How To Save A Life

  There was a boy in my room.    He sat on my cheap desk chair, leaning back as it squeaked slowly. Long legs parted and his hands in the pockets of his navy blazer. I tried not to stare for too long. Not because he wasn't nice to look at, he certainly was. With freshly faded hair at the side of his oval-shaped face and tight ringlets of lively black curls at the top, he certainly wasn't a bother.    It was hard to know whether he noticed I was even there. His long, dark lashes curled upwards and sheltered his eyes that were trained down to the floor. His eyes were oddly enchanting. So brown that they drizzled to an almost fiery red, like honey. Golden sunlight filtered through the cracks in my blinds and melted against his smooth brown skin. He was enough to leave me breathless and I was choking.   

 They sounded like ghostly robots as they spoke together. Their voices weren't loud but they echoed around my mind and distracted the sane part of myself. The wind picked up and it began to whip my hair around my face ferociously. All at once, each door of the terraced houses slammed shut in my face.   Before anything else could've taken me away from my goal, I rushed ahead to the shop. The bell above the door chimed as I stepped inside and I wasted no time in escaping to the sweet and chocolate aisle. For such a small shop, they had a lot of good stuff. Snatching the off-brand milk chocolate, I followed the white aisles as they led me to the counter. When I was younger, my dad used to allow me to get a pretty pink magazine for my birthday every year. I often wished times were simpler, that I could allow myself to get excited over the little things again. 

 I woke up to the numbing feeling on my forehead as it spread around my body and made my muscles tingle back to life. Cool leather pushed against my body from the couch and was a cold awakening to the bare skin of my arms.  I reached my arms up and above my head, clicking them into place. Every one of my limbs ached and it felt as though I'd been sleeping for years. Fluttering my eyes open, I recognized my surroundings as the living room. I lifted my head from the leather sofa and pain pierced through my skull. With furrowed brows, I massaged my temples and breathed deeply to soothe the pain.  Just the thought of what happened earlier sent a shudder through my body. What was that? It all felt so real and scary. The blood looked real, it smelt real, it felt real. I glanced down at my wrist and saw the words 'Ren

 "Is this a Zobel boy party?" I asked over the music.  "Uhh, yeah," she answered absentmindedly while trying to roll up her window to stop the bitter chill of night. I figured if this was a Zobel party we'd be more likely to find a suspect worth our time.  "Why? You got your eye on one of them?" Raven teased while the wind breezed through her dark hair.  I threw her a half-smile. She knew better than anyone how I felt about relationships. I just didn't need them. I loved the thrill of a kiss but dreaded the burden of love. That's just the way it was for me.  "Well Corpus Cole from biology does weed and I'm going to join them tonight." Raven grinned. 

  Though Deshawn wasn't truly there, he could touch and hold stuff from our world. Taron's weight was shared between the crazy girl and the ghost of his best friend but he had no idea. It was unsettling.    Together, the three of us walked through the front door where I was momentarily speechless at the interior. Just like every other Zobel boy house, it was large with winding staircases, expensive decorations, and designer wallpaper. The foyer alone was probably bigger than my whole house and led straight to the glass doors on the other side where more people danced in the garden. The smell of various alcoholic drinks and smoke clung to the air like a disease and groups of people came and went through.    Girls idled on the staircase, boys screamed from the pool outside and the music pierced my eardrums.