savior

sixteen

DAY THIRTEEN;  EIGHTEEN DAYS TO GO

I placed the bear Ashton gave me on my bedside table. His gesture was cute; giving the stuffed animal because he thought he made me cry. It was so sweet.

After Ashton left the table, I didn't talk to Anna for the rest of the day. She probably ruined things between the two of us. It wasn't like I liked him, and I knew for sure that he didn't like me. She just made things awkward. 

Kaitlynn and I didn't walk home together that day. She didn't want to come home and face Mom, because even though she was sorry for it, she was still very mad at her. Still, I couldn't blame her. She decided to stay over at a friend's house.

I didn't have anything to do that night—I wasn't given any homework, surprisingly—so I decided to get a shower and call it a night. As the water hit me, I kept thinking about this whole process. As much as I had been going through with it, little things still bothered me, like how I still didn't know a lot of things about Ashton. We had become friends, but not close enough to where something like saving his life could actually happen. I needed to get to know him a little bit more.

Maybe I should learn about his friends; well, Michael. I still didn't know that much about him, other than the fact that he really, really, really likes food. I soaked my hair and scrubbed it with shampoo, finally coming up with a conclusion. I needed to invite them over.

After cleaning my body for dirt, germs, and whatever else I had gotten on me, I stuck my hand out and grabbed a towel from the rack. Then I stepped out of the shower.

I almost screamed when I got my whole body out. Sitting on the toilet was Death, wearing something completely different than normal. Instead of dark colors, he was dressed up in almost all white and sky blue, from head to toe. He even looked a bit older. The rings on his fingers weren't spiky and creepy, but shiny and gold.

"Death! What the hell are you doing in my bathroom?" I shouted. "Can't you see I'm currently not wearing any clothes?"

He let out a small, lighthearted chuckle. What was going on? Why was he less creepy? Why didn't my skin crawl when I saw him? This was weird.

"You think I'm Death?" he questioned, still laughing. "Would Death ever be seen wearing something other than black? Oh, you oblivious child, I'm not Death."

"Then who are you?" I asked, still not very comfortable standing in front of him with only a towel covering my body.

"I'm Life."

"You're Life?"

I was so confused. At first, I had a hard time comprehending that Death existed, but now there was a man named Life sitting on my toilet seat? If he wasn't so large of a man, I wouldn't believe him. But he and Death were giant—taller than Luke, and that's saying something. So Life and Death was a thing. Interesting.

"Yes, I'm Life," he answered. "And I'm very disappointed in you."

"Disappointed in me? What did I do wrong?" I grabbed my towel and lifted it higher on my body. Does this Life guy not know anything about privacy? Water droplets were falling in puddles on the floor, and I couldn't do anything about it without removing the towel from my body, and I was definitely not doing that.

Life nodded his head. "You accepted that deal thing with Death. Are you an idiot?" He shifted his weight on my toilet seat, causing it to break from its hinges. It slid off the toilet bowl, causing it and Life to fall to the floor. "Blasted human toilets!"

"I'm the idiot," I said, while rolling my eyes. "Do you mind getting out for a second and letting me change?"

Life didn't budge. Instead he turned around to try to fix my toilet seat. I released an annoyed sigh, grabbing my clothes from the counter and heading off to my room. I dropped the towel. It took about five minutes to dress myself—my wet hair caused water to drip down my body, which made the clothes stick in awkward positions—then I opened the door and invited Life in.