Kring! Kring!
The bell rang and the school hallways were crowded by students, flooding out of their classrooms as class ended. Within this crowd was Celeste who was struggling to get out of it. Beside her was her friend, Dianne, who silently shared her struggles. For what seemed like forever, they finally made their way out of the high school building and into the grand school lobby.
Celeste gasped for breath before she could relax again.
"Are we going somewhere today?" She asked, turning to Dianne, who shook her head no. "Not really. But..." She paused. "Are you free this saturday?"
"Yeah..but why?"
"We're going to Nick's basketball match. Its on 6: 00. Do you think you could come?"
Celeste almost let out a groan at the mention of his name. By 'Nick' she knew they were reffering to Nick.
In reply to her question she shrugged. "I dont know." She said. But inside her, she already knew the answer to that: NO.
She had no plans in going to a game that he was in.
They were making their way towards the gate when Dianne suddenly paused.
"Whats wrong?" Celeste inquired.
"Ummm, I actually forgot something. I have to run a few errands for my mother. I gotta go now." They both bid farewell to each other before parting ways.
Walking outside of the school gates, her attention was focused on the candy she was currently munching on. She walked so carelessly across the road that she never noticed the car that was going her way....Unbothered by the warning shrieks behind her, she continued walking...
*********
Nick walked contentedly out of the school building with his friends chattering around him.
He didnt want to join in their conversation so he kept quiet and listened silently to them...thats when he saw Celeste.
She was a few yards away from him but he could tell it was her.
He grinned. Another chance to bully her, he thought. He wanted to approach her but, seeing that she was in the middle of a conversation with her dear friend, Dianne, he decided to wait for a little longer. Thus, he didnt keep his eyes off of her.
His eyes followed her as she walked away from he friend and outside the gate. He and his friends were heading for the gate, too, and, fortunately, he was just in time to see her carelessly crossing the road and catch sight of the car running towards her.
His friends caught sight of it and screamed to catch her attention. Unfortunately, they failed to do so.
Seeing what was about to happen, hismind flew back to the incident which happened 9 years ago, the incident which completely ended their friendship. As his mind went back 9 years ago, he sprinted into action and did anyone would've done. Since the girl was almost well of on the other side of the road, he ran towards her and pushed her down towards the cobbled stone just in time as the car ran past by.
Shocked by the sudden push, Celeste turned to see what had happened wjen she caught sight of the car which stopped abruptly a few yard from where they were, with a frustrated driver looking at her direction. Realizing what had happened, she turned to see her rescuer and found it to be Nick! He lay tiredly beside her, his hand on her waist with his eyes tightlý closed as he panted for breath.
Realizing their uncomfortable state, Celeste immediately tried to sit up when she realized that her shoulder felt sharply painful.
She groaned in pain, letting out a grimace.
Hearing her groans, Nick flew his eyes open which fell on the suffering girl beside him. He sat up feeling quite dizzy from the fall. He was about to attend to the girl's suferring just as his friends, a few ladies and the driver himself went to her aide.
"Are you ok?" One of the ladies inquired. She was about to nod so as to avoid all the attention deapite the excruciating pain she was suffering when she felt that the pain was getting worse. Having no other option, she shook her head with her other hand clapsed protectively on her injured shoulder.
As she was busy being thrown by a lot of questions from the concerned ladies and the drivee, Nick was also being tended by his friends. Being able to, he sat up and patted the dust away from his pants and drove his palms through his jet black hair before turning his attention to Celeste. He caught sight of her bleeding shoulder and remembered that, upon pushing her to the ground, he had felt the impact of the car on her shoulder before they slid away.
"We should take you to the hospital," he said, interrupting the ladies. All eyes turned to him as he took out his phone from his pocket and was now dialing a certain number.
"What are you doing?" She asked him despite the pain. Though she was grateful thay he unexpectedly saved her life, she didnt want him to be going as far as to call an ambulance or anyone for help, or she might feel a sense of being indebted to him.
But she asked him in an ever so gentle tone so as not to appear rude in front of the others. After all, he had just saved her life.
"I'm calling your parents," he answered after throwing her a quick glance. Before she could argue, he had already dialed her mother and the driver had approached her looking so concerned.
"As the one responsible for the accident, let me take you to the hospital," he offered kindly, extending his hand, which she kindly accepted. Despite being a stranger, he had a certain expression that made her feel assured that she was in the right hands. He escorted her to his car but he didnt start driving until he made sure that Nick had joined them as soon as he ended the call. She didnt expect him to be there with them but she was being to overwhelmed by the strong pain that she didnt care about him at all. And, besides that she felt awfully guilty for the accident, and she felt even guiltier when the man took responsibility for everything that had happened when she knew that she may not have been fully responsible but she was atleast partialy accountable for it.
As the man began to start the engines, he began to converse with Nick, who later on found out that he was curently a dentist and today happened to be his day off.
"Again, I apologize for the accident," he repeated referring to Celeste who was now in deep pain.
She nodded, unable to speak no thanks to the unbearabl pain. She clutched her shouĺder tighter, feeling the blood on her hands. How hard did I hurt myself? She wondered, feeling suddenly drowsy. She didnt know what happened next aside from the fact that she felt her body numbed and all that she could see was darkness.