Chapter 1 – Pushed together

It was a middle of the night and Ramsey felt quite drunk from the party he just left behind. He would have stayed there till morning but he got into a fight with someone at the bar. After the fool ended up on the ground he decided to leave rather than went through another round with the bouncers. The uproar just wasn´t worth his father´s anger. He wasn´t particularly sorry for leaving early though. After all, he thought with a smirk, he already had his fun and the party sucked anyway. Sometimes he wondered why he still bothered to attend public parties. He hated the laud music that always left him partially deft for several hours and even more he hated all those people who threw themselves on him. They all hoped to gain some privilege by association. It both amazed and disgusted him at the same time. Fools.

Usually, he picked up a girl or two but tonight he only got drunk much more than usual. He momentarily regretted that he didn´t get any girl to keep him company for the rest of the night. There were several girls who approached him at some point of the night but none actually stirred enough of his interest to earn a second glance. In the end, he didn´t want anybody with him in this state, when he felt thankful to the freezing weather for keeping him awake. The girl would just get a wrong idea of him needing her. It was ridiculous, he didn´t need anybody but they always hoped to be the exception to that. Ridiculous, all he needed was a freezing weather, he thought while waiting for his cab at the bus station near the club.

He wasn´t alone, though, just a few feet away from him stood a girl. It took him just one glance to know that she was not his type even though he didn´t see her face because of the wooly scarf and her hair was hidden under a hood with animal (cat?) ears attached to it. Her clothes made the judgment obvious enough because judged on her clothes alone, he would have guessed that she is ten. He almost chuckled and looked at her again, she must have been older than her clothes, she was too tall for a child even though the top of her head barely reached his chin. She had a shapeless bag that looked far too heavy for her to carry.

The girl had that vibe of a nerd who lives in a library, totally below his league. He looked away before the nerdy girl could catch him staring and checked his watch, it was well past midnight and his cab was late. Fucking cabs, he thought and dig his hands deeper into his pockets.

The next minute happened fast; so fast Ramsey barely had time to realize what is happening at all. First, there was the screeching sound of wheels on the icy road. Instinctively, he turned his head toward the sound. It was a white van, uncontrollable monster which was coming to the bus station without slowing down despite the efforts of its driver. He was frozen to the spot, mesmerized by the immediate threat of his own death. In the next moment, he felt the impact. Something much smaller than the white van slammed into his side, throwing him off balance. He ended up falling few feet backward to the pile of dirty snow gathered on the street during the day. It was her, he realized as he tried to catch his breath again, the girl who stood at the bus station hit him. She flew across the small space and throw both of them into the snow. Then, he saw the white van so close he could smell its burning breaks. The bus station exploded with shattered glass. Reflexively, Ramsay brought his arms up and around the girl´s head. He rolled them to the right until he was laying over her, turning his back against the flying glass. Ramsey felt the glass hitting his back and hoped that his thick coat will be enough to protect him. He didn´t need new scars.

It was probably the first protective thing he ever did for anybody and if he had time to think about it at all, he would be shocked by his actions more than by the danger. But he didn´t have time to acknowledge or analyze anything at all. They were pressed together now and for once he felt too overwhelmed to care about anything else. He just clenched his teeth and waited. For several seconds the crash was deafening and then abruptly there was almost a silence. He heard crackling sound of fire coming from the van´s engine and muffled breath of the girl who was almost strangled by his embrace. He was still pushing her face against his chest, much harder than could be comfortable. With that thought, he let go a little but didn´t lift himself off her just yet. She breathed in and look up to meet his gaze. She had light blue eyes and her hood fell off, revealing strawberry blond hair. He could not take in more at that moment, he just stared at her and give up on speaking. Her lips were parted and she was breathing hard. He felt her hands on his back, she must have been cut by the glass, he though.

It took him just a few seconds to recompose himself and he willed his body to move and pulled up on his feet. The girl stayed on the ground, looking at him. Now that he saw more of her, it amazed him how could she even throw them both so far. She was small and looked like half of his weight.

"Move. We need to get up." He said impatiently. When she made no attempt to follow his order he bent down, grasped her just above her elbows, and helped her up. He was handling her rather roughly but the girl was still in shock and didn´t seem to mind.

"C´mon move." He repeated and started to drag her away from the burning car wreck but she suddenly yelped with pain and her right leg buckled under her. Ramsey quickly caught her to prevent her fall. "Are you hurt? Where?" he asked impatiently.

"I think, I sprained my ankle." She whispered and her eyes suddenly filled with tears, she was struggling against him but he was not sure whether she wanted him to hold her more or let go of her entirely. He didn´t even care at that moment. "Stop it!" he ordered and looked over his shoulder to see an ambulance just turning around the corner. "What´s your name?" he asked still looking at the ambulance and two police cars following it.

"May. I mean Maleyne but nobody calls me that, it´s just May. Oh, it hurts." She practically mewed. He tightened his grip on her, unsure what to do. He didn´t want to let go of her just yet but at the same time she wasn´t his problem, was she? Her tears annoyed him greatly as she sobbed against his chest.

"Just hold onto me May." He said finally. He half carried half dragged her away from the remains of the bus station and sat her down on the low wall. "Wait here. I will be right back." He saw her trembling, biting her bottom lip against the pain and decided, he is going to take a girl home with him after all. "Wait." He ordered again and she knew better than to argue.

He sprinted to the car. The driver already got out, he was bleeding and vomiting at the same time, the sign of a brain injury. He looked like somebody who will lose consciousness anytime soon. Ramsey found it funny. He was sorry though that he cannot deal with the driver in his own way, but with the ambulance personnel running to him there was nothing he could do. He just enjoyed the view as the man struggled to breathe through his vomit for precious ten seconds.

"Are you ok? Nobody else injured?" asked the guy in red and yellow uniform when his colleagues pushed the driver into the back of the car.

"My girl has a sprained ankle, we had to jump out of the way." He said and pointed his finger at May who was still seated where he left her.

"Ok, can you follow us to the hospital on your own or should I send for another car?" As the ambulance guy finished his question Ramsay saw a cab turning the corner of the street. Damned car, he should have been out of here twenty minutes ago.

"We will get a cab." He pointed at the road. The ambulance guy nodded and hurried away to join his colleagues who were already pulling the driver towards the ambulance. Ramsay turned to the girl who was still waiting for him to return. His girl.

He waived at the cab.