This chapter really isn't that great, but I thought I would just upload because, well, the story has to continue. Also, Justice237 is very impatient.The POV is essentially from an OC, who will be introduced in the next chapter. Just thought I would clarify so people don't get confused.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was a quiet night, or so he thought. It was late as they drove back home, so he stared out of the window to spectate the goings on of strangers. His squiggly brown hair disturbed his view every now and then and he would be forced to move it back.
His sisters were having a conversation, bringing a dull ache to his head. The yappy one was sat in between him and his eldest sister, which was no help. He just wanted to sleep. They had been required to attend one of his father's business meetings, as they had done for at least the past 7 years. He reluctantly wore a suit, which his elder sisters said made him look adorable - the biggest insult that a teenage boy could be exposed to. His father told him he looked handsome and mature, a compliment that he took with a smile.
The meeting ended two hours late; it was the most tedious event he had ever experienced. The children weren't even allowed to speak, not that he wished to. They were invited to ensure that their father looked respectable.
The chauffeur stopped at a traffic light, meaning they were next to the park. He couldn't see much in the dark, but he pressed his hands against the glass of the window to lean in. He thought he saw something moving in one of the trees. Definitely not a bird or squirrel.
What he saw was not a sight to be seen.
A young boy, around his age but perhaps younger, climbing up to a steady branch. As the mysterious figure stood, the boy in the car realised what was about to happen.
As the figure jumped from the tree, he screamed.
Startling his family, his eldest sister reacted, "What!? What happened?" Her tied hair fell loose to her side, concealing her pale skin.
"That kid… H-He just...jumped!" With no other explanation, the boy pushed open the car door which the driver had forgotten to safety lock and bolted out of the car.
"What the- Where the hell is he going!?" Their father yelled, but the driver had to continue driving as the traffic light had changed to green.
The middle sister shut the door in time, speaking as she did so, "Papa, we need to park the car somewhere. I think he's about to do something stupid."
The teenager ran down to the river and began racing the boy that was submerged in the river, along the bank. His feet pitter-pattered between the grass, his eyes not abandoning the other boy.
When he finally passed the body, he found the safest route down the bank. He slid down, ready to grasp the incoming stranger. His new suit became damp and muddy in the process.
With the stranger now in sight and floating away dangerously fast with the current, the boy clasped onto him tightly, forcing the body out of the murky waters. He gripped the arms of the drenched stranger and heaved him out of the water flow.
He dragged him up the bank, both boys soaking wet. One considerably more than the other. His curly hair falling in front of his eyes and being swept back by the wind. Was he dead? The teen wondered as he checked and found no breath.
Hurriedly, he began to perform CPR. Thank God that Papa made me take those survival lessons. He breathed, before pressing his lips to the stranger and blowing in.
It didn't work. He had to keep trying.
He didn't register that he was being pulled away from the dead boy until he saw his father perform the CPR on the unconscious youth.
His middle sister held him close whilst the eldest phoned an ambulance. Her voice echoed from far away, but he tuned it out. He didn't want to hear anything.
The dead boy was no longer dead, coughing up water and blood. So, the hero in the formal attire surged forward to the rescued boy and leant over him, ruining the suit's material from grazing the rough grass.
"It's okay. You're okay." He told him, treating the situation as if the stranger had slipped into the river by accident.
Or maybe he was just in denial. He did witness it, after all. A suicide attempt.
The teenager that had just been saved from death was barely conscious, unlikely to have heard anything. He most likely wasn't even aware that he was alive.
"You stupid boy," The father told his son, "You could have gotten yourself killed."
"We just saved someone's life, Papa." The child argued, "It was worth it."
"You said he jumped, sweetie," His sister wrapped her scarf around him, "He didn't want to be saved."
Soft breathing told everyone that the boy was unconscious, again. Bruises scattered his arms. Clothes tattered and torn from the rocks and rough waves. The weather hadn't been kind to him. He was...beautiful, in a twisted way. Under all of those scars. Amongst the bleeding limbs and battered body.
As they waited for the ambulance, the boy with the squiggly brown hair linked his fingers with the boy who had just tried to end it all.
If this kid felt like he had no one to turn to, the boy in the ruined suit was going to change that. But first, the stranger needed to wake up, and answer a few questions whilst he was at it.