at the edge of the cliff || ✔

chapter eight: stars into sunrise

at the edge if the cliff

chapter eight: stars into sunrise

-Grayson's Point Of View-

I closed the front door as quiet as I could and looked around. No one was in the living room or in my dad's office, so I was good. I took and few steps towards the stairs before freezing, cursing under my breath.

"Grayson? Is that you?" my moms voice got louder as she walked around the corner to me. "Where have you been? It's three in the morning." my mom says rubbing her eyes out of tiredness.

"Just a friends house. We lost track of time-" I start to make up an excuse but a voice interfered.

"That's no excuse. You don't need to be running around all hours of the night!" my dad shouts coming in the room. I roll my eyes and start to go for the stairs. "Don't walk away from me!" he yells. I stop and turn around to face him, putting on my most bored expression. "Where were you really?" he asks seeing right through my lies. How he does that, I don't know.

"A party." I say boredly before turning once again to go back upstairs. This time he lets me.

"He has really gone downhill since Will's funeral." That was the last thing I heard my mother say before I disappeared out of the window.

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I drove passed familiar buildings until all I saw were trees. I kept driving until I reached a little dead end dirt road, then pulled in. I climbed out of my car and started walking up the cliff.

My mind started to wander back to earlier tonight when everything was...okay. Its wasn't good, I wasn't happy, but it was okay. Sitting in a comfortable silence with Shay on the porch. I don't think it was her nessessarily, but just having someone's company.

She keeps popping up everywhere recently. I don't know why I think about it. I mean she is annoying, but i'll say it again there is something about her.

I haven't decided what that is yet.

I take the last step and then I am on top of the cliff. The trees stop and it has a little clearing before the edge of the cliff where it goes down to the water. I come up here when I don't want to be home or don't know where to go. It helps clear my mind. Or I come up here to get away and just think about everything.

A small figure sitting in the grass caught the corner of my eye. I quietly walked over to it and realized it was Shay. She sniffled and pulled her sleeves over hands and brought it up to her face. She hasn't noticed me yet, so I kept watching. She scooted closer to the edge where her feet hung off. She looked down at the water and just kept staring down. She seemed to be deep in thought.

"Hey." I finally spoke. She didn't seem startled, in fact she didn't do anything. Just kept intensely staring at the water below. "Shay?" I asked carefully. Still no answer, or even an acknowledgment that she heard me. I sat down beside her, but still kept a small distance.

And for a while we once again sat in a comfortable silence.

"Do you ever-" she paused. Her voice sounded hoarse and scratchy. "just want to...not be here?" she asked. She wasn't looking at the water anymore, but at the sky. It was a deep, dark blue but scattered with stars everywhere. I was taken back at the question, but didn't fully understand what she meant.

"Like, in this town?" I ask looking over at her. I still couldn't see her face because of her hair. She looked down at her hands and began messing with the hem of her shirt.

"Yeah." She sniffles again. "Like, in this town. In this world." her voice had a certain haunting calmness about it. "Like in existence." she added after a second. I understood what she means now.

"Yeah, I do." I say surprising even myself. It just came out. I looked over at her.

"Really?" she asked. I gasp when I finally see her face. She looked at me, eyes flickering to each of mine, like she was searching for something. I could barely tell it was her.

"Shay-"

"For once can someone not say anything?" He voice came out rushed, angry, and desperate. Very desperate. "Don't say anything." she whispers looking back down. Rage flooded through me. Why would someone do this to her? To a girl? To anyone in general? I nod even though she didn't see me. I wanted to ask all of the questions that were running through my mind, but I didn't. She didn't look like she could handle them, like she would break at any second.

"Why are you here?" she asks, trying to change the subject.

And I let her.

She looked like she needed it.

"Just needed some time alone." I say looking out to the small body of water stretched out in front of us. It sparkled under the nightly glow and reflected the stars making it resemble diamonds.

"Guess you didn't get that, huh?" she asks glancing over at me. I watch as she pulls grass out of the ground, tears it apart, tosses it away, and repeats the process.

"This is good too." the words slip out and my eyes go wide at what I said. She looks up at me and gives me a brief smile before going back to her grass picking.

Sometime in the hours we sat there in silence, we ended lying next to each other watching the stars. Stars turned into sunrise, and we still were there.

"Its seven" Shay speaks for the first time,  breaking our silence. I turn my head to see her looking down at her phone. "We have school." She adds.  She stands up, a little wobbly,  so I do the same. I reach out to help her walk but she flinched away. My arms slowly fall back down to my sides and I take step back awkwardly. The way she flinched, it was out of instinct. Like she was used to someone reaching for her, but not to help her like I had intended. But to hurt her. "Im fine." She says giving me a smile that was obviously fake.

"Right..." I draw out. "Fine" I say sarcastically trying to lighten up the tension. I can see her roll her eyes. Okay so maybe that didn't help. She starts to limp back down the little hill and I follow close behind.  "So... Are you gonna tell me what happened?" I press, curiosity getting the best of me. She sighs and keeps walking.  
"Lets just say I got into another fight after I left the party." She said. But her voice didn't sound like it usually did, all playful and sarcastic. They held something deeper. That's what made me start to think what she was hiding.

That was the last thing that was said before we got into seperate cars and went our separate ways. But for some reason, she never left my mind.