by K. M. Raya
"Tell me that was an accident," He pleaded with hard brown eyes staring into her grey ones. He wanted so much to believe she was just clumsy.
After she refused to open her mouth in fear of the pain it would cause her cheekbone, Maverick cursed under his breath and ushered her towards the door. Behind her, students threw insults at her so fast that it was impossible to tell who they came from. The doors to the dining hall opened and none other than Sebastian and his crew sauntered into the room. Sebastian stopped for a moment and his eyes widened at her bloodied face. A fleeting, unidentifiable emotion passed over his face before he wiped it away. After the initial shock, he had the audacity to smirk and look away as if nothing happened. Her heart lurched in that moment and she wanted to be sick. Maverick led her outdoors and down a small dirt path at the back of the dining hall. There was a small shack type building that stood next to it and she recognized it as the infirmary.
After getting looked at by the nurse and a firm encouragement from the older woman to not be so clumsy next time, she looked over to see Maverick glaring at her from where he sat. The nurse wanted Freya to sit tight for another twenty minutes and let the ice pack take the swelling down before she left. Nurse Lydia left the room to do who knows what, leaving her alone with her lifeguard.
"Who?" Was all he asked. She knew what he meant but he wouldn't get the answer from her. It would only cause more problems.
"Don't make me repeat myself," he warned her in a low snarl when she clamped her mouth shut.
He sighed deeply and looked up to the ceiling before circling his dark gaze back to her. "Sorry for being forward, but does this by any chance have anything to do with what we talked about last night before you disappeared?"
He was observant, she'd give him that. "I really don't think that's any if your business," she snapped. She was being rude again but she couldn't reign it it.
He stood abruptly "It is my business because I'm making it my business," he growled as he ran a hand over his face in exasperation. "For some reason I give a shit about what happens to you, now tell me what happened!"
Freya sat there for a moment and stared at the man...boy before her and wondered why.
Why did he give a shit?
Nobody else did.
Not her parents, not the doctors...not even herself.
"Yes!" She yelled back. "Are you happy? Yes! It had everything to do with what I mistakenly told you last night!" Her breathing was hard and her cheek began to throb despite the pain meds.
Mavericks eyes softened when he noticed the tears gathering in her eyes and she cursed herself once more for being so utterly weak. His shoulders relaxed and he walked towards her slowly and crouched down to her eye level.
"You can talk to me you know, like really talk. I know we just met, but you look like someone who could really use a friend...or at least someone to listen."
"I don't know what to tell you. The things I've done...I don’t know why you care, but if you even knew the half of it you’d run away like everyone else does." She choked on a sudden sob and rested her forehead on his chest without invitation. Her shoulders were heaving as she cried and cried, soaking his black t shirt with her salty tears.
"I don't even know why you're here," She admitted when she raised her face to look him in the eyes. What she saw there in those deep brown gems was an endless abyss of repressed emotion. This boy had a hard past too. She could feel it.
Maverick took her small hands in his rough ones and squeezed them gently. "I'm here because I care. Don’t ask me why because I can’t give you a straight answer, but I do care. You need to talk and I'm here to listen, whenever you're ready for it."
Her eyes were dry now as they simply stared at one another. The moment could have been romantic had they not been crouched in the corner of a sterile infirmary with her face swelling by the minute. But the look in his eyes at that moment was the look of one person attempting to connect with another in a way that she had never felt the need to before. Maybe he needed her just as badly as she knew she needed him.
Freya
Over the next week, Freya found herself looking forward to seeing Maverick. He had obligations now and again that pulled his attention away from hanging out but it only reminded her that she had been neglecting her roommates.
Walking into her cabin after a quick trip to the infirmary for more pain meds, Freya was actually pleased to find both Sam and Phee hanging out in the room. She hadn't had much interaction with the two girls since their arrival but they had always been pleasant to her.
"Hey guys, what are you up to?" She asked casually as she sat on the side of her bed and fiddled with a loose thread on her quilt.
Said girls looked up, startled that the silent one was actually addressing them. Phee smiled at Freya and nodded to the card game they had going on the top of Sam's bed.
"Kicking Red’s ass in a game of UNO is what I'm up to," joked Phee and Sam stuck her tongue out at the small blonde girl.
"Red, huh?" Freya asked Sam and the ginger headed girl rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Yeah, don't call me Red, it’s offensive." She sniffed and raised her delicate chin in the air. This only caused Phee to giggle louder.
Freya watched the girls interact with each other and noticed the faint blush staining their cheeks as they bickered back and forth. Idly she wondered if there was something more brewing between them.
"How's the face?" Asked Sam suddenly and Freya had to stop herself from clamming up.
‘It's a normal question. With a normal answer Freya, geez.’ She told herself and probably looked like a crazy person during her internal monologue.
Phee smacked Sam on the arm with her fanned out UNO cards. "My god, Red, could you use a bit more tact?" She looked over to Freya with apologetic eyes. "Sorry, but seriously how are you feeling? Looks like the swelling has finally gone down."
Freya felt touched that they even cared. "I feel better than I did a few days ago, Lydia says I'll have a nasty bruise and a headache for a couple weeks but should heal up just fine," she assured them.
Sam's brows furrowed and Freya could tell that the girl wanted to ask something but was hesitating. She couldn't exactly blame her for being reluctant.
"What is it, Sam? I see you thinking over there," she prompted.
Her roommate huffed and set her cards down before answering. "What happened? Why are you being picked on? Since we arrived you've been tripped, flipped off, pushed and had drinks spilled on you and it hasn't even been a month. This isn't normal."
Freya looked at floorboards beneath her feet and studied its pattern. She wanted so much to confide in her roommates but how does one admit that they are the sole reason for destroying multiple lives?
"I can't get into it all right now, but just know that something happened to cause this. Something that I can't undo." She wiped a tear from her eye and Sam looked about a second away from coming over to comfort her. "I promise you though, despite what you may think... I deserve everything that's coming to me," she admitted and the girls sucked in a breath.
"I just don't believe that," said Phee with a frown. She had abandoned her cards and was now facing Freya cross legged on the bed, just as she had been the first time they met.
Freya frowned and balled her hands into fists. "It doesn't really matter what you believe," she spat and Phee flinched.
Freya felt immediately guilty. "I'm sorry, that was messed up. I’m not even mad at you, It's just that...I do deserve all of that and maybe even more. Hell, if it weren't for my parents law firm, I wouldn't even be sitting here right now."
Sam spoke up with a forced smile suddenly plastered on her face. "Okay, girls! That's enough with the heavy stuff for now. We have about an hour before sunset and we need to be ready for the Camp Out!" She squealed excitedly.
"Oh no, is that really tonight?" Freya groaned, thankful for the subject change but now dreading the night ahead completely.
"Yep! So get your butts dressed a
nd grab your stuff so we can grab some good spots before they're all taken." She commanded and then jumped into action— Freya less enthusiastically.
The Camp Out used to be one of her favorite nights of the summer. Instead of sleeping in their cabins, the entire camp would haul their sleeping bags out to the clearing near the lake and sleep beneath the stars like true campers. A bonfire would be lit in the evening and marshmallows would be roasted for s'mores. A wave of emotion rolled through her body and memories flooded her brain. She shut them down fast and refused to let them back in, instead focusing on dressing warmly and brushing her teeth.
Freya
An hour later the three girls arrived at the clearing— bed rolls in hand and each holding a backpack filled with snacks, bug spray and various other necessities.
Others had showed up early as well, eager to start the night. Sam found a flat spot next to an old tree stump and secured it by laying out her bed roll and encouraging them to do the same. Freya ended up at the end, a few paces away from Phee and slightly removed from the group as a whole. She was okay with this.
She tried but failed not to track Sebastian's every movement as he came into the clearing, talking animatedly with Charlie and another friend she recognized as Josiah. She flinched as she looked at Josiah, with his dark skin and thick black glasses. He was tall and gangly, but undeniably cool in a hipster sort of way. She remembered the parties he had thrown at his parents house at every available opportunity, including Homecoming.
She stared for too long and Sebastian caught her in the act. His glare burned through her like hot wax. The hatred in his eyes was so potent that it seemed to fill the air around them. She turned away from him with stinging eyes and pretended to listen to her roommates idle chatter, all the while her head was in the clouds.
The evening flew by and smores were had. Smuggled in alcohol was consumed but she noticed that Sebastian wasn't drinking. He laughed and teased with the others but there was just something about the hardened set to his jaw that spoke of discomfort. Perhaps it was her presence that had put him on edge.
The night wound down and they settled into their sleeping bags. Some were still awake, whispering quietly to one another and some couples were sneaking off into the trees to do who knows what. She remembered a time when that had been her. Gazing up at the sky, Freya found herself becoming sleepy, lulled by the crackling of the bonfire coals until finally falling to sleep.
Her skin was on fire.
Melting.
Something was very, very wrong. She couldn't move her right leg and there was a pressure on her chest when she tried but failed to suck in a breath of air. As if by a switch, Freya's ears turned on and a loud roaring filled them like the crashing waves of an ocean.
She lifted her head and ignored the pain in her neck as she blinked what felt like dust and dirt out of her eyes. As her vision came into focus, she couldn't make out much more than a thick wall of flame in front of her and a pile of broken glass.
What the hell? She thought frantically. Her mind was desperately trying to come to terms with what she was seeing and feeling.
A scream in the distance caught her attention and she tried to sit up. She was laying on her stomach, pressed harshly into the asphalt with a puddle of crimson pooling beneath her. Was it hers? Another gurgled yell broke though the roar of the inferno. She finally gathered the strength to push off of the pavement but she couldn't stand. A heavy sheet of metal lay on her back and she shifted to the side as it fell off and clattered to the ground.
A door.
A car door had just fallen off of her.
Frantically, she looked around at the alien landscape and to her horror, she recognized the wreckage she sat in. Her light blue Mustang lay in shambles around her in a disgusting twist of metal and rubber.
Flames licked at her legs and she knew she needed to move. Her right thigh was in so much pain that she didn't dare try to stand. She wore the dress she had donned as Homecoming Princess but it was in shambles now, torn and burned to near nothing but ash. Using her arms, Freya dragged her body through the broken glass and across the pavement and every scrape sent a fresh wave of pain though her bones.
"Help!" Came a voice that sounded close by. It was choked and low with pain. She recognized it as Ben's.
"Ben! Where are you!" She screamed and the action burned her throat.
"Over here, Freya, quick!" He responded sounding frantic. Heavy sobs echoed in the night. He sounded so far away.
She dragged her body faster and pushed aside debris from her path until she found herself rolling off the pavement and into a ditch.
"Freya, I don't know what to do!" Ben sobbed and she looked up to see him propped against a tree with Camen draped across his lap. His face was contorted with pain. His blonde hair was coated in thick blood and he clenched his teeth tightly. He was a big guy, but at the moment he looked so young. So scared.
Ben looked bad. His right arm was bent in an unnatural way and he was missing his entire left leg. She suppressed a gag. He was bleeding badly but his eyes never left Carmen's prone body. Freya cried out in fear as she crawled to her friends and grasped Carmen's face in between her hands. She was breathing, but it was too shallow.
Ben's fingers latched on to the side of Freya's face, lifting her eyes up to his.
"You have to get help, I'm not gonna make it much longer...I can feel it happening," Ben told her calmly. She looked up and met his light brown eyes and knew that he wasn't wrong. His skin was ghostly pale and his eyes were glossing over. He was losing too much blood.
"Let me tie your leg off, hold on..." She started to say but Ben shook his head sadly.
"It's no use, Frey..." He told her as his eyes moved from his leg down to his stomach. Her eyes followed and she heaved into the dirt as she saw the thick shard of glass protruding from his abdomen. She looked up again in despair at the boy she had known her entire life.
Ben stroked the hairs on Carmen's pale forehead with shaky hands and his eyes looked like they were fighting to remain open.
"I love her so much, I—I..."
That was the last thing Ben Weiss said to her before his chest rattled and his eyes lost their light.
Freya couldn't breathe.
Ben was dead.
Gone.
Just like that.
It was impossible...this had to be a joke. Carmen lay in his lap and a thin line of blood dripped down her blonde head. She knew that her friend had at least a concussion and would need medical attention immediately. She turned away and crawled back to the wreckage in search of her cellphone.
She never made it that far.
A head of dark brown curly hair caught her eye and she screamed. She screamed louder than she ever had before, until her lungs burned. Mina lay before her— slashed, bent and broken, staring into the sky with lifeless green eyes.
Freya scrambled, scraping her leg over the debris and dragged her body to Mina's corpse, hauling the body into her lap and rocked her best friend back and forth while she sobbed. Freya let loose a scream so violent that it no longer sounded human. Her wails traveled into the night as she trembled and caressed Mina's bloody hair with shaking hands. A million memories flashed before her eyes as she sobbed.
Mina as a seven year old girl holding a hand out to Freya after she'd fallen on the blacktop.
Mina whistling and skipping by the lake at thirteen. Mina singing the National Anthem at the Homecoming game at seventeen.
So many precious memories of her bright smile and her infectious giggles. Gone in the blink of an eye.
A loud boom thrust her sideways in an explosion of metal and flame. Something had exploded and a shard of glass found itself embedded into the skin of her exposed leg and she could feel a thick line of blood trickling from her lip. She couldn't breathe as she inhaled lungfuls of smoke and ash. She rolled backwards and stared into the pitch black sky above her, watching the white smoke rise into the air in thick swirls.
Somewh
ere in the distance there was a wail of a siren.
Freya
Her cheeks were stinging and she felt wetness on her face and neck when she woke. Her knees were sliced up and as she cracked her eyes open, Freya realized she was kneeling on the forest floor with strong arms wrapped around her from behind.
