- "No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn" -
~ Hal Borland
With eyes connected to the ground, she remained silent while immersed in the clicking of their footsteps against the tarmac. Their eyes were playing hide and seek as they walked side by side, subsumed by the lullaby of their surroundings: the honking cars, the sporadic murmurs of passers-by, a dog barking in the distance and the natural voices of nature. His chest heaved in the not-quite-silence and he made to say something but resumed adding to the silence instead.
Just then, in the blink of an eye, they came upon a small corner grocery store. The humid recycled atmosphere was thick with booming raucous chatter of carefree men gambling away every single dollar that seemed to exist in their wallets and the faint stench of marijuana. White plastic chairs blotched and scarred with gray in all places to be made dull as if that helped to better transcend them to the life of the 'non-living', as well as the cards which adorned the table barraged their eyes. Liam grimaced, refusing to allow such contaminated air to enter and infect his body when she suddenly turned around to meet him.
The chestnut brown suitcase clutched in her fists tightly, her leg as slender as chopsticks and the other leg, a metal friend and her pale lips, peering from the hoodie, which twitched here and there, entered his focus of attention all at once. Silence expressed a dialogue of more than a million words to him and before he new it, amidst the glorious eruption of laughter at a fellow who must have lost his bet, she disappeared behind the glass door with the ring of echoey chimes. Liam winced at the sunshine that embraced his eyelids the moment he left the shade of the awning. A turmoil of thoughts and ideas raced through his brain and he reminisced on the past event that had escalated in the halls.
"If you don't get anything less than total on that test..."
Life had proved him right to always be that one unlucky guy in a movie. Somehow, he was always stuck in some of the most awkward situations or was either stuck in the toughest dilemma, or so he believed. As he gazed at the men immersed in a hearty conversation, his mind drifted to Emma. Oh how she must have hated every organ in his body... hated him from the moon and back... perhaps only for just existing or being terrible at math. Well, he thought to himself, had his parents not get too excited on a July evening, just maybe her heart's desire might have been made manifest. Otherwise, they were stuck with each other's stifling company.
"Life's a b**** but I'm still f****** with it... cheers to that I say!" snippets of the conversation of the now-drunkards slipped into his hearing and soon the sound of plastic cups clinking followed before stomachs received cold beverages tingling with high alcohol content.
"Couldn't agree better," Liam mumbled to himself and gazed upon the scenery of the sunlit streets bothered by the grumble of vehicles which reluctantly and lazily sped by. Few cars made a temporary stay at the road side as the driver stole 5 minutes or two to have a quick visit to the corner grocery store before being on their way on the streets once more. He glanced at his watch and wondered how long again he would be out there, waiting on the silent beast with an aura of malicious intent and a racket seemed to have escalated whilst his thoughts wondered far and wide.
"Excuse me, sir, for the last and final time! Are you deaf??"
Deaf? Liam spun around with curiosity and locked eyes an image of panic. Eyes which sag and scream sleep deprivation, eyes which hold the gaze of urgency, eyes which scream that there is trouble...
"Huh? Are you speaking to me, sir?" Liam asked with a look of confusion.
"What the hell? Of course I am!!!" the voice rang with annoyance.
By the looks of it, he seemed to be one of the grocery replenishers with a beige oversized shirt thrown over a yellow tinted t-shirt that must have originally been white. His short dark hair was clearly oily and clung together, resembling that of a tangled carpet and his face was burdened with worry.
"Are you the one they call Liam?" he enquired with thin patience and hurry, his chest heaving with fright.
By then, he had gathered the attention of the drunk men and they gazed from the corners of their eyes at the small commotion.
"Uh- yes... Is something wrong?"
What on God's green earth was going on, he wondered, his heart beginning to palpitate in apprehension.
The man's expression tightened, "I'm sorry sir bit I'm afraid you'll have to come with me immediately. I believe your... friend- has had an accident."
An accident... his insides caved inwards. Emma had an accident? A sharp cold chill ran down his spine and he was overwhelmed by temporary paralysis before hurrying up the small staircase and trailing behind the man who lead him to the tragic scene. His blood ran cold and his heart rocked in his chest. Bit by bit, he began to shudder with worry but he tried to muster tranquility.
He was greeted by the bite of the draught of the air conditioning and the dimly lit grocery store filled with small lanes of food items and miscellaneous items. Few persons in the grocery crept with long strides, clutching baskets at the crook of their elbows and held looks of dilated pupils, cupped palms barricading gapes. Others must have either been busy, ceased to be concerned or grew accustomed to a life soundtrack of such scenes and carried on gathering a few items.
"This way sir..." the man's voice alerted him, triggering a nod from Liam.
He received few stares and murmurs here and there and following the direction of the man and the few glances that customers threw at a particular corner of the grocery, he came upon the lone figure perched on a few crates and carboard boxes in a lethargic state which screamed I-am-dying. Her position was supported by the cold blue wall behind her and her hands rested lifelessly on her lap. The loyal briefcase sat on the floor beside her. Her audible steady breaths further shook his heart in his chest cavity and he got to knees, gazing in disbelief with lips ajar. A few female cashiers were massaging her shoulders and calling out to her to keep her awake and unsure of how to react, Liam fumbled for words.
On noticing his arrival , the cashiers stepped away and allowed him space to tend to the girl who was clearly out of it. Had she been putting up a front, he wondered, biting on his lower lip. He never felt any sort of emotional rollercoaster like he did then: fear, confusion, awkwardness, apprehension. He felt like it was just a terrible nightmare and he just had to wait to wake up.
"Sir, I am truly sorry to cause you worry like this but she happened to stumble and crash to the floor in a cold sweat and hit her head on the freezer at the back there. Thank God it was nothing too serious," the man who initially alerted him informed breathily.
Liam took a deep breath, giving a nod of understanding and caressed her shoulders gently. Her body grew tense under his touch.
"Emma?"
"Sanchez..." she murmured sternly, "Sanchez....I do not want..."
Liam's heart rapidly thumped in his chest at the sound of her voice. She still gave off that unapproachable aura and had a tinge of indifference in her croaking voice as though mucus was stuck among her vocal chords. A flood of anxiety left him pale and trembling. The worried feeling left his brain blank and unsure of what to do until the man continued.
"Sir, don't worry. We have already phoned the ambulance despite her refusal of such and they will be here in any minute. For now, just keep this ice pack compressed against the hit she received at the head. It'll bring down the swelling. She's been very uncooperative with us so if you can do us the honors... please."
He stared in a daze before averting his gaze to the floor and accepting the ice pack. Her stubbornness seemed to be a part of her personality which got in the way of everything, he believed, and placing his attention on her once more, he reached out for rim of her hoodie.
"I do... not..." she struggled to say through a whisper so cold that the hairs on his skin stood at attention.
"Emma Waltz," Liam muttered as gently as he could, "I am sorry to say but you are not in a position to make demands. I need to you to stay alright, okay?"
"Don't need... your pity-"
"What?"
"Please..."
He ignored the pleas completely and taking a deep breath, he slipped a finger beneath the rim of the hood, making to put an end to the shadows consuming her face when suddenly, she mustered the strength and tried to jerk away from his grip. Even then, if all she had wanted to do was to cling to the long shadows the hood drew over her face just a little longer, it was all fruitless for in that moment, Liam's heart was certain that it had had just enough of the job it did for his body. He almost sucked in all the oxygen there was present in that store in one gasp. The image of the face that entered his line of vision in the split second was nothing like the face of the Emma he introduced to just days ago.
"What the hell..." he said under his breath with over a thousand thoughts plaguing his mind. Was there more to the girl that he should know?
Her forehead was shiny with sweat and there was a slash on her cheek that seemed to have healed over a few days time. Her seemingly kneaded face made it seem as if someone had used her as a punching bag. The hints of black and blue which added color to the once white solemn melancholic face teleported his mind to a place where he felt as though he was as high as a kite, wrapped in a cocoon of hallucinations and delusions.
Liam released a staggered breath, falling behind on one palm and squeezed the ice pack in the other palm in tight fist.
"You- you are a whole world on your own."