a/n - okay, I know I said I wouldn't post anything for another few months or whatever, but I put this short story into a local writing competition and I came FIRST PLACE!!! I was so excited I had to share this with you guys and I was (and still am) so so happy because I also get money and hey, who doesn't love winning money right?
Anyway, in saying that, I was also very very surprised because this took me an hour or so to write and none of it is planned at all and I thought it would be rly rly crappy (but apparently not idk??).
Love you all, enjoy xx
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I'm late.
That was the only thing that Emilia could think of as she stood in front of the school gates – that, and how much she didn't want to be there right then.
She stood there and she stared for so long that she was startled by an amused voice from behind her that came so suddenly she almost jumped.
"So, are you gonna stand there all day and be even more late to class, or are you going to go in?"
It was a boy in her year level she's never once spoken to in all her high school years, despite having shared a few classes together.
A boy whose name she couldn't even place or pretend she knew.
She blinked at him and glanced back at the school, all the students and teachers disappearing from her sight considering the bell had gone quite a while ago.
She still couldn't move.
"I don't want to," is all she can manage.
Stepping beside her and trying to see what she saw, the guy turned to her after a few more moments and said, "Then don't."
She wanted to agree with him and tried to turn away, but even that was a motion that forced her whole body to groan in protest.
What was wrong with her?
"You okay?" he asked her.
Her mouth opened before she could stop it – "No."
"Why not?"
Don't answer, she had told herself, looking away to stare at the cars that drove past their school, don't answer or he'll know that there's something wrong with you.
"I don't want to be here," she said despite her own thoughts, still refusing to meet his gaze. "At all."
She didn't think he'd understand her, simply because she's told people that sentence a number of times beforehand and every person had laughed it off and added a me too! or yeah, tell me about it. It was probably because she always sounded so flippant or whiny when she had said it, but for the first time ever, as she felt the boys' stare on the side of her face, she said it with absolute seriousness.
"Oh," he muttered, and she thought – great, Emilia, you did it again and scared off yet another possible new friend. But as she watched the different cars and vans and trucks go by, she couldn't find it within herself to care.
And then he did something no one else has done before.
He laughed and walked in front of her so she had no choice but to look at the grin on his face; one that was full of reassurance rather than amusement. "Come on," he said, shifting the school bag on his back and already starting to walk backwards.
She watched him take one step, and then another, and she wished it were that easy for her to just walk away from school. "What?" she blurted, not understanding what his intentions were.
"Let's get out of here before someone sees us," he told her as he stopped a few meters away so he could half turn away from her bewildered expression. "I want to show you something."
She blinked at him and still found herself unable to move.
"What?" she repeated as he gave her one last smile and turned around, already starting to walk off.
"I'm gonna give you reasons," she heard him tell her as she watched him slowly get further and further away. "Reasons why you should stay."
By that point, his voice already grew distant.
"I don't even know you're name!" she had to call out to him since he was now three whole cars away from her and if she were to follow him, she'd have to run to catch up since it didn't look like he were about to slow down or stop walking any time soon.
He glanced at her over his left shoulder, hair momentarily blinding him before he pushed it back and said. "It's Harrison – Harrison Smith," he added dramatically with a wide grin.
The last school bell rang from behind her and hearing it made her heart stop and start before she soon found herself running towards the brown headed, green eyed boy she'd never once spoken to up until now.
Her palms were sweating and her heart was thumping against her chest by the time she caught up to Harrison Smith who walked as if he had all the time in the world; who walked as if it weren't at all the first time he was ditching school when it was, in fact, Emilia's.
"If you're giving me reasons why I should stay in school, walking away from it is rather contradictory," Emilia couldn't help but inform as they passed an oval and small children's park.
As they stopped at a pedestrian crossing and waited for the red man to go green, Harrison Smith pinned her with a look she couldn't decipher.
"Reason number one," he said instead of replying to her condescending tone as they continued walking again, "being able to cut school when you have crappy days without anyone stopping you."
"My parents stop me," she muttered, hairs standing on end at the thought of her parents finding out about her rebellious act of cutting school with a boy, no less.
He glanced at her and turned them into a street that Emilia scrutinized apprehensively, wondering why in the world she chose to follow him instead of enduring the six and a half hours of hell – sorry, school.
Her heart continued thumping wildly and it wasn't at all due to the tall boy beside her.
Not liking the silence that settled between them, she asked him where he was taking her but for the second time in less than five minutes he smoothly ignored her.
"Let's find something to eat," Harrison Smith said instead.
Her growling stomach didn't disagree with him.
After ten minutes of silence between them yet again, nothing but the sound of vehicles driving by and her own thoughts causing her to regret her decision of leaving school even more and more, Emilia soon found herself in front of McDonalds.
She wrinkled her nose and stared at him but she's met with the sight of his back considering he was already opening the door and heading inside without bothering to wait for her.
She followed him in, not knowing what else to do, and said, "Seriously? Here?"
He grinned and held her gaze only to find that after a heartbeat she'd look away. "What's wrong with some good ol' Maccas?"
She couldn't have wiped off the disgusted look on her face, even if she tried. "Everything is fatty and oily and greasy and gross," she said simply, voice a little lower than usual in case any of the workers heard her and got offended.
For the second time today, Harrison Smith threw his head back and laughed, only this time it was full of complete amusement as they stepped into line. He said, "Have you even tried one of their burgers before?" To which she gave him a patronizing look that told him all he needed to know.
No.
"I've had a bite of it before – back in fifth grade and I almost vomited."
He shook his head at her. "Nice. Were you sick?"
She pressed her lips into a thin line and turned away from him, causing him to chuckle softly as he once again found his answer without her needing to say it.
Yes.
He bought them both something, ignoring her quiet yet incessant refusal and threats that 'if he bought [her] something [she'd] throw it at his face'. He grabbed the brown paper bag, winked at Emilia and turned around to leave.
"Now where are you taking me?" she asked as they walked away from the restaurant, the hot sun on their back causing her to perspire a little.
"You'll see," is all he said, dipping a hand into the paper bag that had McDonalds written across it, before taking out a heap of oily fries and shoving it in his mouth. "Want some?"
Her face was enough to tell him that no, in fact, she definitely did not want any.
"So, you're afraid of school, you've never tried a McDonald's burger before, you're rather snarky and you love to read. Is there anything else I should know about you?" Harrison Smith asked her, and she wondered if maybe calling him Harrison Smith in her mind was an odd thing to do, but by calling him just Harrison then it would be even weirder for her since they were barely even acquaintances – let alone friends.
They stepped onto grassy land from behind all the street shops and restaurants and instead of asking where they were going – knowing he wouldn't answer – she scrunched her face up in confusion and asked, "How'd you know I love reading?"
He pinned her with the same look he gave her when they left the school and said, "We've shared at least four classes together in the past six years; I think if I saw you carrying a new novel around almost weekly it'd be kind of obvious – wouldn't it?"
She felt guilty, both for the fact that she hadn't once paid him any mind enough to notice what he liked or hated and also for the fact that she hadn't even known his name.
And then, as an afterthought as his words replayed in her mind, she said, "Hey, I'm not afraid of school."
"Afraid of the pressure, then," he shrugged as if he understood, bringing them to a stop by the local river and sitting down on the green grass.
As she watched him make himself comfortable she couldn't help but think that maybe he did understand her a lot more than she'd care to admit.
"The grass is wet," she pointed out as he took off his school bag.
He shrugged and barely looked up at her.
"The grass is always wet, just at different times of the day in different parts of the world," he opened the McDonalds bag and muttered, "Sit down."
So she did and the coolness of the grass sent a thrill up her spine even as the dampness seeped into her shorts which she wore under her school dress. She always hated sitting on wet grass but as she took off her school bag as well and glanced at the boy beside her she didn't mind all that much, for once.
He handed her a burger and after a quick, heated argument she finally took a bite and, well, she loved it – of course – so much so that she had to refrain from moaning which of course caused Harrison Smith to laugh.
"Reason number two; for these amazingly tasty, greasy burgers that tastes as good as it is bad for you."
She doesn't bother pointing out that his sentence didn't really make sense, too busy trying to swallow down as much of the meal as she could and not seeming to care that she probably resembled a pig right then; which – considering how the boy beside her was eating – she didn't really worry about all too much.
When they finished, full and satisfied after also eating the fries and drinking their large one dollar frozen cokes, they laid back against their school bags and stared up at the bright blue sky, the sun momentarily hiding away as it was covered by a cloud and tree above them.
She decided, as they went quiet, that the silence wasn't all that bad between them. Sure, her pulse still raced a little and her heart thumped unnaturally when the silence felt too awkward, but once she stopped worrying about whether she was intruding on him – despite the fact that he'd asked her to come with him – or whether or not he thought she was weird, she found that the silence was rather... peaceful.
She liked it.
"Isn't it weird that it's hot as heck right now and the grass is still a little damp from last night's rainfall?"
She doesn't look at him, instead she closed her eyes and breathed the fresh air into her fragile lungs, wishing she could just lay there forever and not have to think about school and homework and friends and home and all her other petty problems that often felt too overbearing for her.
Just thinking about it made her heart feel heavy again so she sat up and crossed her legs in front of her, 'Indian style', as she stared out at the river they sat near.
"Isn't it weird," she said quietly instead as she watched the murky water barely even shift in the summer heat and non-existent wind, "That you're the last person I ever thought I'd cut school with to eat a Maccas burger for the very first time?"
She heard him breathe out a small laugh as he, too, sat up. He brushed fingers through his hair to push it away from his eyes and smiles a little.
"I don't know whether to be offended or flattered by that," he said before adding, "I think I'll choose flattered – since I'm great and all."
For the first time that day – maybe even month – she smiled genuinely and he found that she was rather very pretty when she did so.
"Reason number three," he said softly, looking away from her to gaze at the murky water of the river she'd been staring blankly at, "New friends."
"Friends," she echoed, sending a glance his way as she rolled the thought around in her mind, realizing how long it had been since she last made a new friend who could make her genuinely smile.
"Friends," he agreed, nodding as if she was the one who announced them as friends and not him.
She rolled her eyes and he stood up, offering a hand which she ignored and pushed herself up on her own. He didn't look bothered by it one bit.
"Reason number four; pretty places."
"I've been here before, you know," she can't help but tell him, though not unkindly as they both surveyed the quiet area she once thought of as ugly and boring, but now saw the true beauty of.
He ignored her and said, "Have you been to Eskrine Falls?"
She doesn't bother telling him that she's only ever visited the city and the neighbouring suburbs before she shook her head as a no and watched him pick up his school bag to put back on, crumpling up their rubbish simultaneously with his free hand.
"Didn't think so, it's even prettier and ten times better than this place."
She picked up her bag and before she can help herself she said, "Will you take me there some day?"
His lip tilted into a smile and he led them away from the trees and the lovely flowers and the wet grass and murky water. "Of course, what are friends for, right?"
Friends, her mind repeated, an odd concept to think about since the last time she made a new friend was more than three years ago.
"Reason number five; exploring and finding new places," Harrison – just Harrison – said as they stepped back onto the main road and shoved their rubbish in the nearest bin.
For the rest of the day, up until 3 pm which is when they headed back to school, the pair strolled around the main street and wisely made use of their time.
She told him, thank you, I had fun, because for the first time in what felt like forever she really did have lots of fun simply just by hanging with and talking to a boy she never thought she'd ever speak to – let alone be friends with. For the first time in what felt like forever she didn't once think about the things that often upset her and for the first time in what felt like forever she didn't feel pressured to do anything. She felt free, even if she spent most of the day following him around and sometimes lead him to shops she'd never seen. She felt happy, even though he kept giving her "reasons" at random times during the day when she would smile or laugh at something they did or said or saw.
Reason six; dressing up, he said after dragging her into an Op Shop and forced her to put on random dresses and hats and clothing pieces with him.
Reason seven; saving a life, he told her after she let slip how all she'd ever wanted in life was to save someone else's once she became a doctor.
Reason eight; your favourite bands which you'll one day see, he had grinned as they shared their favourite songs and singers and, more importantly, bands.
Reason nine; your family and best friends, he murmured after he caught her texting a worried friend about her whereabouts since Emilia had only ever once missed school in the past three years straight.
Finally, when they reached the school gates and she was grinning after he'd told her a silly joke he cut off her snarky reply and instead said, rather quietly: "Reason ten; finding more, better reasons."
He then proceeded to hug her for so long and so tightly – yet gently somehow – that she found her eyes pricking with tears for reasons she couldn't begin to fathom, and when the end-of-school-bell rang he let her go, sent her a grin and walked on his merry way home after he muttered a quick goodbye, see you tomorrow.
It wasn't until he was too far away for her to call him back that she finally began to realize what all these reasons were really for.
These were her reasons why she should stay, and not just in school, but here, on Earth – breathing and living and smiling.
These were her ten reasons why.
And as she watched him disappear from her sight after turning a corner and sending her a quick wave without even glancing back at her, she added reason number eleven to the list.
For him.