A very quick what-if oneshot. What if Will had been there to save Alona's life?
I don't own The Ghost and the Goth.
I couldn't believe how early it was. This was unreal, and pretty much torture. The air was freezing against my skin and the sun had gotten nowhere near to warming up anything. I rubbed my hands together and frowned down the road. Of course Joonie wouldn't turn up. Who but the populars obsessed with keeping fit and perfect would be at school this early?
It was ridiculous. She wasn't even turning up anyway and hadn't told me why she wanted to see me in the first place. I kicked at the ground and dug my hands into my pockets.
"He called me, not you. Are you sensing a pattern here yet?" I grimaced as Alona Dare, pretty much the dictator of our school, rounded the corner. Of course she would have signed up for zero-hour gym, along with the rest of the cheerleaders with no aspirations other than to have the perfect body. She caught sight of me, though mostly looking through me. Even though that was pretty much what I'd tried to perfect my entire life (if the living don't notice you then the dead tend not to either) I couldn't help the stupid twinge of hurt. We had been in the same school since first grade, after all. We'd even sat next to each other in a couple of classes (only if she was forced to, though. There was no way Alona Dare would ever be seen anywhere near me if she had any say in the matter.)
So anyway, she just passed through me as if I didn't exist. I shot a glance down the road again and took my phone out. Nothing but the school bus. Joonie's bug wasn't anywhere to be seen. The school bus, getting closer and closer, and Alona was engrossed in her telephone conversation (about a boy, figures). She almost brushed past me and didn't seem to see the bus approaching, fast and unrelenting.
God, she really wasn't stopping. She was stepping out into the road, a couple of metres away from me. I dove forwards and grabbed her around the waist (pretty much the only contact with her I'd ever get) and held her back. She let out a small exclamation of indignation, which was cut short with a gasp when the bus passed right in front of us. The phone slipped from her fingers and landed on the ground and we were both frozen with shock, until I realised that my arms were still wrapped around her waist.
Okay, saving Alona Dare from her imminent death and her... 'repaying' me in some way due to her gratitude may have been one of my fantasies at one point (I'd been really young at that point; sixth or seventh grade), but still I knew it wasn't going to happen. For all I knew she would start shouting at me that I was touching her inappropriately and inform Principal Brewster (as if he needed another excuse to hate me) that I'd molested her or something, at least for the attention. A ploy to make herself more popular. So I stepped away and started to walk down the road. Joonie wasn't coming. I was going to kill her for this.
"Killian!" I heard behind me. I turned back and looked at Alona. Her eyes were wider than usual, and she was breathing harder too.
"What?" I answered.
She blinked. "You just saved my life and you're just going to walk away as if it never happened?"
Oh, this was ridiculous. I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I just stopped you from getting hit by a bus. That doesn't mean I want to talk to you."
Her lips parted slightly and her eyes flashed. "Just wanted to thank you. No matter. Just go back to your own freaky little world." She picked up the phone, looked both sides of the street and left, not looking back at me.
Whatever. I probably should have just let her walk into the road.
