His Hope

Part 2: Running Into You

"How bad is it? No, wait! Don't tell me... okay go ahead, I need stitches right? Oh gosh, I hate needles." She rambled out and he chuckled trying to hide it with a cough. She had spoken more words to him in the past minute, than their first encounter altogether.

"No stitches, but this does need to be cleaned up, I'm sure one of these places has a first-aid kit we can use." He stated, moving back from her slowly and standing up. He held his hands out for her and she rubbed her now dry eyes before she looked up at him, momentarily taken back.

"Wait... you're you?" She mumbled her eyes wide in disbelief wondering how she hadn't recognized him. He basically moved into her mind making himself nice and comfortable over the past week.

"And who would that be?" His lips edged up into a smirk, surprised by how happy he was that she remembered him.

"Xavier... Is this real or did I hit my head too?" She mumbled to herself as if in a daze, cheeks burning in embarrassment a moment after she realized what she said. Her heart rate picked up and her pain was momentarily forgotten as she lifted her head to meet his eyes.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm real, but we'll circle back to that in a second" he chuckled as a small smile played on his face. "Can you stand? I can go get the first-aid kit and come back, but I don't really want to leave you on the ground." He said, reaching up and rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah, I can, yeah, " she stuttered. He held his hands out once more and she slid one of her own into his, her other arm sort of useless now. Although it wasn't needed, given he just lifted her from her position on the ground with ease.

"Thank you," Louisa said shyly, ducking her head. She couldn't believe who she was talking to, or how her voice had remained so calm. She had imagined this conversation repeatedly over the past 7 days, not that she would ever admit that out loud.

He watched her silently; he couldn't help it, every time he forced himself to look somewhere else he drifted right back to her. When her cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink, he found himself wanting nothing more than to get them to stay that way. He turned around, his mind racing as he glanced at the shops that were in front of him and decided a little bookstore was as good as any. He looked back to the girl and eyed her once more now that she was standing, she cradled her arm and stared down her shoes, as if waiting for his next move.

He hadn't told a soul about her, to confused by their encounter and honestly, he didn't want to jinx it. He had planned to go home last week, load everybody up and come back the same day he had first seen her, but there were unforeseen circumstances that kept him away. By the time they made it back into town he felt rather nervous, there was something about her that he couldn't shake. His friends had teased him about how his so-called "game" relentlessly because he hadn't asked for her number or even her name.

She was basically a mystery, one that he had a major urge to solve. It was an unusual feeling for him, but it kept him from searching for the mystery girl, overthinking what he should do. Fate seemed to have other plans though and had placed her right in front of him instead. The sun shone down almost as if it was a spotlight just for her, making her beautiful pale skin glisten. Highlighting each stroke of her eyelashes as they fluttered against her soft cheeks, every time she blinked. She turned her head towards him and looked up at him with those big brown eyes, and his own widened before he looked away.

He cleared his throat and took a  step back motioning her to follow him. He glanced back every few seconds making sure she was okay and still with him as he walked towards the bookstore. He held out his hand when he noticed two little steps leading to the door, not sure if she'd need help or not, convincing himself the action was completely innocent. When they made it inside, he immediately went up to the desk clerk and talked to him quietly, asking if he had a first-aid kit they could use. The desk clerk glanced behind him and saw the young girl scraped up and frowned slightly, nodding his head.