Falling Slowly

Chapter Three: Body & Mind

Chapter Three-Body & Mind

Thunder roared overhead as the cracks of lighting followed after as if there was a war above unseen by human eyes. I knew that I should have gone home straight after school as Dad had suggested. Hayden offered to drive me home, but I had declined – wanting to take a walk down town and go to the music store. It had been a few weeks since I’d last seen Mr. Edison and I missed his stories of the war and the beautiful sheets of music that he’d compose in his earlier years.

I could spend hours in his music store, and it was exactly what I had done.  It was nearly six when I headed out into the cold, frigid air. The rain quickly covered me, drenching me from head to toe. Silently, I prayed that the sheets of music Mr. Edison gave me would not be ruined by the rain. They were too precious and valuable to have the ink smeared, making the pages unrecognizable and weathered.

The streets began to flood with the drastic pouring of the rain. I cursed myself for forgetting my cell on top of my vanity this morning. Mom and Dad would be worried sick when I got home, and I’d probably get grounded. Not to mention that I’d probably have a wicked cold tonight; I could already feel my bones begin to ache deep down to the marrow. It hurt.

The loud roar of an engine startled me as it stopped beside me, and the driver cut off the engine. I kept walking, wondering where he was heading. All the stores had closed due to the sudden storm – well, all the stores I had passed. As I looked down the street I saw the other owners begin to close up shop; Open signs were switched to say Closed, lights switched off, and cars whizzed by in a hurry to get home.

“Anya!”

I turned around at the sound of my name, needing proof that it was who I thought it was.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Liam gave me a bewildered look and grasped my hand as he began to pull me towards his motorcycle, or bike as I liked to call it; a bike with an engine. “You’re going to catch your death. Take the favor.”

I snatched my hand from his grasp, digging my heels to the ground. He stopped, eyeing my warily. “I don’t need your help. I’m not a lost puppy. I know my way home.”

“I also know that you get sick easily. Stop being stubborn and hop on,” he said motioning to his bike. “I won’t bite.”

Really, I thought, could have fooled me. I watched Liam’s expression change from wariness, to irritation, to pleading all in a matter of seconds. “How did you know I was here? This is nowhere near your house. Have you been following me?”

He scoffed. “Stop thinking of yourself so highly, Anya.” He ran a hand through his matted blond hair that looked more like a dirty blond soaked from the rain. “Will you just listen for once?”

I eyed the bike suspiciously and then glanced back at Liam. He was going out of his way to take me home, why? Four years of silent reproach had been broken this morning when I stood up to him, but that was because he was being a jerk - terrorizing an innocent kid on the first day of school. Talk about a horrible nightmare coming true for a freshmen. It wasn’t enough reason for Liam to begin to talk to me. Even when I went to the vending machine, I pointedly ignored him. He could have done the same, but instead he talked to me – he actually talked to me.

And now this?

It was strange and uncommon. Like an eclipse; it only happened rarely and after years of it being dormant.

“Are you coming or not?” He asked, impatiently. He was already straddled over his bike, the engine loud in the silence and emptiness of the street. I bit my lip, weighing my options. I could politely decline his offer and go home only to get sick for a week. Or I could go with him and make him hate me less and complete number 9 on my list.