He Saved Me

He Saved Me Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Isobel’s POV

“Isobel?! Did you hear me?”

The sound of Alice’s voice was really starting to get on my nerves. It was Monday, and we were sitting in our usual corner of the loud and crowded lunchroom at Brooks County High. No, I hadn’t heard her, but it wasn’t hard to guess what she had been saying. Ever since the moment that she had picked me up for school this morning she had been nagging me incessantly about my missing classes on Friday.

“Look I told you I was sick.” I was unable to keep the impatient tone from my voice when I spoke to her before looking back down at my hands. I really hadn’t wanted to come to school today, but since I had in fact been absent from class on Friday, I knew that it would be stupid to miss Monday as well if I didn’t want anyone asking questions. All of my instructors had easily accepted the excuse that I was sick on Friday and that was the reason that I had not attended. Since I have never missed a day of school ever before, they all seemed to believe me without a doctor’s note. Plus, I guess it only helped my claim of being sick that my eyes were bloodshot and sunken in with a grey/purple hue to them that no amount of Cover Girl could cover up.

“No Isobel,” Alice said, sounding a little wounded that I had snapped at her. “I--that’s not what I was asking about…”

I looked up and sighed, feeling guilty for putting that offended look in her eyes. “I’m sorry Al. I’m just distracted today. I really have been sick all weekend, and I was just thinking about the Anatomy test that I missed.” I lied, which made me feel even guiltier.

“Oh yea, about that--there he goes again!!” she said, sounding exasperated. “See that’s what I was asking earlier!” she gestured with her head.

I could feel my face scrunch up as I looked at her with a bewildered expression. What was she talking about? “What?” I asked.

“Why does Bobby Slade keep staring at you?” she asked in a confused tone, yet somehow sounding accusatory at the same time. She gestured with her head again, and my head snapped up.

I searched for a second before my eyes locked with his ice blue gaze. He looked confused…conflicted; like he was battling with himself on what to do.

As I stared back at him, my mind jumped back to the last time I had gazed into that hard glare. He had been so torn on whether to ignore me and take me to the hospital against my will or to just do as I asked. I had never seen Bobby unsure before that night. I don’t think he meant to or even noticed it, but Bobby had been glaring at me that night too. I don’t think he liked being unsure. It must have been as new to him as it was to me. I knew why he was glaring now though.

Bobby had come back to my house on Friday morning to check on me just like he had promised, and I had ignored him. I remember lying in bed and listening to him bang on the door after my dad had left for work. I had wanted so badly to let him in, but I couldn’t move. My mind was trapped in the past, on that night, reliving those events over and over. It had been an hour before he finally gave up and left, and I had stayed in that same spot, sobbing into my pillow.

I could feel my eyes glaze over with fresh tears now as I stared at Bobby and remembered.

It was at that moment that Bobby jumped up from his seat and started across the lunchroom toward me with a determined look on his face. My heart stopped beating for what seemed like forever before it resumed at an impossibly fast pace. Tears were pouring now, and I was relieved that Alice hadn’t taken her eyes off of Bobby to see me break down.

“He’s coming over!” she screeched, still not tearing her gaze away.

I ignored her, again becoming slightly irritated with the sound of her voice. To my impatient mind it took Bobby an eternity to make it over to me, but when he was there, he didn’t even break his stride; just grabbed my hand and pulled me away, and I was grateful to him for getting me out of there before someone witnessed my breakdown.

***

Bobby’s POV

I had been, for lack of a better word, shocked to see Isobel at school today. I’d seen her as soon as I walked into the lunchroom; sitting at her normal table with her friend Alice yapping nonstop beside her as usual. But Isobel wasn’t listening I could tell. She had a far away look in her eyes, and even with an entire room between us I could see the pain that lived there.

I made my way to my seat without going through the lunch line. I had lost my appetite the minute I had set eyes on her. Why would she be back at school so soon? Is she trying to torture herself?

At that moment I watched her head jerk up at something Alice had said and her eyes scanned the room until they locked with mine. Her hazel eyes seemed to be more of a dull gray today, or maybe it was just my imagination playing tricks on me from across the room. She looked almost lifeless; like she was barely holding on. As her gaze held mine prisoner, I watched the pain flash in an out of her eyes and it took everything in me not to get up and go to her. She held me trapped for what seemed like forever in her stare. My boys had already joined me at the table and were having some kind of debate on what it would take to get Amber Moore into bed. I only half heard them as I watched Isobel’s eyes glaze over with tears. She looked panicked, but her eyes still didn’t leave mine. She was going to break down!

I knew this girl better than I should have. Certainly better than I would admit to anyone being that to the public eye, even to her, we were sworn enemies since the fifth grade. Before then we had been friends. Before my father…

But I had been watching her for years. Her strength, her determination, her pride…there was no way she could break in front of these people. I jumped up from my seat and rushed toward her. I had to get her out of here before it happened.

Tears were falling unchecked down her cheeks now, but not even her friend noticed. I ran the rest of the distance to her and lifted her from her seat by her shoulders and half carried her, half drug out of the nearest exit. I didn’t stop until we rounded several corners of the school building and were out of sight of anyone who would happen to pass by.

The sun was beaming down on us as I set her completely on her feet and let her try and get control of herself. Dry sobs wracked her body as she doubled over, leaning her hands on her knees. I patted her back awkwardly and whispered words to her that my pride wouldn’t allow me to listen to. She stood straight up and wrapped her arms around my neck as she continued to weep into my shoulder.

My hand trembled as I held the back of her head and pressed her face deeper into my chest, trying to lend her some of my strength. “Isobel, why would you come here so soon? This is too much too soon!” I whispered urgently into her hear as I stroked her soft, almost black hair with my still trembling fingers. “Why?”

“Bobby,” she choked as she drew in several deep breaths to try and calm herself. “Bobby--?”

“Shh baby…shh.” I said quietly as I pulled back and looked at her. She was so beautiful. Even with her swollen, blotchy face, she put other girls to shame. “Calm down.”

Surveying the rest of her, I cataloged the extent of the injuries given to her during her struggle Thursday night. There was a small, swollen knot on her forehead which had previously been covered by a set of bangs that didn’t usually fall onto Isobel’s face, so I knew that she had only been trying to conceal the wound. There was also a scratch going down her right jaw which I could only assume appeared during the struggle. Looking down at her neck, I could see that a deep gash was peeking from the top of her high-collared shirt.

I really wanted to find that bastard who had done this to her and kill him. When I had returned to the ally way that night, there was no sign that anyone had ever been there accept for Izzy’s dark blue jeans that had been discarded during the attack. I had raced through the dark, looking for any signs that would lead me back to him, but the only thing I found was a small pool of blood on the lid of a trashcan behind Jonathon’s Café. It could have belonged to anyone, but I remembered the wild shots I had fired into the darkness behind him and prayed again that I at least one bullet had hit him. Maybe he was somewhere dead. Maybe he was in a hospital somewhere, fighting for his life. Or maybe I had missed him altogether and he was out somewhere, planning to do this to another girl….

It really didn’t matter where he was, I was going to find him, and if he wasn’t dead, he would breathe his last breath in my presence. I have always had friends on the inside of the police station…that’s how I had avoided doing time for this long. Friends that had known my bastard dad before he’d left. They would help me find the prick, and keep their mouths shut after he disappeared.

“Bobby?” Izzy had stopped crying and her voice pulled me from my violent thoughts. I looked at her and there was fear in her eyes as she looked at me. I had let her see my anger, and she thought it was aimed at her no doubt.

“Don’t worry baby. I will find the son of a bitch who did this to you, and he WILL pay. I’ll kill him myself!”

***

Isobel’s POV

The look in his eyes told me that he meant every word he said, and I felt so guilty and selfish because I knew that I should be against Bobby murdering someone for me. The cops should be handling this, not an 18 year old boy who had already been spiraling head-first down his own destructive path for the past 8 years. But I wanted that man to pay, and the police couldn’t make that happen as well as Bobby could. I knew that without having to ask. Like I said, the look in Bobby’s eyes at that moment said it all. The pure hatred that had gripped my heart since last Thursday night mirrored in Bobby Slade’s eyes as he assured me that he was willing to commit murder for me.

“You promise?” I whispered nervously.

“Oh I guarantee it!” he said right before the bell sounded to signal the end of lunch. “Now come on, I’m taking you home.” he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the student parking lot.

***