Note: The title comes from "She's Falling Apart," sung by Lisa Loeb.
Falling Apart
He watches the scene mutely, not quite understanding what is happening until it is too late. The girls are a few feet away, and the wind is blowing the wrong way, so he can't make out what they're saying.
The kiss is a bit of a surprise, but not wholly unexpected. It's not all that uncommon for girls their age to form emotional attachments to each other that result in physical expression. He supposes they are playing at love, in their way. It's harmless, provided they grow out of it, and most do.
It is what follows the kiss that troubles him. To be accurate, the act occurs during the kiss, but he doesn't realize what the one girl has done until she steps back from the other and he sees the knife in her hand, the blood flowing from her wrist. The foolish child has cut herself. Quite deeply, from the looks of it.
Girls these days seem to think this is some sort of game. They play at suicide, at being disturbed. He doesn't quite understand why, and he's not sure he wants to. He just wants these dangerous games to stop already, before more people get hurt.
As he runs up to them, he sees that both their faces are stained with tears, and they've both gotten a bit hysterical. He doesn't have time to calm them down-- she's losing blood fast-- so he just pulls off his shirt and presses the cloth against the wound, raising the arm up and then guiding the uninjured girl's hands around it, instructing her to hold the makeshift bandage in place and put pressure on the wound.
Once he's sure she is capable of carrying out his instructions, he runs off to call an ambulance, muttering under his breath about stupid children and their delusional, selfish death wishes. She will be saved this time, but what about the next? He puts the thought out of his mind. Better to concentrate on what he can do.
What he can do is to save this one, now, and he will do it. Someone else will have to solve the other problem; It's too big for him.
He wonders if there is really anyone who can.