All Rubber Duckies Go To Heaven

Chapter Fifteen [Aerin]

["Saving You"-Chris Ganim]

[Aerin's Point of View]

Her eyes fluttered as she slept. I wanted to move so badly but I couldn’t. If I moved I’d wake her up and I couldn’t do that. I don’t think I’d ever seen her with such serenity. Her face was soft and relaxed (except for the dark reminder of her fading bruise). I sighed and let my head fall back onto the back of the couch.

She mumbled something.

“Hm?” I questioned and sat up straighter, thinking she was awake. She wasn’t.

Her face tensed up and she shook her head. “No,” she protested. “Don’t.”

She was dreaming.

“Jan.”

Her torso shot up and she screamed, still sleeping. Chills ran up my spine as I twisted to set my hands on her shoulders. Her legs slid off my own. I shook her lightly. “Jan!” It didn’t work. She kept screaming so I put my hand over her mouth lightly and shook her a little harder with my other hand. “January!”

The scream broke and her eyes shot open. She gasped and jumped backward. It didn’t quite work out since I was straddling her legs with my own. Her eyes widened and she screamed again, hitting me in the chest.

My hand clapped back down on her mouth. “Sh! Quiet.”

She stopped and stared at me blankly before roughly shoving my hand away. “What the hell are you doing, exactly?” She eyed me viciously.

I looked down at my body and back to her face. Down. Back. Down. Oh.

I bolted off the couch to a safer spot with my hands held up defensively. “It’s not what it looks like! I can explain!”

She pulled her knees into her torso and wrapped her arms around her legs. I could see the little red marks on her palm where her nails had broken through the skin. “Please do.” Her voice was harsh but her anger was fading.

I took a step closer but stopped there. “You were dreaming and I guess you had a nightmare or something. You started screaming.”

“Oh.” Her eyes hit the floor. “You can sit back down. I’m not mad.”

I kept my eyes on her –not because I was worried that she was going to hurt me but because I was worried about her –as I returned to my seat.

“Do you mind me asking what it was about?”

“I don’t remember,” she lied.

After school that day I stayed a little late so I could practice on the school’s acoustic. I had one at home but it had recently, er, died (by ‘died’ I mean my sister had been vacuuming, hit the shelf, and it fell on my guitar). Mr. Veere, the music teacher, let me hang out while he put together evaluation sheets for the freshman.

My mom wasn’t there when I got out so I plugged in my iPod and put it on shuffle. I slowly nodded my head along to the tempo of “Saving You".

“Tonight we'll change your life and

Tonight I'll be here my friend

I'll keep on saving you

Over and over again--”

I hit the wall of the building when someone pushed me. I pulled the earphones out and let off an irritated “Do you mind?”

Jayden scoffed and blew something in my face. I grimaced as the smoke stung my eyes and got caught in my throat. As I blinked rapidly, trying to get it out of my eyes, he slumped against the wall beside me. I grew uneasy as he flicked the ashes off his cigarette and put it back in his mouth. Jan used to kiss that?

When he let a breath out I noticed a few of his friends were hanging out a few feet away, ready to jump in if a fight broke out.

“You’re name’s Aerin, right?”

“Yeah,” my voice cracked.

“You want one?” He pulled out a red cigarette package and offered it to me.

I shook my head. “No, I’m fine.”

He shrugged and put it back in his jacket pocket. The orange stub of his cancer stick flitted to the ground. Jayden crushed it with the toe of his black Vans before snapping around.

I barely had time to react. I jumped to the side and Jayden’s hand hit the rough brick wall, barely missing me. He screamed out in pain and spun around swearing. I knew to start running when his friends ran over.

As I sprinted away I could hear him yelling after me. “Don’t think she’s yours or anything! She’ll always be mine!”