Saved

I found this story a while ago hidden away. I wrote it and I forgot all about it:

I stand with my back to the city below and my face up towards the sky. The rain falls on me and around me to the cool wet roof top.

The smell of fresh wet ground rises to greet my heightened senses, and then the memories surface to the front of my mind.

The past haunts me as its ghost hovers around me prying at still healing wounds.

It was on a rainy day like this one...

"Don't ever forget, can you promise me that?"
"You're not going anywhere, are you?"
He just smiled. The next day I heard the news. He was gone. Just another memory to be locked away in the jail of my mind.

All I can wonder is "Why?". He never did explain. Was it his parent's divorce? Was it school? Was it his girlfriend? I had no idea his depression was so severe...

And suddenly I'm angry. It rises from the pit of my stomach and embraces my chest in a vice-grip. My muscles tighten in strain and I'm furious.

What right did he have to die?! What right did he have to take his own life?! Did he even stop to think about everyone he'd leave behind?!

So much for our promise.
"Best friends forever, and no skipping out!"

So much for the good old days when life was simple.

And suddenly hot tears are streaming down my face quickly washed away by the sky's own cold remorse.

"That's right", I whisper, "cry with me."

It's never real until it happens to you. Until this day I didn't believe it was possible. Death feels so close to home now that I wonder if its not standing right next to me waiting to see if I'm next.

Not me. Maybe HE decided to give up, but not me. I'll live for both of us and accomplish his dreams along with my own. Somewhere up there he'll watch and recognize what he left behind. I swear that when I see him again years from now, I'll beat him senseless! And then! And then... And then I'll cry. Telling him how much I hate him! I hate him! I hate him... for leaving me to fight alone.

Shudders wrack my body as I fall forward onto the roof clutching my chest with one hand and supporting myself with the other on mt knees. I sob into the night.

I wake to daylight breaking over the horizon, and I'm soaked to the bone. I stand shivering pulling my sopping sweater around me in vain as I head for the exit off the roof. Just as I'm about to step through the door, I stop and look back at the sunrise and watch as the sky slowly brightens with a pure white light; mist hanging lazily over the city.

The beauty of it all sickens me. I scream charging for the edge, and I throw myself over it spreading my arms like wings. My hair glints as the light catches it as it frantically whips around my head and my face as I plummet forever. I feel the tears slipping up my skin and see them floating around me. The ground is coming nearer.

But time stops and I'm no longer in mid-air. I see him standing there with his hands in his hips and a frown on his face. There's nothing in the background. Everything is white and hazy. He shakes his head and takes a few steps towards me.

"You moron," I hear him say "Why'd you jump?"

"It's your fault!" I scream with tears still running down my cheeks. "You're the moron! Why'd you shoot yourself?!"

"I was stupid, but you don't have to be. Give me your hand you idiot."

I reached out slowly for his hand and he pulled me to my feet and into a hug.

"You really are stupid," He said gently, "Don't be so impulsive. live life for both of us, you hear?"

He stepped back and smiled at me.

"Now go."

I awoke with a gasp and my eyes shot open.

"We have a pulse!"

And I passed out.

"Nathan...?"
It sounded so far away.
"Nathan..."
I rose towards the familiar voice. I recognized that name.
"Nathan, honey?"

I cracked open one eye and smiled as best I could.
"Hi mom," I croaked out.

Mom started sobbing and laughing all at once. Cursing and praising not sure how she should feel. She thanked the heavens for me being alive, and she came down on me angrily not knowing what to do with herself. The doctor calmed her and sat her down in a chair next to my hospital bed.

"How did I survive?" I asked. "That fall should have killed me." I had jumped from a six story building.

"I don't know. The doctors say you only broke your arm, have minor bruises and a concussion. You miraculously landed in a garbage bin which buffered your fall."

I smiled, and then I laughed. A merry laugh; a true laugh.

"Sean saved me, mum."

"What?"

"I lived thanks to Sean."

She quirked a brow unsure, but smiled anyway. I laughed so hard that I cried.

Where ever that bastard is, he better be watching. I'm gonna live the best damned life the world ever did see.