A new story! I will be uploading this once a week, with chapters about this length. it has not been edited, as I am looking for a editor, if you are interested please inbox me. this is the only story I will be working on until I get it finished, hopefully I will be able to put it into the Watty Awards, however... if I feel like this story isnt going as well as I would like it to be from now and the next couple of chapters I will remove it. so if you enjoy it please vote or comment, it would mean the word to me :)
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A moving truck pulled into the house I was running past, a teenage boy, around my age jumped out of the back and was staring at me. I didn’t care; I just needed to get away from here. I pushed myself further, my feet pounding against the floor. The thunder cracked and plundered above my head, the feeling of rain beginning to fall and soaking into my skin made me slow down and begin to take in my surroundings.
I had reached a lake, surrounded by trees. Breathing heavily I sat down next to the lake, grabbing a small rock and throwing it into the lake.
The water rippled as the rock broke its calm demeanour. I stared at my reflection, tears sitting on the rims of my eyes, threatening to roll down my face. I roughly wiped my hands over my eyes, smearing my eyeliner across my cheek bones. The once small droplets of water poured from the sky, creating small ripples in the lake before me. The water soaked into my skin and I sighed loudly, running a shaky hand through my thick black hair. I soon found myself staring into my reflection.
My eyes were a brighter shade of green than usual, surrounded by smudged eyeliner and mascara. My many freckles hidden behind the smears of make-up, I didn’t care what I looked like right then, I didn’t care about anything.
“Why?” I asked my reflection softly before crying out louder, “WHY ME?” I screamed, not caring if anyone heard me, or thought I was dying. I was confused, I was lost and I was hurt.
I grabbed tuffs of grass and began pulling them out, screaming like a mad woman and cursing like a pirate.
I let out one more agonising scream before diving into the lake, wanting to stop the tears from falling and stop the pain. I held my breath, squeezing my eyes tight. Suddenly I felt two strong hands grabbing my around the waist and pulling me out of my watery coffin.
Reaching the surface I came up spluttering, my chest moving heavily and my lungs burning. The owner of the hands turned me around so I was looking into their chocolaty brown eyes.
“Are you insane? Why the hell would you just jump into a lake in the middle of winter? Do you have a death wish?” my mouth gaped open, who the hell did they think they were, yelling at me for trying to clear my head.
“Excuse me?” I asked my throat sore from all my screaming.
“You heard me! What happened for you to be like this?” the boy looked at me with care in his eyes, his hands were placed firmly around my waist, as if to keep me from diving into the lake again.
I was about to tell him when I realised that I barely knew him, I didn’t even know his name.
“It’s none of your business,” I stated firmly, all of a sudden realising how close we really were.
“Oh, okay, sorry I interrupted,” he spoke sarcastically, a hint of anger twisted into his words. He took his hands off my waist and turned, heading towards town.
“Wait!” I shouted, making my feet follow him. He stopped and turned around, his hands on his hips.
“What?” the boy responded rather harshly. A twinge of guilt ran through my body. After all I was awful to him after he jumped into a lake, in the middle of winter thinking I was trying to kill myself.
“Sorry, it’s rather personal. Thanks for saving me though,” I whispered softly, looking down at my hands. My fingers were beginning to turn blue, and I suddenly found myself shivering to the cold.
“You’re cold” the boy said matter of factly, the rain beginning to slow down.
I didn’t respond, I gathered the chattering of my teeth would be enough to answer him.
“I just moved in a couple of blocks away, you can dry off there,” the boy grabbed me by the waist and dragged me over towards a small red car. Nothing to flashy.
The car ride was silent; he didn’t bother with the radio as it was only a 5 minute drive.
We pulled up to his house, the moving truck that nearly hit me before sat in the driveway. The boy turned the car off and opened his door, before quickly asking me to follow him.
Doing as I was told I followed him into the house. The house was nice, although it was covered in boxes. We walked into the kitchen where he had a kettle and coffee set up.
“Coffee?” the boy asked, his eyebrow raised. I shook my head.
“No thanks, don’t really like coffee, do you have tea?” I asked shyly, playing with the wet hem of my shirt. The boy nodded and began making my tea how I instructed him to before he gave me a towel and directed me to the shower.
“As I just move in here I could be wrong, but just keep opening doors until you find it,” He chuckled softly before I walked out of the kitchen and embarked on finding the bathroom.
A few door openings later I found the bathroom and turned on the shower so it was steaming. Releasing myself from my drenched clothes I allowed myself to be absorbed into the heat of the water, and forgetting the reason why I was there in the first place.
Not wanting to waste water I jumped out after a few minutes and dried myself, however, when I went to grab my clothes I groaned in frustration as my clothes were still soaked through.
A knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts; clasping my towel tighter around me I opened the door, poking my head around it.
“Here, I found some of my clothes, since yours are soaked,” the boy handed me a black shirt and a pair of tracksuit pants.
“Thanks,” I smiled and grabbed the clothes, thankful that I had some warm clothes.
Not worrying about my bra or undies I shoved the clothes on, rolling the pants so they wouldn’t fall down and throwing the oversized shirt over my head. My parents were going to go insane when I walked home wearing these.
I walked out of the bathroom and found my way into the lounge, which was set up with a small couch and a flat screen TV stacked onto a pile of boxes.
The boy sat on the couch watching the game of footy that played a cup of coffee in his hand. He looked over at me as a friendly smile reached his lips. He handed me a cup of tea and I smiled gratefully, sighing peacefully as the warm liquid slid down my throat.
I sat down next to him, watching the T.V. the rain had stopped outside, and the sun was seeping through the curtains.
“Where are your parents?” I asked looking around, finding it odd that a boy no older than 18 would be moving into a house by himself.
“Out,” he answered shortly, taking a sip of his coffee. I was a bit taken back by his rudeness but didn’t push it any further.
“So” I spoke awkwardly, not knowing anything about the boy. “Where did you move from?” I asked, trying to break the awkward silence. The tension so think you could cut it with a knife.
“Queensland, Grandma wanted my sister Chloe and I to be closer to her,” he turned and looked at me, crossing his legs in front of him.
“I didn’t catch your name,” He spoke after taking another swig of his coffee.
“Opal, Opal Shades. You?” I responded with a raised eyebrow. How could I have forgotten to introduce myself, or even ask him for his name?
“Aaron Mitchell,” the room fell into silence once again, quite an awkward silence.
“So, are you going to Lakewood high?” I asked, twirling some of my thick black hair around my fingers, the wet strands leaving marks on my fingers.
“yeah actually, doing year 12 there,” silence. I drank the rest of my tea and pushed myself off the couch, making my way into the kitchen to put my cup away.
“So, why did you jump into the lake?” his voice breaking the silence. I thought about it, how much harm could it do him knowing?
“my boyfriend of three years was sleeping with someone, I walked in on them and-“ I chocked, tears threatening to pour from my face. Aaron came up behind me and held me, turning me around and beginning to stroke my back he whispered sweet nothings into my ear.
A few minutes later he let me go, the tears that once fell were now dried among my face. I sniffed a few times, embarrassed that my face was covered in tears and snot.
“Here, you should probably get home, I’ll drive you,” Aaron smiled at me and placed his hand on the small of my back, pushing me lightly towards the car.
The car ride was once again silent, only the sounds of me giving directions could be heard. Once we pulled up to my house Aaron turned to face me. Pulling out a pen and paper he scribbled down something and handed the paper to me.
“If you need to talk, give me a call ok? I’ll most likely see you tomorrow for school,” Aaron smiled sincerely and placed the paper in my hands, folding my fingers over the top.
I smiled back and thanked him for the ride before getting out of the car and heading towards my house. As I opened the door I looked around, hoping that my parents were not home. Making sure the coast was clear I headed towards the stairs.
“Opal,” I froze, cursing in my head. I turned around slowly to see my mother tapping her foot on the ground, her arms crossed tightly across her chest.
“What happened to your clothes?” she asked, flicking her long black hair out of her face, her expression was angry.
How was I going to explain the day that I just had? There was no way I was going to get out of this without dad going and getting the shot gun.
“I um.. fell in a lake and a boy who moved in a few blocks away saved me, and gave me his clothes so I would be dry,” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, not liking that I had lied to my mum, even though I was only telling half a lie.
“Oh, Ok. Go upstairs and get ready for bed, it’s really quite late. Did you have a good time at Brad’s house?” Mum smile widened as she spoke about Brad. She adored Brad, she was the one that had gotten us together in the first place.
Tears began to swell in my eyes as the memories of me walking in on him and the school’s harlot going at it on his bed. He didn’t hear or see me as I ran away.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I turned my back on my mother quickly and ran up the stairs and into my room, slamming the door behind me.
Grabbing my phone off the dresser I called my best friend, Callie, hoping that she would answer.
“Yo,” my best friend answered the phone with ease, her voice was quite muffled, most likely having food in her mouth.
“Brad was cheating on me.” I spat out, tears leaked out from my eyes and slid down the contours of my face.
“That Asshole! I oughta slap him one! Shove a broom up his backside I tell ya” Callie roared from the other side of the phone.
“Callie no,” I whispered. Although Brad had hurt me deeply I didn’t want him to be hurt by Callie, and let me tell you now, she could pack a punch.
“Why the bloody hell not? He deserved to get his manhood ripped off I tell ya!” Callie continued to rant and I sighed, knowing that I wasn’t going to change her mind anytime soon.
“I never trusted that sleaze, you know I never did,” Callie sneered, her anger slowly beginning to fade.
“How are you though butt head?” Callie asked, although insulting me her voice was full of concern and worry, after all, Brad and I were together for a long time.
“I,” I thought for a few seconds before continuing.
“I thought he was different Callie, I thought he loved me,” my once dried tear tracked now wet once again from a fresh batch of tears.
“Oh Sweetie, I hate to tell you this but he is a sleaze ball, he always was. I have to go, Mum is screaming for me to get off the phone, I’ll be over at 8 for school tomorrow, ok?”
“Ok, bye Callie,” I hung up the phone and crawled under the covers of my bed, letting my body adapt to the temperature of the sheets. I grabbed the bottom of the trackies that Aaron had given me to wear when I felt the piece of paper through the pocket. Pulling it out I quickly texted him.
“thanks for today, I appreciate it – Opal” I shut my phone and put it on my night stand, a few minutes later my phone began to vibrate on the stand.
“No problem, see you at school tomorrow Opal” I put the phone back on the nightstand eventually felt myself dozing off.
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hi guys :) I know i know, its a bit sad at the moment, but hey, it's going to get better I promise.
new chapter up next week :)