Rated T for attempted suicide of a character.
"What are you doing?" Parker Rooney exclaims as he runs out on to the roof of Ridgewood High School.
He's freaking out. Of course he is—how often is it that you find someone trying to end their life? Someone who has had such a big part in your life, set aside all the debacles and grudges with them.
"Go away, Rooney!" Palis cries, shuffling closer to the edge of the roof.
He's only fourteen. He shouldn't be seeing this.
She's only fourteen. She shouldn't be wanting to die.
"Palis?" He says softly, stepping toward the trembling girl. She takes another step forward. "Palis, stop. Right now."
Palis sniffles, craning her head to look at Parker. His brown eyes shine with concern and his arms are kind of stretched out toward her,ready to take her hand when she comes to her senses—which is hopefully soon. Please be soon. When Parker opens his mouth to speak again, Palis shouts, "Why do you care? You, of all people, shouldn't care! You hate me, remember?"
"Palis . . ."
"Shut up! You made fun of me at the dojo; you never let me show what I could do in school! Your sexist views are ridiculous! You've always been against me! You shouldn't care if I jump right now."
"Palis!" Parker screams, exasperated, causing Palis to jump back. He just wants a word in. She stumbles, grabbing onto a railing and Parker's heart skips a beat. She could have fallen. Calmly, he says, "I'm sorry, okay? I am so sorry. I regret it—every mean, sexist thing that I have ever said to you. Just please don't jump."
"It's not just you. No one else would care."
Parker clicks his tongue, rolling his eyes.
Really?
"Your parents would care, Palis. Your friends—Luna? Ring a bell? Our teachers, they love you. Who can't love you? You're so amazing and I am so sorry that from the very first second you walked into the dojo, I was mean to you. I swear I regret it. If you don't jump, and believe me, I don't want you to, I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you."
Palis releases her grip on the railing. Parker breathes out in relief, but in a quick second, Palis is stumbling backward and Parker's heart stops in his chest. He grasps at the air in front of him, trying to grab onto Palis.
Please don't be a long fall, please don't die, Parker begs to no one in particular. No, there's so much I have to tell you.
But Parker knows that the roof of Ridgewood High is tall enough that Palis will die once she hits the pavement.
No.
And then Parker feels something in his grasp, and as quickly as he can, he kicks himself backward, wrapping his arms around Palis as they both fall back to the roof. He opens his eyes to see Palis' hands covering her face and she is crying. He wants to cry too, but there's so much adrenaline going through his body, he can't work his tear ducts.
Palis almost died. Palis, the bubbly and competitive girl who walked into the dojo every day, ready to take on anyone who wanted to take her on.
Letting out a shaky breath, Parker begins running his fingers through Palis' disheveled brown hair. Her red ribbon is missing—she picked it to correlate with her red dress. But he's soon frowning when thoughts of the past ten minutes run through his mind again.
A red dress? How fitting. Because if she did fall, her red dress would be soaked in a pool of scarlet red.
God, that will be on repeat for a long time.
"Why?" He asks, and even though he doesn't want to, he lets go of the girl in his arms.
"Because I didn't think there was anything to live for."
"You don't have to believe me," Parker breathes. "But I really like you."
Palis offers a small smile and for another moment, Parker almost forgets about what just happened.
But he knows he's not going to forget that easily. She's not going to forgive that easily, either.
He goes to stand up, pulling Palis with him. He adjusts his t-shirt and grabs her hand, leading her off the roof.
He walks her home, to make sure she gets back okay—to make sure she doesn't try to do anything stupid again.
Parker knocks on the door, and a woman answers it. She sees Palis in Parker's arms and brings her in a hug. He tells the woman about Palis' stunt and the woman says that she will have to talk to her dads about what had happened, but Palis refuses to talk about it without Parker around, so Parker calls his mom to tell her he's at a "friend's" house.
The woman sits Palis down on a loveseat and Parker takes the seat next to her. The woman and two men walk in, and the men, like the woman, are worried.
Palis sighs, knowing she has to talk sooner or later.
"I'm sorry."
"Hey?" Parker whispers, leaning to whisper in her ear. "You can do it."
So, taking another deep breath, Palis does—she does it. She tells her parents everything she's been feeling the past couple of weeks and what she presumes caused her to feel the way she did, and the whole time, Parker is there, trying to fight back tears, comforting her.
"I love you." He thinks once she is finished. "Sorry I was such a butt."
He knows she's broken, and that she needs to be fixed before anything can really happen between them.
But he's willing to wait.
He'll wait.
1. I feel like I just put a cinnamon roll through hell.
2. I may not own Liv and Maddie, but I do own Palis.
3. Palis was created a couple years ago, to be an O/C for Parker. I've already been through their story a bit, so I was contemplating writing a series of one-shots about them? What do you guys think?
4. First David Bowie, now Alan Rickman? Life is so cruel.
5. Please review, because I would love to know what you all think.