

A wry smile appeared on Yumi's mouth, a habit of hers that Akira caught onto from their years of friendship. "What happens, happens. I don't want to do that either but people are born to die, why struggle when you're old and gray and can't do anything for yourself? Why go through that when you can die young?"

The two teens were halfway to the highway intersection. The peltering rain was the only sound between their silence.

Inside Akira's mind, she was arguing with herself. I shouldn't have said what I said ,right? It's not right for me to force my opinions on her... right? Akira balled the hands on her sides to tight fists. "Yumi," she said meekly. "Are you mad?"

Yumi responded with a blank stare ahead, they were almost at the intersection. "I'm not mad at you, but I'm mad at myself."

A frown etched on Akira's mouth. "Why?" Was it because of what I said?

"Because I'm so stupid." Yumi turned away from Akira's eyes while she said that.

Akira didn't know what she meant by that, she wanted to comfort her, but she didn't have the courage to speak up anymore. She stayed quiet.

Finally they were almost at their final destination, the green stoplight in front of them was the only thing keeping them away from it.

With no conversation in the air, Akira let her eyes wander to the young boy a few steps in front of her. His hair was soaked with only a black large coat wrapped around his shoulders like a blanket to keep his body warm. Wasn't he cold?

There was an obvious bruise on his left eye and small nicks all over his face.

She eyed his legs, trembling and barely hanging on. Akira wondered how long he's been standing there in the rain.

The boy must've felt someone staring at him because as Akira was about look back up, their eyes met. She smiled warmly at him.

He looked back in front of him without returning the smile and clenched his fists.

I must've caught him in a bad day. Akira thought to her self.

Still with the lack of conversation, Akira let their eyes wander to the cafè across the street, she wanted to talk with Yumi more about their earlier topic when they got to the cafè that they wanted to eat at since forever, it was just across the street. Almost within reach.

The stoplight was almost ready to turn red, the countdown beside it read 13 in green lights.

But in the distance, a flashy sports car was overtaking car after car in mere seconds, it had no intention to stop.

The boy perked up, like this was what he had been waiting for for hours on end. He glanced at the stop sign, it read four. He looked back at the people behind him.

The kind woman who had smiled at him was looking at the cafe across the street, the woman beside her was staring at her shoes with clenched fist, he wondered if she hated herself too, like he did. The other people behind him were mindlessly scrolling at the phones. Perfect.

Akira was pulled out of her reverie, the relentless honking horn sounding like an outraged yell, the thrown back black coat slammed at the people behind were thrown aback and were confused. And then her eyes landed on the boy.

It was as if the clocks of the universe suddenly broke and everything was slow.

He stood there ready to take the car's impact, but he was a moment too early, he made the mistake of his life.

That moment was enough for Akira's legs to move on their own, her quick reflexes saved her from being hit with the large jacket. It was an ability she had developed to save herself from her abusive ex-boyfriend's beatings, but this time, it was the death of her.

I'm not fast enough! Akira screamed in her head. There was no time to grab the boy and pull him in her safe arms.

Yumi watched with horror as a blur of Akira's body dashed to save the boy, Yumi's outstreched arms couldn't do a thing. Her body turned to stone.

Akira pushed with all her might. At the same time the universe's clock seemed to fix itself and everything was back in motion. The boy stumbled in front of her, his face held nothing but pure terror as he realized his mistake. He looked at his unkown stranger in the eyes and just seconds before colliding with the car that knows no bounds, he caught a glimpse of her eyes as she flashed him a brief warm smile.

And just like that, she was gone and appeared a few meters away from him, slumped on the ground, lifeless and blood painting the road like a spilled bucket of red paint.

The spectators were taken aback, except for Yumi, they eyed the car waiting for its driver to come out, but it just sped away.

The spectators quickly took out their phone's camera to capture the speeding car in a video, except for Yumi.

Yumi was still stone, drenched in the pouring rain that seemed unending, she was staring at the boy whom her best friend just saved. He was on his knees, clutching his mouth as tears poured from his eyes like a never ending river.

"Oh Akira," she whispered, glancing at the floral umbrella left on the ground, then at the mangled body of her slaughtered best friend.

"What happens, happens."

•••

Flowers have a language that few know of ♡