Cold Water
Ava’s P.O.V:
I stood there, staring into the misty blue lake. Warm, salty tears were rolling down my face. It was so piercingly quiet that I could hear them hitting the wooden panels of the pier below my static feet. My glossy eyes were now stinging with emotions and anger, my vision became blurred as I leant forward gently falling closer and closer to the water. The ice-cold liquid felt like shards of glass slicing through my legs and arms, my white flowy dress floated up and surrounded me, covering my head that was now submerged. I felt my lungs release the breath I had been holding. I didn’t struggle. My eyes fluttered closed as soon as my body started feeling limp.
I awoke in the hospital with my vision adjusting to the light. As I looked to my left I saw out a large window looking out upon the ocean that I had recently been floating in. I looked down at my arm to see different wires and needles sticking in me. Frantically I looked to my right to see a boy sat with his eyes closed on the chair against the wall next to the bed I was laying in. His dark curly brown hair had fallen slightly over his face, creating a shadow over his prominent jawline.
As I was about to pull the wires out of my hands I heard a sudden movement from the chair next to me. I looked back and stared into worried eyes. His eyes were a sparkly dark brown that widened as he looked at what I was about to do.
"Stop! You are okay and you are safe but please don't hurt yourself!"
"Who are you?" I questioned as the boy stood and walked over to me, his top slightly hitched up revealing his golden-toned abs.
As he straightened out his top after seeing me glance at what was underneath he spoke; "my name is Liam, I found you in the water with my friend Noah and brought you to the hospital. You were out cold, we thought you were dead."
He gently put his hand on my arm as if telling me I was okay. It was an unusual sensation but it felt comforting.
I looked from his hand back to his concerned face.
"Well that was the plan I guess, I've got no one else in this world and no one can help so I thought if I got rid of it I would feel happy again" I stated nonchalantly as I shivered from the cool breeze entering through the window.
Liam instantly noticed my shiver and walked around the bed to the window and closed it. As he walked his way back round to where he was standing he placed a blanket that was once at the end of the bed over my arms and stroked a piece of hair out of my face and behind my ear.
"What do you mean you have no one? What about family? Or friends?" His eyes were now quickly looking back and forth between mine, probably with confusion and concern.
"I have none. My family all moved away and left me when I was young, and I never really made any friends as I stayed in the park most nights."I stopped speaking and looked to my left when my eyes started to sting with emotions again, a tear once again rolling down my cheek, as if trying to escape just as I had tried to escape this world. I continued to speak; "You probably have something more worthwhile of your time than being here with me so you can go, I realise I'm not exactly a person people like you want to be around."
"I'm not leaving. You are going through a lot and if you have no one else then I am here. Also, what do you mean people like me?" Liam said in confusion.
I stayed facing the opposite way to him with more tears leaving my eyes, I took a deep breath and told him shakily; "I mean all the guys in the world that look good or that comfort me always leave, everyone always leaves me!" I said in anger and sadness as my eyes start to burn and I sniffle so that I can continue talking. "So just leave now. Otherwise, you will end up leaving me once we've become friends or something just like everyone else does."
I felt his hand gently clasp my chin as he turned my face to look at him, his eyes now glossy and filled with pain. He wiped away the tears on my face with his thumb as he looked me in the eyes. "I am not like those people, I'm not going to leave. You might not believe it but people have left me too." He said shakily, his voice cracked at the end as a tears fell down his face.
As soon as he was going to speak again the door pushed open as a nurse walked in. Liam's hand quickly removed from my face and went back to my hand as he looked up at the nurse.
"Good, you're awake.” The lady said softly with a small smile across her face. "I need to run some tests to make sure you are stable, you were in that water for a while," she said as the smile turned into a concerned frown. "You will be released tomorrow, do you have a place to go? We couldn't find any addresses under your name."
"Oh, um I -"
"She’s staying with me" Liam stated sternly as he looked at the nurse. I stayed quiet as she nodded and Liam squeezed my hand.
The nurse finished checking some paperwork and the wires in my hands and walked out of the room. "What do you mean I'm staying with you?"
He let go of my hand and looked at me from where he was now crouched on the floor to be at my eye level and sighed. "How old are you, Ava?”
I raised an eyebrow and asked "first of all how do you know my name? And also I am 17, why?"
"When we brought you in they found you on the system and I told them I was your boyfriend so that they'd let me in with you. The reason I said you were staying with me is that if you are under 18 and don't have any family to stay with they will send you to foster care."
"Well, I doubt you would ever want to be my boyfriend but thank you. But I couldn't ruin your life by involving myself in it so I'll just have to put up with being in foster care," I said as another tear started to escape my eye.
"Hey, I'm not leaving you. I already told you, I mean it, I'm not leaving you. I'll stay here tonight and tomorrow when you get released I'll bring you back to mine. I will get you some new clothes and toiletries or whatever you need and you can stay as long as you need to."
I just nodded as he hugged me, my tears soaked his t-shirt as I managed to whisper out a thank you.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Thank you so so much for reading this first chapter! I know it has been quite a short chapter but I promise I will try to make them longer!
