The sky was a brilliant blue with dashes of magnificent pink. The elongenated shadows cast by the school playground reaching out to cover the entire area. I stuck a green flipflopped foot out to touch the outer edge of the nearest shadow.
I had been sitting on the swing since Jake left me an hour ago. The metal was getting uncomfortable, but Jake said not to move untill he came back. I knew better than to not listen to Jake. I had lifted up my head to look at the sun retreating towards the hills when I saw a moving shadow. It crept towards the gravel, gliding smoothly over the freshly cut grass. I let my head drop to see the owner of this perfect shadow. With the sun glaring low behind them, I couldn't see exactly who it was. I assumed it was Jake, come at last to free me of my prison. But I saw a difference in the shoulders. This newcomer's were wider, with more confidence.
"Hello," the newcomer said. I glanced around, hoping Jake was nowhere in sight. My hopes were met with evident agreement. With a slight shake to my voice, I returned his greeting.
"Hi." Jake always used to say I had the most beautiful voice. Lately, however, he said my voice annoyed him, that I better just not talk. I blushed at unknown opinion of the newcomer.
"I'm Eithan. What's your name?" he asked me. Carrying on a conversation with anyone Jake did not know and approve of was not the smartest thing. But I didn't want to be rude to the boy.
"My name is Sophia." I answered. When we met, Jake said my name was the most beautiful name. Just the other day, though, he said maybe if I had a better name he wouldn't cheat on me. Sophia is boring, he says, why would I want a Sophia when I could have a Chantel or a Kiana. My cheeks graduated to a brighter shade red at the embarassment of my name.
"I love that name. When I was little I had a cat named Sophia and my mom said I should have named her Mittens. Mittens, I had said, is not a name. They are objects. A week later she bought a dog and named him Sparky. I never much liked Sparky." he said, and I had to laugh at his obviouse attempt to make me more at ease.
I was normally afraid of those of the male gender. Eithan was football player size, but he seemed more lovable because of it, not scary. His blonde hair was cut in a short spiky 'do. His chocolate brown eyes looked as if they had smiles themselves. His jaw was firm and square, almost like Paul Wesley's.
"I once had a kitten named Snow. Not Snowy, Snowball, or Snowflake. Snow. I was obsessed with Snow White then. She wasn't even white either. She was black with a white dot on her ear. Snow was the best cat ever." I said lightly to him. He watched me the whole time, like I was important. When I talked to Jake he either told me to shut up or he wouldn't listen to me.
"Some people name thier pets the weirdest things. I always believed that animals were just like people and deserve real names. How would you like it if your name was Fluffy. Or Sir Gladmire Halsith." he asked me.
I laughed at him. I had never started a conversation with someone randomly, even before I met Jake. I was beginning to like Eithan.
"Hey, do you wanna go get some icecream?" he asked me.
I was trying to find a way to answer this when I heard Jake coming. I whipped my head around to see him coming from behind me. He was getting out of some girl's car. My heart hurt at what had obviously happened while I was waiting for him. He said he loved me, yet he always cheated on me.
Apparently Jake had heard what Eithan had said. "Of course she doesn't want your icecream jackass. Get the hell out of here." he said, then he turned to look at me.
The look in his eyes wasn't entirelly human. He came over and slapped me across the face. I fell backwards over the swing, and accidentally kicked him in the waist.
"That's it," he said. He picked me up by the hair and punched me in the face. A gush of blood came from my nose. I thought I heard Eithan yelling in the backround, trying to get around Jake to me. The blows to my head kept coming though. My eyes, my nose, my mouth, my head, hurt like nothing ever before. The silent tears fell from my face.
This is it, I thought, he's finally going to do it. He's going to kill me.
The pain in my head was excrutiating. I felt myself slowly lose consciousness. But not fast enough. I heard the sirens. I heard the screams. But most importantly, I heard Eithan screaming my name. Or maybe it was his cat he was calling. Or maybe it wasn't anything at all. I had felt Jake being torn off of me. Minutes later, a sharp pain was attatched to the feeling of unrealness, like this was all a dream. Just a silly dream. All of it. I felt as if I would wake up and never have met Jake Austin. Never met my death.
