Crystal's Saviour

09

"Cameron? Where are you?" I walked back and forth in the restroom of school. "Call me when you get this." I sent him the voicemail.

It was 5th period now. Cameron had skipped 3rd period because he had to go home. His younger brother called. Cameron had always been close to his siblings. He had two younger brothers. He cared for them more than anything in this world. His mom was a single mother and worked so hard for the three of them. When his brother called Cameron left everything and went straight home to him.

I exited the restroom and started to walk towards my locker. Crystal wasn't here today either. I hadn't seen her since two days. Yesterday when I called her she talked hardly for 10 minutes before declining the call. I message her after that but she didn't reply.

As I walked towards my locker my eyes fell on her locker and I saw her standing there. My heart leaped in excitement when I saw her. I quickly approached her. "Hey."

She looked up at me and my heart stopped when I saw a bruise on her left cheek. "Shit. What happened." I stepped closer to her and eyed the bruise.

"Oh God. Is it visible?" She lightly touched her cheek. "I thought the makeup covered it. Shoot." She whispered to herself before pushing past me and running towards the girls washroom.

I picked her book from the floor that fell from her hands when she ran and shut her locker before running after her.

I waited outside the girls washroom, earning weird glares from girls passing by.

After some time Crystal came out of the restroom. When she saw me, her breath hitched and she looked anywhere but me. "Please don't ask about it." She shut her eyes when I approached her.

"I won't." I looked at her and I saw her breath out and she opened her eyes to see me.

"Can you not tell anyone.. about this?" Her eyes plead me to not tell anyone.

"Don't worry I won't tell."

"Thank you." She whispered and took her book from my hands.

"I better get to class." She said and walked past me. I noticed that her bruised cheek was not covered with makeup and there was no bruise visible.

My heart broke when a thought came in my mind. Is someone abusing her?

***

"Aiden.." Dylan kicked me from under the table. "What." I turned to him. He pointed towards the front of the class. I looked ahead and saw the teacher glaring at me with her hands crossed over her chest.

"Why aren't you paying attention here? I'm calling your name from the last ten minutes." She glared.

I was really not paying attention to her blabbering because my mind was still thinking about Crystal's bruise. I was worried about her. Her cheek was badly bruised and she had to cover it up with makeup. What else was she covering up?

"I'm sorry. I didn't get enough sleep last night. I..." I thought of an excuse but she wasn't buying it. "Alright. Then you should go to the principal's office and sleep there." She angrily said. I stood up and therew my books in the bag. I was not in the mood for arguing with her.

I exited the class and headed towards the bathroom. I heard a  message notification from my phone and took it out of my pocket. 

Are you okay? I saw you walking past my class angrily.

Cameron's message said. A smile made its way up to my face when I read his text. He cared way to much about me. He had always kept a close eye and made sure I'm okay all the time. He knew well about me and my dad. He knew how much I disliked him and Cameron always had my back. He never made me feel alone.

I'm okay. Don't worry. When did you come? How's your brother?

I replied and his message was quick. He's okay. I'll meet you at lunch.

I shoved my phone back in my pocket and started at the mirror infront of me.

It upset me when I think how many people in this world are going through soo much from inside but keeping a happy face for the world. They never let anyone know how sad they are or what they are going through. They don't want others to worry about them. They want to see others happy. They suffer alone and it literally breaks my heart that how much overthinking kills a person.

I was worried about Crystal. Her slit wrist made me anxious and I didn't want her to take any bigger step. I knew it was too soon. We had just met and it was hard for her to trust me but I wanted her to trust me and share things so that I could help her out. I didn't know what she was going through but I didn't want her to go through that stuff alone. I wanted to help her out.

Trusting someone is hard and especially when you just met someone it is impossible to trust them. You're always afraid that what if they break your trust and let you down? What is they're not worth it.

You want to let things out so badly but you can't trust anyone because you're afraid. I know that feeling.

I suddenly recoiled then the bell rang, scaring me. I washed my face with cold water and headed outside the washroom.

I met Cameron on my way to the cafeteria. "Tell me what's wrong." He ordered.

"Cameron, seriously I'm fine."

"You think I'm buying that shit?" He raised his eyebrow at me.

"It's just..mom." I sighed. I couldn't tell her about Crystal. Cameron was my best friend and I never hid anything from her but Crystal also didn't want me to tell anyone about her. She wanted to keep it a secret.

"Oh. Did they.. argue again?" We both took a seat in the cafeteria. "She looked really bad last night." I ran a hand through my face.

"Things will be fine one day, Aiden. You just have to stand by her side and never let her alone."

"You're right." I ran my hand in my hair.

He nodded. "You want something to eat?" He asked.

"Just a bottle of water." I said and he nodded. He stood up and walked towards the lunch lady.

My eyes roamed around the cafeteria and they suddenly stopped when I saw Crystal sitting in the corner with an untouched tray infront of her. She looked deep in her thoughts as she looked down at her slit wrist.