Troubled

SIXTEEN

KYLE GARCIA

I panicked, my legs ran towards her. I plopped down beside her. She was crumpled into a ball. Her eyes clamped shut but she was wiggling, that was kind of a relief. It meant she was awake. I didn't know what would happen if she wasn't.

"Cora." I called out.

But she continued wiggling in pain. Her brows creased in pain. I didn't know what to do. I looked both ways, the streets were just as bare and dirty as they were when grandma and I first came.

I cradled her head on my lap. Her temperature had gone up, and she was sweating like crazy.

"s**t. Shit." I whispered as I sat there uselessly holding her head in my hand.

I wish I had paid attention in health science class. Maybe they taught me something I could use for this.

A literal light bulb lit up in my head, the emergency number. I gently freed my right hand from beneath her head, fishing for my phone in my pocket where I had slipped it earlier.

She whimpered again as I clicked the numbers on my dial pad.

"Cora, it's okay, I'm trying to get help, okay?" I told her gently.

My voice sounded more steady than I felt. Inside I was on full blown panic mode. Red alarms were blaring in my head. I had seen her like this before in school, but then she was able to handle herself.

" Hello, this is 911. What is your emergency?" The woman on the line sounded like she was bored.

"I uh.. my.. friend.." I didn't know what to call her or how to explain the situation.

"What about them?" She either didn't pick up on my panicked tone or she had gotten enough prank calls from teenagers for her to get worried about me.

"She's uhmm.. she passed out."

"Did you guys take any drugs?" I was pretty sure she was rolling her eyes.

My eyes widened, and a surge of anger filled me. My mouth opened to tell her off when Cora shot straight up, and smacked the phone away from my hand. It landed far from us. I am pretty sure it is ruined now.

She was still closing her eyes. I knew she was still in pain. Her face was mere inches from mine, so I could see her scrunch up in pain. I felt my heart rip out of my chest.

"No hospitals.." she breathed out. It seemed like the pain was doubling as she spoke.

"But they can help you. I can't do anything, I'm practically useless right now."

"It'll pass soon." Her words were more like breaths at this point.

"But.." I tried arguing.

"Just sit there.." her words were lost in the scream that tore through her.

My eyes watered as I watched her cry soundlessly. After the scream that came out of her, no other sound came out. She was only shaking, wriggling in my arms. I watched her helplessly.

I mopped her forehead with my handkerchief as she writhed in pain. I checked the time, only seven minutes had gone by but it felt like ages.

In all my life there were times I felt useless, but this took the crown. I tasted corper, my bottom lip had started to bleed from biting too hard. Curses flew from my lips as she shook again in my arms.

Slowly, the wiggling stopped. The whimpering continued. Relief started to fill me in tiny droplets. Her eyebrows started to un-knit, and in a twinkle of an eye everything stopped.

Like she was okay again. Everything disappeared, she suddenly became quiet. But her eyes were still shut. I checked her temperature and it had vanished as well. I wasn't going to say I wasn't relieved, but I was curious as well. What was that?

Her eyes flew open, and once again I was taken aback by just how beautiful she was. The girl was hands down the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and I wasn't even exaggerating.

She stood up and dusted herself, from her back to the back of her legs.

Stalking away from me without words, I watched her as she walked away. Shaking off the shock, I picked up my phone from the ground.

"Aren't you going to say thank you?" I asked as I caught up with her.

"Didn't ask you for your help." She muttered.

My neck almost broke from that whip lash. But rather than get mad, I get challenged. Don't ask me, I knew I was not okay, but I thought it ended with just the smoking thing. It seems I lost a few screws as well.

"You can at least tell me what that was," I quipped back.

She increased her strides. But that only makes me chuckle. She was cute if she thought her short strides were going to scare me away. Let's face it, I am way taller. It was easy to keep up.

"At least satisfy my curiosity here, even if I did sit down with you and clean your sweat."

"You should have f****d off when I told you too." Her voice was still silky. If only her personality was like her voice.

"I should have, but I didn't, and that cost me a phone," I said while waving my phone in her face.

That finally got her attention, her otherwise expressionless face winced at the cracked screen of my phone. The phone was not my problem, but if I could milk out an expression from her with it, I would gladly do so.

"How much is it? I'll replace it."

I raise a brow at her, then pretend to be serious.

"One grand. It's the latest iphone you see."

It wasn't. But her eyes widened, so I guess she believed me.

"I'll fix it then." She offered after swallowing.

I started to give it to her, and when she stretched her hand to collect it, I pulled back.

"What if I told you there was another way in which you could pay me?"

Her eyes widened from underneath her black hoodie. God, she was so pretty.

Her hand struck out and the palm of her hand landed on my cheek in a resounding slap.

I just stood there staring at her form that ran away from me. Thinking what the f**k just happened?