Off the Edge

Wen

Wen stared down at the ledge, though he could barely see, things seemed so clear. The vision of James came and that was his final thought as his eyes closed and that last few of his tears fell. The cool feeling of the air came and then nothing. He opened his eyes and saw someone over him yelling. Then everything went dark. Within his sleep, he had believed he had died and that the darkness was his eternal punishment for committing suicide, but unfortunately, he was not that lucky.

His eyes fluttered open as he heard the yelling of his friend and a person’s voice he did not recognize. He felt the coolness of the cement on his back and slowly lifted. His eyes moved to see the relieved face of June and the unfamiliar girl. Though he did not know her, her face was as equally relieved as June. He couldn’t hear what they were saying. He still felt drunk and numb. He couldn’t even feel his bloodied knuckle anymore, he closed his eyes again, he was tired of being awake.

When he came to he was in his bed facing his pillow. He let out a groan and lifted himself. He checked his phone which had a fresh crack right down the middle. He let out an annoyed sigh and glad it was Sunday, he needed time to collect himself. Memories of last night came flooding in. Another groan escaped his mouth, running his hand through his hair he had realized that he couldn’t avoid talking with June about this. “Fuck” he thought to himself. He went into the bathroom, holding eye contact with himself in the mirror before getting into the shower and changing.

He pulled down his long sleeve black tee and slipped the sweat pants over, he walked into the kitchen right as the door opened. He tried to walk back to his room only to be pulled back by June. “No.” Wen pulled away and sat down, his leg bounced in annoyance as his eyes shifted from June to the nothing in the corner. June put away the bags he was carrying and scratched the back of his head. He placed a coffee and a box of aspirin on the coffee table. June sat across from him. “I don’t want to press into you because you’ve been through a lot but you can’t get drunk and kill yourself,” Wen said nothing, avoiding even making eye contact. He didn’t ask to be found or pulled back.

“I didn’t know what to think when you called me at 2 in the morning, but I didn’t think it would be some girl on the phone telling me that you tried to jump off the hospital building!” Wen still had nothing to say, what could he even say.

June looked to the side, at a loss for what more to say as well. Wen grabbed the coffee and gave him a nod as thank you. June looked up at him as he stood up but let him go.

“I’m here for you dude. If you want to talk.”

Wen went into his room and shut the door collapsing onto his bed. He lifted and cracked open the coffee taking a long sip from it before tossing the can. He needed to get out. He slipped into his shoes and waited as soon as he heard June’s door shut he practically speeded out of the apartment. Heading out of the building he walked to the. He wasn’t that hungry but needed to get space.

He trembled as he walked down through the empty alley right into the corner store. He pulled out a random card and peeked over to see who was running the cash register. Once he saw the familiar face of Eric he showed him the card and got some cigarettes. Eric and he had made a deal. He paid him extra and got a drink or a pack now and again. Showing him a random card so the camera would think he checked. Wen walked out and lit the cigarette. Inhaling the bitter smoke and puffing it out. He then made his way to a hidden spot, in the park he hated going to. His memories of last night weren’t very clear and a lot was still hazy. Like how he even managed to sneak in. Or what made him go back there after all this time. He couldn’t believe he had to get shit-faced to get the courage to meet a similar end. Memories flooded back. Wen stopped the tears from flowing and put out the cigarette in frustration. Heading home, he wished he had fallen off sooner. His blood boiled as he thought of that girl. She had ruined everything. Wen looked down as his phone rang. It was a small list from June. He went back to the store to get what he had asked for and returned home.

“June, they didn’t have..” Wen stopped as the girl from last night stood right in the room now turned to look at him. Wen glared at her which just made her nervous. The direct eye contact overstimulated her and she looked down quickly. Wen looked to June, annoyed. “Why for fuck’s sake is she here?”Wen said angrily. June looked surprised and stood up. “She had given me her number that night. I invited her over.” There was silence. “Anything you want to say to her..?” Wen walked over and stood over her staring down. “Stay the fuck out of my shit.” He brushed past her and into his room slamming and locking the door.

Elia

Elia hadn’t expected him to say thank you but she hadn’t expected that. Of course, he’d be upset but when she saw him she couldn’t leave him like that. June let out a sigh and looked towards her “I’m so sorry about him.” She turned to June giving a weak smile. “I swear it’s fine I just wanted to see if he was okay, I know I overstepped.” June’s eyes traveled to her pants pocket seeing the lanyard hanging out. “Do you go to West Leaf High..?” Elia’s face looked at him with confusion, how did he know that? He saw the look on her face and waved his hands. “Your uh…lanyard, I have the same one. Wen and I are seniors.” Her face lit up and she felt as though she could relax more now “Oh I am too..” Her face turned to Wen’s closed door. “Will he be okay?” Silence once more as June seemed to stir with the question before sighing “I..don’t know, he’s been through a lot but he’s never done anything like that. It was silent for a while after he said that.

A phone begins to ring breaking the silence and June looks over to presumably his room and heads out, after a while he comes back holding his phone “Hey I’m sorry this is important.” he says. Elia stood up and waved it off. “It’s fine, I was going to leave soon anyway.” June nods and walks off into his room closing the door. She stared at Wen’s bedroom door sliding something out of her pocket. She went over to his door and stared at it giving it a silent knock. “I’m sorry, seeing you there..reminded me of someone and I didn’t think I could take watching someone die again.” She choked up before clearing her throat and going through her purse scribbling down her number and sliding it under his door with a band-aid.”It gets better..” Elia sighed and slipped out of their apartment leaving her words swimming in Wen’s head.