Monday April 13th

"I got them." I called out. I shuffled over, picked up her books, and placed them back on the desk.

"Thank you, I'm Cindy."

"Nick," I replied.

"I know who you are." She smirked.

I grinned. I couldn't help it, but the temperature in the library had suddenly raised by 10 degrees and my cheeks were painted red.

Cindy's phone buzzed on the desk. Checking the message, she let out a groan and slunk down in her seat.

"Great!" She sighed. "Laurie won't be speaking to me again."

"You seem like you are friends. I don't think she could stay mad at you. What did you do?"

"You don't know her. She's not your sort of person."

"What's my sort of person?" As far as I was aware, people like me didn't have people, just Simon.

"Never mind," she mumbled. "Still, Laurie's different, not the forgiving type. I kissed her boyfriend, except I didn't. He kissed me. She won't see it that way."

"Why wouldn't she? If you're friends I mean."

"She thinks I'm infatuated with her brother too. Laurie found a stack of school books in his charger once, saw red thinking they were mine. Zack always kept all kinds of shit in there, for him, for Daniel, but I'd never even been in there, not once."

"Whoa, go back, Daniel Garry kissed you?"

She nodded. "The one and only douche."

My eyes rolled. "I don't have a lot of time for that guy."

"He seems to like you though. I sit three rows behind you in register." She chuckled. "Ball—."

I held up a hand to stop her. "Tell me about it."

The school announcement system chimed.

Attention students. This is not a drill. They have issued a tornado watch warning for Paradise, Denton and Greenville areas. As a precaution, we'd like you to make arrangements to get home safely. If you have no means to get home from a parent or guardian, please walk in groups or seek a carpool.

"I better call my mom," she said, packing up her books and pencil case into her backpack. "I'll see you around."

I could be wrong. But her cheeks glowed at least a shade darker than before. I watched her walk out of the exit and returned to pack up my bag. I zipped the backpack up and slung my hoodie through my arm, and headed to the exit too.

When I stepped outside into the parking lot, most students had already gone. I glanced at the queue for the school bus, but there wasn't any. No queue and no buses. Zero service operated during a tornado watch.

My phone chirped. I opened my backpack and read the preview. It was Mom.

Mom: Tornado watch issued. Please call ASAP. If you can't get a ride home, stay where you are and I'll send Dad.

"Can't get a ride home either, huh?" Cindy called out behind me.

I plopped my phone back into my bag and secured it around my back.

"No," I lied.

"My mom said she'd try, but the twins are playing up, teething or something. She's way tired. You wanna start walking with me? You live opposite me, right?"

"Sure." I nodded and dipped my phone back in my pocket, making a mental note to text Mom on the way. There was no way she would want Cindy walking alone, and Dad could meet us at the top of County road if things got rough.

"You rarely talk much?"

"Is that a question or an observation?

"Both, I guess." She smiled.

"Short cut." I pointed to the fence that lead onto County Road. Cindy ducked out first.

"What do you want to do when we graduate?" It was a question I was pestered with most of the time.

"I don't wanna do what I'm doing anymore. I want to be better. I want to rid myself of Laurie, Daniel - all of it. Maybe say "Hi," to the shy boy who stares at me in the library."

She knocked into my arm and grinned. "I want to let him know I'm worth knowing..." She smiled again as we left the grass verge onto the blackened tarmac of County road.

She turned back to me as she walked. "Nick, can I ask you a question?"

A blinding light suddenly touched everything.

"LOOKOUT!" I lunged to grab her backpack, a thread, anything, but she slipped through my fingers, bounced over the hood of a car and vanished into the brush, no longer in site of the road.

My legs became hardened iron.

The vehicle slowed and brake lights flared red. A cherry scented air freshener rocked back and forth. It was the only thing that moved in that moment. Then something unexpected happened; the wheels inched forward, further and further away from me, until it hit its former pace.

My world went still with a silence I couldn't measure in minutes or seconds, as it seemed to last forever. The car hadn't stopped. Why hadn't they stopped?

Coming to my senses, I scrambled to her. Cindy's body lay curled in a ball, her small frame racked trembling. She looked fragile, an injured bird, that when her hand reached for me, it scared me to take it. She clung to me the way a koala would.

"What happened?" The wind lapped at her face blowing her hair away.

"Shh, stay still. Don't talk, I'll call an ambulance." I pulled my phone out from my bag. More missed calls and messages from Mom, but zero service reception. Fuck!

"There's no cell service anymore. What do I do, Cindy? Tell me what to do. I'll run down the road, find help..."

"Don't leave me here," she screeched. Cindy's teeth chattered and her breath became visible.

I covered her bare arms with my hoodie to keep her warm. A scarlet patch formed in the material, seeping outwards.

"Shh, shh, shh. It's okay." I stroked her hair with trembling fingers. "I'll figure this out."

My eyes scanned her crumpled frame for a source of pain. My limbs rattled. Nothing appeared broken, but the blood, oh my god, the blood was everywhere...

She gasped a final time, her voice gurgled.

"Tell me how to help you. We can't stay here. Cindy?" I shook her arm. "Cindy?" The word choked in my throat.

Unmoving, the sapphire in her unblinking eyes reflected the moon.

Was she dead? I scooted backwards, letting her head thump to the ground.

"Help!" I shouted. "Somebody help us!"

This is too much. This isn't happening.

I stumbled back over to the road and buckled. My hands splayed out on the ground, rolling the grit beneath them. My stomach clenched. I felt the bile rise in my throat. I swallowed it down, but the second I did, salt water flooded my mouth, and I lurched forward, spilling the contents of my stomach onto the asphalt.

I wiped my hand on my sleeve and rose on unsteady feet, but as soon as I did, the world swam again before my eyes.

This isn't happening to me... My eyes scrunched tightly closed; the wildness in the wind penetrated my thin T-shirt. I stilled every sense around me, focusing only on the rush of air through the trees, and the creaking of branches in protest. This isn't happening to me... This isn't happening to me...

A blank numbness seeped into my pores; cool and impregnable. Cindy became a fortified memory, with walls cast into the sky and a lid sealed shut; an echo in a valley.

My panic receded like a tide that I would never lay eyes on again, cast out of necessity. Survival. Like a yarn of string, I unraveled, and I would never come back. My mind cleared; erasing her, the accident.

My eyes opened to a new dawn in the dark. I glanced down at my watch, I'd missed the last bus. My sneakers crunched over a mound of discarded pencils that littered the floor. As I strolled forward, the wind howled around me.

Fuck, it was getting colder. I'd better get home. I hastened down the road as a set of headlights glinted at the far end ahead me, hurtling at speed. I was probably wrong, but that looked like Daniel Garry's car approaching.