One Shot

02 | Summer

[A/N: This chapter starts with a suicide scene. It is Summer's vision about Ella and its of course in Summer's point of view. If you don't want to read this, you can skip to the text thats not italicised. Please don't read if you don't want to. I am putting this in as a trigger alert! Again: Skip to the part which is not italicised if you do not want to read about the vision.]

Sobs; soul shattering, heart wrenching sobs echo in the silence of the night.

I couldn't see her face; only her shaky familiar red painted hands. She is shaking a bottle of sleeping pills and I see at least more than 10 pills fall out into her white palm. I try to speak; to scream; to say something — anything but I realise in one moment of dread that she can't neither see me nor hear me. My heart is breaking apart and all I could do is stand frozen and watch her gulp those pills down and then, just like the night sky, everything goes black.

I gasp out loud when my eyes open and I quickly sit up on the bed. My clothes stick to me like a second skin. I am covered in sweat and tears. My heart is racing, my hands are trembling and its a mystery that I haven't wet the bed yet.

With a shaky hand, I run my hand over my face and release a heavy breath.

What was that vision? I have seen deaths before but never suicide. Taking all those sleeping pills couldn't possibly be safe. Chances are she will probably end up being dead by overdose.

I gulp again.

I know that I have seen this girl before. Those red painted chipped nails, the shaky hands — they are all familiar. Who is she? Why did she want to take her own life? What could possibly hurt her so deep?

Questions run through my mind and for a moment all I want to do is vomit my guts out.

This is not how I imagined my night.

Here's what I know — A girl, possibly someone I know, will commit suicide and I have approximately a month's time to change the timeline.

My visions are unique. This started when I had turned thirteen years old. At first, I had glimpses of things of little to no consequence but as I realised the value of my power, the glimpses turned into visions. As I grew up, the horror grew too. It started from losing non-animate things to people dying. I also observed a pattern. After I got the vision, it took exactly a month for it to actually happen in reality. I used to think it was a fluke but I decided to stop questioning it. I hated this ability — still do some times — but the burden of keeping quiet, of seeing things that I couldn't explain, it changed me. Its not like there's a manual on how to deal with this sight and how to still continue to be a normal teenager.

I press my head into my hands and groan out loud.

I lay back down on my bed and stare up at the ceiling with a newfound perspective.

I still have one month. One month to stop this tragedy. I have to do this.

      ~

"There you are!" Branden exclaims when he sees me and shoots me a grin as he throws an arm over my shoulder. I give him what I hope is a smile and pretend that I didn't feel my heart stutter at the sight of him.

He is my best friend, goddamnit! And, I'm dating Tessa. I remind myself.

"Well, you look like shit." He tells him. I roll my eyes at him and say, "I feel like shit."

His playful exterior immediately changes into concern.

"Whats wrong?" He asks. We both make our way to our lockers and I release a deep breath. I haven't yet told Branden about my.... ability and I worry that he might think I'm a freak or worse he decides he wants nothing to do with me.

I shake those thoughts away and curse at myself. He's been by my side ever since we were in kindergarten and I can't let myself think this way about him. He would never leave me.

I know that one day I would have to tell him but for now I'm going to keep this secret to myself and focus on finding the mystery girl.

I wave him off and say, "I just didn't sleep very well. I'll be fine when I take a nap." He looks at me for a few minutes and I can tell that he is finding it hard to believe me but he doesn't push me further and nods anyway.

I release a sigh in relief and quickly scan through the crowd entering the hallway. Unfortunately I couldn't yet figure whose hands were those.

After grabbing our necessities, we both stop at Tessa's locker. I lean against it and glance at my watch.

"She'll be here soon." He says to me. I shrug and say, "I don't really care." He chokes out a laugh and shakes his head. "Then, why are you even dating her?"

I shrug again. I don't even like Tessa but our relationship is on and off. Currently, its status is on. I want to break up with her but every time I think about just doing it, I worry about the questions that would follow up.

I haven't yet told anyone that I'm gay and highschool is well not somewhere I want to be out at.

I run a hand through my hair and muss it even more.

"Listen, you know how it is with us. We get into these weird phrases and she's been with me ever since freshman year."

"Thats a shitty explanation and you know it. You deserve to be happy. If you don't want to be with her then just break it off." He tells me. I look at him and a sudden rush of adoration and love rises up in my heart. I almost pull him close and kiss him. I almost forget that I have a facade to maintain; I almost forget that if I act on my wishes I'd most likely end up losing my best friend.

I swallow the knot forming in my throat and give him a half amused smirk and say, "You being my shrink now?"

He rolls his eyes and opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by an all too familiar high pitched voice.

"Hey, babe and Branden!" Tessa greets as she pecks my lips. We then make our way to our first class. I loosely wrap an arm around her waist as we make our way to our class.

As we walk I make sure to glance down at every one hand's and I don't even care if someone observes me doing that. A life is on the line, I could care less about coming off like a creep.

I continue to stay silent and observant as Branden and Tessa talk about the upcoming events in the school.

As soon as we enter our maths class, I see Ella already sitting on the front seat near the window. She is the first one in here and then, I realise that I didn't check her hands. I hastily scan her and it feels like someone had knocked the air out of my lungs.

Red painted chipped nails.

••••*••••*••••

I will do my best to do justice to these sensitive issues this book deals with. Please let me know if I make any mistakes.

Reminder: Be kind. You have no idea what someone is going through. Treat others the way you wish to be treated.

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Much love, xo.