It was a beautiful summer day. The sun was shining, the hustle and bustle of the city was everywhere, and a beautiful teenage girl was about to off herself.
Ah, life! You were a real pain, not gonna lie. but your torment ends today.
She stood in a noisy, crowded subway in San Francisco, California. The next train was to arrive in three minutes, and she eagerly awaited her impending demise. She knew if it didn't happen today, it wouldn't happen any day. She felt each second go by and felt more excited by each one. Her face even started to turn a pale shade of red. She looked down the tunnel and looked at the headlights that appeared from a distance.
"Does this count as 'seeing the light'?" she laughed. She had always been a fan of dark jokes. She braced herself, glad that the number of people around her would act as good coverage. She noticed a couple of boys gawking at her. "She's hot!"
"Yeah, no kidding! You don't see this kind of beauty everyday."
They weren't wrong, no. She really was beautiful. In fact, she had heard it her entire life. It didn't mean anything to her though. She couldn't give a damn if she was the prettiest girl from earth to mars. She begun counting down in her head,
Five,
Mrs. K will probably be upset, but she'll get over it.
Four,
I wonder how the whole school will react when they hear the news.
Three,
Grandma might be hurt, but that won't last long either.
Two,
Imagine I make headlines! 'Teenage girl damaged past Identification dies in suicide attempt'. Something about her unrecognizable remains made her all giddy inside.
One. Screw it all.
She leaped onto the tracks, making it look as though she had tripped and fallen. She awaited her fate, and it felt like something out of a thriller movie. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact. Then suddenly, silence. Perfect pin drop silence. Her eyes were still closed. Is the afterlife this quiet? She whispered something under her breath till she heard an...
Applause??
She opened her eyes to find herself and the other side of the track, in the arms of a boy, just a little older than she was. "Are you alright?" He asked frantically. On the other side was a crowd, singing his praises and calling him a 'hero'. "What a load of bull crap!" He definitely wasn't a hero. He surely hadn't saved anyone. "Get off me." She shoved him and got up. She got to the other side and navigated through the crowd. The policeman who was nearby called her over.
"Young lady, what's your name?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, creep." She rolled her eyes.
"I need to know so I can call your parents, who apparently didn't teach you to respect your elders."
"Good luck with that. One is six feet under and the other is in an asylum. Although it would be crazy if they actually picked up." She scoffed. He was taken aback by her words. "Oh, do you not have a guardian then?" There was a little sympathy in his voice this time. She hated it more than anything. "Look old guy, just let me go so you can go back to eating doughnuts or whatever."
She was stepping on a nerve. The stereotype made a vein on his forehead pop. He shouted, "You almost got killed and you still-"
"I'm so sorry for my ward's behavior sir. She has no idea how to hold her tongue!" A middle aged black woman, dressed in a beige suit and stilettoes apologized, giving her a gruesome death stare.
"So you're the one responsible for this kid?"
"Yes, I am sir. I am Mrs. Angel King, Humanitarian Support agency. I should've been more careful with her. This won't repeat itself again."
"The HSA, huh? Alright, I'll let this slide just this once. Please take better care of this kid. And teach her some manners while you're at it."
"Thanks so much officer. I'll be sure to give her a good scolding." She stared at her, but she evaded her gaze. Mrs. King pulled her ear out of the subway to her wine coloured rover. "Don't you think I'm too old to be treated like this?" She caressed her reddening ear.
"Don't you think I'm already too stressed to have to deal with your antics?!" Nah, Mrs. K was pissed. "He was the one putting his nose where it wasn't supposed to be!" She sat in the passenger's seat. "That's not what I'm talking about!!" She snapped. "I know that you falling on the tracks wasn't an accident! It was another attempt to get killed!"
Nothing gets past her, huh?
"Historiah Kurrusso." She put her head on the steering wheel and caught a breath, then looked at her slowly. Historiah had never seen that look on her face before. She didn't even know what emotion that was. 'Antisocial personality disorder as a result of excessive mental trauma. In other words, sociopathy.' she had remembered the first day she was diagnosed and met Mrs. King. She couldn't even say a word. "Do you even realize the weight of what that single action would do?!" She held back tears, "How would your grandmother take it? What would Ivy do? What would I do??" There was a long pause, then she spoke again. "That does it. I'm registering you for an emotional support partner." She started the car and begun driving. "No! You can't do that!"
"Wanna follow me to the office and watch me sign the paperwork?"
"Come on, I can't have some creep breathing down my neck and watching my every move!"
"Sorry, but it's the protocol."
"But Mrs.-"
"Your ESP will be here by Monday, so get yourself prepared. END OF STORY."
Historiah knew better than to argue with her when she was like this. The moment she used that tone, her mind was made up. It was a silent drive. Historiah noticed that that wasn't the way to her house. That old graffiti wall was nowhere in sight. "I know what you're thinking, and no, you're not going home. Your grandma got a heart attack and is currently in the hospital. So until Monday, you'll be staying with me."
"I'm old enough to live alone you know."
"I don't care if you're 16 or 61. I am definitely not leaving you in a house alone after today's incident." Historiah felt nothing but frustration. An ESP was someone who was assigned to suicidal patients to make sure they didn't go through with it. It was the final resort when all therapy was becoming useless. It meant having someone watching your every move, 24/7! And the idea of something like that made her skin crawl. But that was simply something she had to face. She lay in bed on Sunday night, wondering what on earth her life was going to look like after that night. A million scenarios went through her mind, yet not even once did she realize how much was about to change.