Jumper
Adam was on his way home from work when he spotted her.
Tossing some bills at the cab driver he hopped out of the car and made his way across the Brooklyn Bridge to where the brunette stood.
"Hey."
She glanced down at him, standing on top of the slippery iced over ledge. Ignoring him, she swayed lightly in the crisp December wind.
"Careful!" Adam jumped as the girl almost toppled over the edge.
"Is there something you want, kid, or are you just here to push me?"
Adam looked around; no one was paying the jumper any mind. It was Christmas eve and no one seemed to give a damn that this woman-girl really- was about to throw herself off one of the busiest bridges in New York.
"Get a coffee with me?"
"What?" She looked down at him, and he noted her silhouette seemed frail in the dim light.
"Coffee?" his voice sounded like to was pleading even to himself.
"Fuck off, boy." She took a step closer to what she hoped would be the end of her.
"Wish you would step back from that ledge my friend."
His singing was awful, and the girl stared, bewildered at him.
"You could, cut ties with all the lies that you've been living in." Adam smiled, her attention now on him and not on the ledge, as he took a step closer.
His step made her turn away and he picked up his song slightly.
"And if you do not want to see me again, I would understand, I would understand." He blinked, "shit, how does that second verse go…"
Adam mumbled to himself and the girl looked at him, thankful for the darkness.
"The angry boy, a bit too insane. You know you don't belong. You're the flash of light on a burial shroud." She sniffed and looked at him. "This was my brother's favorite song."
"Well," Adam could work with this, she had family, someone to miss her. "You wouldn't want him to lose his sister, not like this, right?"
"He's dead. Both of them." She sniffed again, and went a little further from him.
Panicked, he started again. "I know something's wrong. Well, everyone I know has got a reason-" she winced as he attempted a high note, and he took a another step closer. This time she didn't move. "to say put the past away."
He carefully held his hand out. "Coffee? Please, my treat. If you still want to do this after, I'll drive you back here myself."
She stared at him a long while, shivering in the damp snow fall. She started to sob and Adam quickly pulled her off the ledge. Keeping her close as he noticed she was in her pajama bottoms and a thin long sleeved t-shirt.
"Jesus," he murmured and took off his own jacket, and covering her with it. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Thankfully, Adam lived only a couple blocks away, and knew the neighborhood quite well. He pulled her into a small coffee house just down the block, where an elderly woman kept it open 24/7. Her reasoning? She had a shot gun in the back.
"Here." He steered her towards a booth and sat her down in it. He remained standing and called into the back.
"Hey, Claudia?"
"Oh, Adam!" the woman smiled brightly at him and quickly came over to the two. Her dark brown eyes looked over to the disheveled woman, and Adam too, took in her appearance.
Sickly thin, and dangerously pale. Even her green eyes seemed pale and dim in the bright lights of the diner.
"Do you have cancer?"
The woman glanced up at Claudia and shook her head, no.
Okay, so now he knew she was suicidal and didn't have cancer…well, that's a start. He thought.
She blinked in the light and squirmed in her seat, uncomfortable with their staring. She hugged the man's coat closer as he ordered them some hot chocolate.
It was very warm.
"So," he took a seat across from her, and she stared at the table, "wanna talk about it?"
She shook her head again, so he went on, "okay, no pressure. Where ya from?"
"Canada." Her voice was slightly raspy and she sniffed again, thankful the tears had dried outside.
"Really?" He raised a brow…weren't Canadians supposed to be like, happy? "What part?"
"The land part." She glared and looked at him a moment, only to break eye contact and start fiddling with a sugar packet.
Adam watched as her limber finger turned the packet over in her hands.
"Why come to New York?"
She smiled lightly to herself, and focused entirely on the packet. "My sister talked me into it. Said something Frank Sinatra loved so much had to be amazing."
"Do you have a large family?" Adam licked his lip as he nervously shuffled his feet under them. Hopefully getting her talking would help root out some problems.
"Not anymore," she scoffed and wiped her watering eyes. "Only thing I got now are ghosts, babe."
"I'm sorry."
The girl rolled her eyes and went to stand, "fuck this."
Adam quickly grabbed her hand, and looked at her with pleading eyes. "Please. Just talk to me."
"What are you some kinda pervert who gets off on other people's misery?" she wretched her hand from his and stared at him as Claudia approached them.
"Oh, give the boy a chance." She shoved her back in the booth and the girl started panicking slightly. "Not everyday he comes in here with a girl."
Claudia winked at her and the brunette tried to shove herself deeper into the booth, embarrassed for the both of them.
"Now," the elderly lady went on, clapping her hands together, "wait here while I make you two some hot chocolate and biscuits."
As she sauntered back into the kitchen, the girl looked at her. "Did she just say biscuits?"
Adam nodded, and she went on, "what the fuck is a biscuit?"
"Dunno." He shrugged, "what's your name?"
"Eve."
His brows raised slightly, "Really?"
"No, I just said that for shits and giggles, yeah really." Eve rolled her eyes and Adam nodded.
"Okay. I'm Adam." She seemed to accept this without resistance. "So, I take it you didn't like your stay in the Big Apple?"
Trying to make light of the conversation failed, and Eve shook her head. "No, I was trying to kill myself to see if I was as wind resistant as a bag caught in an updraft."
He stared at her. At least she admitted to what she was doing, and he supposed that, too, was a step in the right direction.
"What?" Her voice snapped him back to reality.
"I was just wondering, why the bridge?"
She looked away from him, "My mom doesn't like blood. She would'a been disappointment if I tried it any other way. Besides," she shrugged, "at least this way I'm anonymous."
"How?" He kept a steady eye on her as her own darted around the empty diner.
"No one really knows how many people jump off that thing. No way to tell. You just get washed along until you wind up on the shore. And by then no one can recognize you. You're just…gone."
She smiled slightly and let her eyes rest on a weary Adam. "I guess it'd be nice just to finally get some freedom."
"That's sad."
Eve chuckled darkly at his child like tone. "I guess."
"But I get it."
She scoffed involuntarily. "I'm sure ya do."
"You want some control. Everything seems to be set on high speed and you want off." She looked at him, and this time he toyed with the sugar packet. "No one seems to get that you want out. There's no escape. Like you're drowning."
He looked up at her, and for a long moment, blue met green. "I get it."
"I'll tell if you go first." Eve tilted her head and Adam thought over her proposal as Claudia set the mugs in front of them.
"Everything okay, dears?"
"Fine." They answered simultaneously.
"Thank you," Eve accepted the drink but did not take her eyes from Adam's, slightly desperate for some type of social closure with the man. Spunky and suicidal usually made an interesting conversation.
The woman left them, and once she was out of sight Adam agreed.
"I'm from Phoenix." Eve nodded, and urged him on. "My dad-" he cleared his throat and shifted slightly. He'd never really talked about this to anyone, except one woman who'd save him from a very similar situation.
"Well, he was a bit of a bully."
She quirked an eyebrow and Adam went on. "He liked to take his um, aggression out on me, and my mom."
Her eyes were distracting him a bit so he turned back to the packet. "It started when I was about four, so I didn't really think anything of it 'til I went to school."
He fiddled with the spoon of his hot chocolate and refused to meet her gaze.
"I thought it was normal. You know, just some kind of discipline. I'd get the belt or a backhand. It wasn't until I went to school and found out it was illegal I started getting, well, I don't know, kind of scared of him, I guess."
Eve nodded, and took in his features as he spoke. He was very sullen, and she was reminded of that boy from the Outsiders. A puppy who had been kicked too much.
"So I started telling him he shouldn't be doing that, which only made him madder."
She nodded, "Naturally."
Adam jumped, seemingly startled that A) she was listening and B) she seemed to be mildly concerned for him.
She motioned for him to continue and held the mug in her hands.
"Well, it got worse as I got older. My mom seemed to stop caring, and he seemed to get a shorter fuse. He cracked a couple of my ribs because I didn't chain my bike up right when I was fifteen." His voice cracked slightly, and Eve reached across the table and took his hands away from the spoon. Putting it to the side, she listened as he went on.
"I'd had enough. I just snapped, told him he could go to hell, that I was gonna tell what he did-" his voice cracked again and Eve briefly wondered what that statement meant.
Adam still wasn't looking quite at her, staring at the table as he talked.
"He didn't that well. Went nuts, tore the house apart, put me in the hospital for about a week."
Eve winced but he didn't notice.
"I just got sick of it. The day after I got out I told my mom I wanted her to leave with me, go somewhere. Anywhere. But she wouldn't something about vows and her place in the marriage." He shrugged and took a deep breathe. "I don't know, I guess she just loved him more then me."
"She was scared, Adam." She wasn't sure if she wanted to accept that someone could do that to a kid.
The man laughed, "Yeah. Fuckin' terrified. That night she told him I was gonna run away and I was back in the hospital. This time they put children's services in with me."
He met her eyes and smirked, almost. "I told them everything."
Eve beamed at him. "Atta boy."
He smiled lightly, but it faltered. "She went nuts, said that I destroyed the only thing that ever mattered to her. Slapped me, told me never to come back again."
He looked at her again, and she grasped his hand. "At least you didn't end up on the pole."
There was a beat before the two laughed.
"What?!" Adam shook his head at the woman as she shrugged.
"They say people with daddy issues are destined to end up on the pole." It was her turn to shrug as she tilted her head to the side. "That why yer alone on Christmas eve?"
"Yep," he nodded. "Can't go back. Haven't tried."
"What did you try?" Her voice sounded meek even to Eve but Adam didn't seem to mind.
"Everything. I couldn't do the blood thing. So I hooked a hose up to my exhaust pipe and waited."
He nodded toward the kitchen, "Claudia caught me actually. That's how I met her. She was visiting her sister up in Arizona."
"Lucky."
He grinned at her, "So are you."
She gave him a small smile back. Maybe he was right.
-
Adam absent minded stirred his fresh coffee with one hand as he kept Eve's hand in the other. Loose, but firm enough to know he was there for her.
She was staring at the wall behind him when she spoke.
"I never got along with my mom. She wanted me to meet a nice boy and get married. My dad did not. He was very…" She paused and Adam was tempted to turn around to see just what the hell she was looking at. "well. I guess hippie fits him."
Adam chuckled and she smiled sadly, "he was a great guy. Always real easy on us. He and my mom used top fight about me and Violet, about what we should be and how we should act."
Eve tore her eyes from the wall and stared into her cup, which was still filled with hot chocolate, which Adam had long finished.
"I never really got along with my parents, either of them. Mom was too strict, and dad was too liberal." She sighed, "I didn't really fit in. My brother's was a doctor and my sister was a stay at home wife. I ended up graduating high school early."
She shook her head, "my mom flipped when I told her I was moving. My dad was overjoyed until I told him it was for school, and then he told me that the fascists were just after my money and they both pretty much disowned me."
"The fascists?" Adam asked, and Eve looked at him.
"I know, that's not normal, right?"
He shrugged, "look who you're asking."
Eve nodded, he had a point.
"Continue."
She did, "the only real family I ever had was my brother and sister. They were freakishly supportive. John was the one who helped me get through school. Helped me with money, and let me stay with him when I got kicked out."
Sighing, she took a sip out of her cup. "My dad died, and I had to see my mom. Told me I gave 'im a heart attack. Too much stress having to worry about his youngest. After that I basically said fuck it and moved to New York. Typical angsty teen, ya know?"
Adam nodded, he'd been there.
"I got a job and asked them to come visit. Unfortunately they agreed. Trucker fell asleep at the wheel, they didn't have time to swerve. Violet and her husband were in the front and died instantly, but John was in the back."
She was staring at the wall again and those green eyes were glassing over, she sniffed. "He was in a coma for seven weeks. No sign of brain activity. Nothing. He was a shell. So I had them pull the plug, enough was enough, ya know?"
She looked at Adam for some kind of reassurance and he gently squeezed her hand.
She blinked and went to pull her hand away but he only gripped it tighter.
"It's not your fault."
"Maybe that's how you see it. My mom was pissed that I did it without her consent. She wasn't even like, sad, just mad. Said I had the audacity to do something like that after I practically sold them to the devil by offering them to stay with me after I went against my parents' wishes."
"Heavy." Eve giggled at his simple, yet accurate response.
"Yeah. I guess, I just felt guilty. Like I doomed them because I wanted to spend some time with them away from it all and now, no one will. Vi's not gonna be a mom, John'll never get to date that nurse with the smokin' rack and my mom'll be childless. I'm going to hell anyway," she looked at Adam and took a sip of her hot chocolate. "Figure it may as well be on my own ticket, ya know?"
"your mom's still got you. I'm sure she's grateful-"
Eve scoffed again, and Adam looked down. "My mom thought those two hung the moon, babe. I don't have any one anymore. I lost my best friend when my sister died. She was the one who taught me everything. How to put on make up, shave my legs, everything. My brother was a prince. He was everything I'm not. He was smart, kind; he wanted to live to help people."
Eve pulled her hand away and hugged herself tighter into his jacket. "I couldn't of asked for a better family and I go and fuck it all up by asking for them to visit."
"Your brother talked to you about a nurse's rack?"
Eve chuckled, and Adam grinned. Now they were getting some where.
"Yeah, he was pretty out and the open about that kinda thing. Had a mouth the size of Texas. Bastard that he was." She chuckled and brushed some stray tears away.
"I'm sure he was quite the character."
"Oh god, this one time he set my boyfriend's garage on fire cause he thought I was pregnant."
The two laughed a moment.
"It was this morning," she confessed.
Adam nodded, "I figured it had been recently."
"I figure, what the hell, its Christmas…god's gotta be forgiving on his kid's birthday. Like the Godfather, but hopefully, ya know, less mobby."
Adam chuckled and reached over and held her hand.
"I think you'll be okay, Eve."
She met his eyes again, and his gaze didn't falter as he reassured her again. "I know you will be. You're one tough chick."
"Thanks." Eve sniffed again and pulled off his jacket. "I should go."
"Now?" he jumped up. "You're not gonna, you know, right?"
"I don't know. I feel a bit better, I guess." She stared at, "whatever happened with your dad wasn't your fault either, Adam. I'll remember mine, if you remember yours, 'kay?"
He's wasn't quite sure what that meant, but he doubted he'd forget this meeting.
"Here," Adam grabbed a napkin and a pen of the counter and scribbled down his number.
"If you ever wanna talk, or vent or whatever."
Eve took the napkin and looked up at him. "Thanks."
"Even if its not me, okay, just call anyone. Claudia would be happy to help you. And I'm usually, around."
She gave him a half smile and handed his jacket back. "Okay."
"Okay." He nodded.
The pair stood there a moment, staring. None quite sure what to say next.
Because right then it didn't matter that Adam was a runaway or that Eve had tried to throw herself off the Brooklyn Bridge.
Eve was quiet because she knew she would never call him. Maybe she'd get some help, but it would be on her own, not by the nice, if not strange, man in front of her.
Adam was quiet because he thought she was going to hurt herself.
-she wouldn't but neither of them knew that right then. But Eve knew in the long run, if she didn't it would be because of Adam.
*the song was Third Eye Blind's. I only own Eve and Claudia.
Merry Christmas!