How To Save You

Step Eleven: Riddle Within A Mystery

I smiled at her, waiting for her to tell me. Finally, I was getting past that Great Wall she used to kept everybody out. Suddenly though, with a sinking stomach, a hand clamped onto my shoulder and swung me round. My eyes widened and my lips thinned out into a straight line as I observed Naomi and Carl.

"What's up, man?" Carl punched my shoulder lightly as Adri turned to face the ground.

"Not a good time," I said through gritted teeth.

Naomi rolled her eyes and linked her arm through mine, letting her eyes trail over Adri slowly. You could see the silent judgement in her eyes, and Adri looked up suddenly her eyes narrowed slightly. I remembered how angry she had been when I had chosen to walk away with Naomi rather than her.

I saw the walls go up again, I saw Adris eyes glaze over with a thin layer of ice. Naomi shrugged slightly and turned up to me, smelling of perfume and French fries. She started to blabber about the cinema, and how we ought to get going and some other bullshit. I shrugged her off and took two steps, ending distance between myself and Adri. I was going to hear what happened to her, I was going to find out and save her.

"I'm gunna hang out with Adri, you guys have fun without me," I said stiffly.

Carl frowned at me and the tugged me aside. Reluctantly I mouthed to Adri 'gimme thirty seconds'. We stopped a few feet away so we wouldn't be within hearing distance. Carl crossed his arms, looking really pissed.

"How many times have I gotta tell you, man? Leave Adrienne alone!" he glowered at me, his thick black brows drawn together

"No," I vehemently refused. I knew what I was doing was right.

"You're my friend, but if you don't back off, I'm warning you..." Carl threatened, leaving me to fill in the blanks.

It wasn't a hard riddle to solve. Carl was on the American football team, and he'd just get a few of his buddies to rough me up. But if he thought that was going to stop me, he had another thing coming. If he was persistent, I'd get beaten up, but I'd sure as hell take some of them with me. I was tougher than I looked.

"Carl, bro, I'm doing the right thing. Adri needs me," I said, filled with conviction.

"She needs to be left alone by guys like you! You're no good, and you're going to break her heart and send her right back to the mental ward!"

We both froze. Mental ward? Simultaneously we turned round and stared at Adri. She was coughing into her hands whilst Naomi steadily ignored her, texting away on her phone. She met my eyes and cocked her head to the side curiously.

Ignoring Naomi I looked back at Carl, my stomach in knots. Poor Adri, that had quickly solved the mystery why she had gone off radar for six months. It was also why her popularity had decreased to minus one. My friends were assholes if they could ditch her after that, when she needed them most. Carl could feel the anger burning inside me and quickly shook his head at me.

"I've already said too much. Remember man, you don't know the full story. You wouldn't understand what happened."

"Then help me, Carl! Goddamnit, what is with you Americans?!" I yelled out in frustration.

Naomi burst out laughing and I tugged at my hair, tired beyond measure. This school and it's peers were riddles within in mysteries and covered in cryptic clues. I was more than frustrated.

I felt a warm arm wrap itself round my waist; Naomi. She was still giggling, her hazel eyes sparkling nicely against her dark skin. But I was sick of her constant advances and I was sick of everybody. I pushed her away and just walked away from all of them, from Adri, from Carl, from Naomi.

***

I didn't know what to do, so I kicked a ball against the fence for a while until my father came out of the house.

My dad was like an older version of me, except he wore small round glasses and he had a tattoo between us shoulder blades with the date of his wedding with Brandi. He smiled at me and gently and sat down on the lawn chair. He knew me well enough that I was going to tell him what was wrong.

"Am I bad?" I asked him, kicking the ball into my hands.

"At soccer?" He questioned me.

"At being a person. Am I a bad person?"

My dad smiled and cupped his face in his hands, "no, son. You're just human, and you make mistakes."

I sighed,thinking back at Adri's constant criticism, at the way Carl scoffed how I was only going to end yo breaking Adri. I knew that I could be an absolute jerk, but it affected me to think that I was not a nice guy. I honestly tried.

"Is this to do with Adrienne Walker?"

I smiled at my dad, "kind of."

"She's a very broken girl, but if anyone can fix her up again, you can. You've bit a gift with people. I remember how when the divorce happened, you managed to patch yourself up and your brother."

I shook my head, remembering it a little differently. I'd cried a lot during that year- ugh I had been such a little pussy, yes I knew I was ten but a man was a man.

"But Eli, you must know that some people don't want to be saved. I saw our marriage crumble and I saw my ten year old kid almost crumble with it, in a desperate attempt to make us stay together."

I swallowed, crossing my arms and clasping onto my elbows. My dad was looking at me, his blue eyes cutting through me like glass. I felt so see through with my father, he always managed to figure me out. Perhaps it was because we were so similar.

"You need to realize that you can't force someone to change. You can't make everything better, you're not a god. So please, Eli, realize that or this attempt will destroy you both."

***

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