AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But goddamn, he was a quick little thing. I ran after him, his parents calling after us.
The automatic doors swung themselves open as the boy approached, and despite his parents’ calls, he just kept on going.
I doubled down, decreasing the gap between us with every stride but quickly and horrifyingly realized I wasn’t going to be quick enough.
“George!” I added my own shouts to his parents.
From the corner of my eye, a truck trundled down the road, headed for the hospital’s delivery entrance.
George was going to run right in front of it. It played out in my mind in slow motion and then sickeningly fast in real life.
His foot off the curb.
The blare of the truck’s horn.
My fingers just barely grabbing the back of the boy’s shirt and hauling him backward as the truck roared past us.
Someone screamed behind us, but I stood frozen on the very edge of the sidewalk, clutching the shaking, terrified, but completely uninjured boy to my chest.
“Oh my God, George!” His father had only been seconds behind me, but it had been seconds the boy didn’t have. He grabbed the boy from my arms, wrapping him in his own.
I shook where I stood, frozen in place, imagining the boy had been Amelia. They were roughly the same age and size. All I could see was him stepping in front of that truck.
Two strong hands gripped my shoulders, spinning me around.
Zeph’s terrified expression registered between the vague shake he gave me. “What the hell just happened? Are you okay?”
“The boy,” I mumbled. “He walked in front of the truck.”
“So did you!”
Had I? Had I stepped off the pavement, putting myself in the way of the oncoming vehicle? I didn’t even know. And it didn’t matter. “We’re both okay,” I told him. “It’s fine.”
He shook his head and pulled me to his chest, burying my face in his shoulder. “I thought I just watched you die. I was parked on the other side of the road. I didn’t see you step back.”
I squeezed him back, realizing how scary that would have been for him. “I’m sorry. I’m okay.”
He guided me away, while George’s parents called thank-yous to me.
Zeph put me in the passenger side, reaching over me to put my seat belt on for me.
His fingers trembled.
He got in behind the wheel and started the car. We slowly made our way home, Zeph parking in front of my apartment building.
I turned to him. “I think my phone might have fallen out of my bag at your parents’ place. Can you ask them for me?”
He nodded. “But can you do something for me?”
I mirrored his actions.
“Can you please stop putting yourself in danger? Walking home alone at night in Saint View. Stepping in front of trucks—”
“You would have done the same.”
“Yes, but you seem to make it a habit.” He grasped my chin and twisted my head in his direction. “I don’t want to bury you, Lyric. But you seem hell-bent on making that a possibility.”
I leaned in and kissed him, hoping if I changed the subject he’d stop looking at me the way he was. That sort of intensity scared me. “I’ll see you in the morning. I’m coming to clean the church after my shift at the club.”
