blue_icy_rose

If you've read Tina's journal, then you know that for our English class we had to write a short story. Well, I finished mine! Big yay for me! And I decided that I'd share it with you guys! So here ya go...let me know what you think.

I pay a little homage to Joss Whedon in this story which will be completely obvious once you read the first line of this. But I just thought I'd give credit where credit is due.

My Gift

Death is my gift.

You’re wondering what I’m talking about, aren’t you? Well then, sit right back and get comfortable because I’ve got a story to tell you.

Do you know those stories that always have a happy ending, no matter what? The ones that are full of laughter and sunshine all the time, that have a silver lining in every cloud?

This isn’t one of them.

It starts in May of this year, on a bright and sunny day, in an average sized town on the coast of California. Pretty ordinary. School had ended only a week ago and every kid in town was enjoying this first week of school in any way they could. I was walking through the drugstore, not really planning on buying anything more than a cold soda. No, my real plan was just to stay inside as long as I possibly could so that I could stay out of that blistering heat. Walking outside made me feel disgusting. I knew that if I walked outside, it wouldn’t take long before sweat broke out all along my body causing my clothes to stick to me and make me feel gross. I was sticky enough already from the walk over here.

I have this habit of walking with my eyes on something other than what’s in front of me. A bad habit, I know, and one that I should probably break. That doesn’t really matter anymore. Besides, that habit is the whole reason that I have anything to tell you in the first place.

I was looking at some display for some kind of food that I’m sure was considered to be bad for one’s health when I rammed into what felt like a brick wall and fell backwards. I could actually feel myself turning red as I began to pull myself up, only to feel a hand on my arm. I glanced up and found myself looking up into the face of a guy that I’d seen around school before. After all, how could I not have seen him? He was a part of that group that everyone wanted to be a part of. And if they weren’t a part of it, then they wanted to be dating someone who was.

Cool by association.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

Well sure, I was just great. My nose was sore from slamming into that wall he called a chest and I’d just fallen flat on my ass in front of one of the most popular guys at school.

Everything was peachy.

He was looking down at me in concern and the funny thing was, he actually looked concerned. It wasn’t one of those fake looks. I had him figured as the kind of guy that could knock someone over and then walk away without a second glance.

So much for those instincts.

As the silence began to stretch between the two of us, I could feel myself beginning to get even more red with embarrassment, if that was possible. This moment probably couldn’t get any worse.

"Yeah. I’m good." I finally replied. That brought a smile to his face for some reason. It was almost as if he was amused by how long it had taken for me to respond, which completely went against that concerned look. This guy was just full of contradictions.

"Sorry about that." He held out a hand to me. "Brandon Matthews."

Now, I don’t know why, but something my mother once said popped into my head at that moment.

Never trust a man whose last name could be a first name.

I know what you’re thinking. Matthews isn’t a first name. But you take away that ‘s’ and it is. Or if you think about it from another direction, Matthews is the possessive form of a first name.

Not the most normal of logic, but it was my logic at the time. Something about his attitude, about the look on his face when he introduced himself put me on the defensive. So I responded in the most natural of ways. I raised an eyebrow at him and glanced down at his hand. A part of me really just wanted to leave him hanging, but on that particular day I just couldn’t bring myself to be that rude. I took it.

"I know who you are."

It was such a cheesy line. I mean, really, think about it. How many times have you heard that line used in a movie or on a TV show before?

I bet the answer to that is plenty.

He was looking at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to say something else. It occurred to me that he was probably waiting for me to give him my name but for some reason I really didn’t feel like doing that at the moment. So I decided not to.

"Well, it was nice bumping into you." I pulled my hand away from his and took a step back. "I’ll make sure I watch where I’m going next time."

As I turned to walk away, I once again felt a hand on my arm. And I was betting that it was attached to the tall blonde that I had just turned my back on. When I glanced back, I found that I was right and this just made me want to raise my eyebrow at him again.

As usual, I followed that impulse.

"Was there something else?" I asked, pointedly looking down at where his hand was resting on my arm. He returned my pointed look with one of his own as he stubbornly kept his hand just where it was.

Okay, so the guy was stubborn. I could deal with that. After all, I was one of the most stubborn people alive.

"I didn’t get your name."

Well, wasn’t he the smart one? Of course he didn’t get it. I hadn’t said it, had I?

"That’s because I didn’t give it."

Oh, I was on a roll with all these little cliches, wasn’t I? Not my usual style, but for the situation it was working.

I watched as his eyebrows went up a bit at that before I pulled my arm out of his grasp and turned, walking away.

Not too bad for a first encounter, right? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Of course, I probably would’ve been more open to talking to him if I hadn’t suddenly started bumping into him everywhere that I went. Frankly, it was annoying.

And now it was a week later and there he was again. I rolled my eyes when I saw him. I couldn’t help it. Didn’t the guy have anything better to do? I glanced at where he was standing, not too far from me, and shook my head.

Apparently not.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, turning to look at him. He looked at me as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Walking."

"Obviously. Why are you doing it in the same direction as me is what I want to know."

"Because you’re not the only one who has to go in this direction."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Was this guy kidding me? He had to be. There was no way that that was a serious answer.

"And just why do you need to go in this direction?" I asked.

"Gee, it could be for a book." He told me with a smile, motioning to the bookshelves that surrounded us. I sighed. Oh, this day just got better and better.

"Good luck with that then. Have fun." I turned back around, determined to get away from him. Something about him just seemed…off.

You’d think a girl would learn to trust her instincts.

You’d think wrong.

"Hey, Alyson!"

Okay, so that got my attention. I turned around and just looked at him, waiting.

"How do you know my name?" What was this guy? Some kind of stalker? That was definitely not something I needed in my life at the moment. He just grinned at me, not sorry in the least.

"I asked around. After all since you wouldn’t tell me…" He lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

"You know, that could’ve been because I didn’t want you to know it. Ever think of that?"

Yeah, there was something wrong with this picture. I just didn’t realize it then. I know that if I did it all over again, I probably still wouldn’t have gone with my instincts.

Which sounds really stupid.

Brandon just continued to look at me and smile. It was like something about the fact that I didn’t worship the ground he walked on amused him or something.

"The thought crossed my mind. But I’ve got to admit that I’m a bit selfish and after I had that thought, I decided to get your name anyway. It saves me time anyway." he told me.

"Saves you time?" I asked, wondering what the heck he was talking about.

"Well, now I can skip that whole stage where I try and get your name and just skip ahead to asking you out."

I was pretty sure that my eyes were going to fall out of my head. He had not just said what I thought he had.

"Excuse me?" I asked. He laughed a bit.

"You heard me."

"Yeah. But I think the question is, whether I heard you right or not." He laughed again.

"You’re not going deaf or anything. I said I was going to ask you out. And then after that, you tell me yes or no."

I suddenly just had this feeling that if I said no, he was going to keep on bugging me until I said yes. And I had no idea on why he would do that. We’d never talked before. I was the girl that didn’t get noticed and didn’t want to get noticed. So why was he noticing me?

I sighed. There was really only one thing to do.

"Okay." I said.

You may be wondering why I agreed to go anywhere with him if every instinct I had was telling me something was wrong. It’s simple really.

I took the easy way out. And really, it wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever made.

But hey, everyone makes mistakes. Right?

I bit down on my lip and wondered whether or not I was doing the smart thing. I mean, sure, so far Brandon had proved every stereotype that I had of him wrong. But that didn’t mean that they were. Did it? I shook my head. I couldn’t help it. It was in my nature to be suspicious of stuff like this. Why? Because stuff like this didn’t happen very often.

Well not to me at least. What can I say? I’m a cynic.

As I waited for Brandon to show up I couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen tonight. It was the first big party of the summer and somehow I knew that whatever happened tonight was going to have a major effect on my life.

Boy, was I ever right.

The lights were dim, the music loud, and the drinks flowed. It was the typical summer party and I couldn’t deny that I was having a good time. It wasn’t the time of my life or anything, I mean I wasn’t hearing birds sing and there certainly weren’t fireworks going off, but it was fun.

I probably should’ve known that something was up. I mean really. My glass never seemed to get empty. Every time I emptied it, or thought I’d emptied it, I’d look down and there’d be more alcohol in the glass. It was the bottomless glass.

Damn jocks and their stupid alcohol. It’s what got me in trouble in the first place.

Everything seemed to be just a bit more blurry then usual…not to mention that the room was spinning. And let me tell you, that’s never a good sign.

Brandon was there, offering to walk me outside and I stumbled as I tripped over invisible logs on the beach. It was like a routine. I’d stumble, almost fall, and there would be Brandon, stopping me from introducing myself to the sand.

It wasn’t too long before we were pretty far out, away from the party. The music now reminded me more of background music. It was there, but just barely.

I stumbled once more and this time, the sand and I got friendly. The breath was knocked out of me as I fell and I just lay there, staring up at the sky.

Funny, I’d never noticed how many stars there were before.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Brandon was standing above me. I couldn’t seem to move so I just looked at him. He didn’t say anything at first. Just looked at me as I began to have trouble breathing. I didn’t know why but I could tell you it certainly wasn’t because he made me breathless or anything.

"You know, I wasn’t sure I was going to get away with this." His voice was quiet as he lowered himself so that he was squatting next to me. "But you made it easy for me. You made it so that practically no one knows you exist. So, I figure, who’s going to notice if you’re gone? I’m really doing you a favor. Giving you a gift." He held up a hand as if to stop me from interrupting. Like I could. "I know what you’re thinking. You’re parents will notice. You’re probably right. But eventually, they’ll move because that’s the way life goes. And other than them, who’s really going to miss you?"

Once he was done with that little speech, he stood and looked down at me. He didn’t offer any explanation for why he was doing this.

My guess is that he had slipped me something in my drink. And clearly it was something lethal.

Things were starting to get more blurry, colors were starting to fade and my heartbeat sounded like it was pounding inside my head. Brandon continued to stand there and watch me and I contemplated what he had said about why I had been the one he'd chosen.

He was partially right. My parents would notice, they’d move on. I hate to give him credit for knowing that much. But the fact was that I wasn’t some complete and utter loner. I did have friends. They’d feel it when I was gone. But they too would move on.

Truth be told, as I continued to think about it, I was actually a bit glad that he’d done this. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t suicidal before this. But I realized something as I lay there, the world fading away to nothing around me.

I was free.

I was leaving this sorry world and all its problems behind.

Death is my gift.