Thirty Days by Ceferine Young (carter reed .txt) 📕

Alexandra Price a.k.a. Alex

She’s an awkward, silent, clumsy nerd. But after an incident that happened a year and a half ago, everything in her changed.

One afternoon as she walked home, Alex decided to turn and take a detour to the forest. She went to the lake located in the middle of the forest to drown herself to death.

Her intention failed though when one person tried to save her.

Zeus Cole

He’s popular, rich, smart, and good-looking. But he’s also one of the jerks who love to bully Alex.

One afternoon, for some unexplainable reason, he followed Alex through the forest. And when he realized what she was trying to do, Zeus came and saved her from drowning.

After that very moment, Zeus couldn’t leave Alex alone. He made a deal with her—to convince her not to kill herself in a span of 30 days.

The Unexpected Encounter

Just a year and a half ago, I was this typical awkward, clumsy, shy-type, four-eyed teenage girl who lived her life being bullied by the typical group of popular, egotistical, conceited, good-looking (unfortunately true for most) jocks and bitches.

But in a blink of an eye, my boring life changed.

I would still be the same girl back then if I hadn’t went out that night. I would still be the typical nerd if I hadn’t sneaked out of the house and secretly drove my father’s car with my sister, Sophie, to go for a night swim at the lake located in the middle of the forest a couple of miles from our house.

 I would still be that same awkward girl, not knowing where Fate would take me, until my mind and body would gradually deteriorate into a mere figure of a worthless piece of shit my parents would have to deal with until the day I die—or they die—whichever was shorter.

Since that night, there was nothing more I wanted than to be different from whatever was normal or ordinary, but seeing how my parents treated me every day I would wake up until the night I would go to bed, all hopes of living seemed to be out of reach.

It was a warm and beautiful afternoon. I stared outside the window, in a trance, ignoring Mr. Jefferson, our Chemistry teacher, blabber about Covalent Bonds.

If I was the same nerdy girl as I was before, I would have listened with the teacher’s every word and jotted down every important detail related to the topic. But I wasn’t anymore. All the typical nerdy look I had was wiped out of me, even my attitude and habits. The only thing that remained was the bullying.

My glasses were gone, replaced by prescribed contact lenses. The frizzy long brown hair was transformed into something that looked like a haircut Natalie Portman had on the movie ‘Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium’. She had a boycut in that movie; and if I wasn’t mistaken, it was shot right after the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ was filmed and released, where she literally shaved her head bald. I thought it was awesome.

The bell rang loudly all throughout the school, signalling the end of the period.

Since it was the last period for me for the afternoon, I walked out of the classroom and trotted through the hallway to the exit. But before I got out successfully, of course, there were some ‘minor accidents’ that involved the fuckers and the hoes—a part of my life that never changed.

I was now walking on the side walk, heading home—or not. Lifting my left arm, I looked at the time on my wristwatch. Great.

I took a detour and went straight inside the thick forest where the lake was—the lake where Sophie and I supposed to go that night. It was our favorite place. We discovered it a few years back when my sister and I got lost after following a cute white rabbit one summer morning as we walked from the hospital where my mother worked as a nurse.

It took me almost 15 minutes to reach the lake. Looking at the watch again, I realized I had only less than an hour before my mom discovers the letter I placed on the kitchen counter.

Alright, let’s do this.

I shrugged off my backpack and set it down on the ground, crouching down in the process. Opening the zipper, I stuck my hand inside of the bag and took a long, thick rope.

Paranoia suddenly took over my determined state when I felt someone watching me. Stopping for a bit from the task at hand, I looked around me. There was nothing odd. Huh. Just as I thought, I was being paranoid.

I stood up and walked a few feet until I reached a large tree. Right under it was a rock—just enough for me to carry on the small old abandoned boat beside the body of water. I tied the rope around the rock securely and brought it with me as I climbed on the boat.

Paddling through the lake, I finally stopped when I reached the spot where I knew was deep enough for my plan to work.

I took the other end of the rope and tied it to both my ankles. When I felt that the rope was firmly knotted, I stood up on the boat carefully, to avoid it from rocking furiously while holding on my arms the large rock.

“See you soon, Sophie.” I muttered, smiling, as tears started to fall from my eyes.

With one last deep breath, I positioned myself on one side of the boat, tipping it to almost flip over, and jumped right in the water.

I released the rock, pulling me even deeper until it landed down. Looking up, I saw a small flash of light coming from the sun. It was so beautiful.

This was what I wanted.

Closing my eyes, I waited until the breath I last took would leave me. I was ready, welcoming death with a smile and open arms, when I suddenly heard a blobby sound. As I opened my eyes, I saw a blurry figure heading towards me.

I frowned and struggled as I shooed that figure who was clearly trying to help me. Well guess what, asshole, I don’t need help! Get the hell away from me!

Punching and pushing the person away, my efforts were futile when I felt that I was already out of breath. Huh. It’s too late now. I let my hands drop and freely move to the rhythm of the water.

The blurry figure was busy untying the rope on my ankles. I smiled, knowing whatever he or she was doing was useless now. I closed my eyes again, embracing my beautiful fate and counted my last seconds before death would overtake.

One. Two. Three. Four...

Ouch! What the—ow! My chest really hurt. I felt a constant pumping of a heavy pressure on it, that I thought my ribs were about to break. Is this heaven? It sure doesn’t feel like it. Ow!

“... come on, wake up!” a distant voice said.

Then the pain on my chest finally stopped. Oh, thank goodness.

My lips were suddenly parted forcefully by a hand on my jaw, and another pinching my nose. And then the weird touch of something soft over my mouth took me by surprise, blowing warm pressured air inside of me. What the hell is going on? I stayed frozen, unable to move my body for some reason.

“Please, wake up... shit!”

The pounding on my chest was back. This time, it was even harder. I felt my insides constrict until something rose up my throat and out of my mouth and nose. I coughed. I coughed really hard that I felt my face redden.

“Oh, thank God! What the fuck were you thinking?” the same voice said, growling at me and shaking me furiously.

Fluttering my eyes open to look at the stupid person who thought that I needed saving, my jaw dropped when I realized who it was.

Zeus Cole.

Yes, he was named after a Greek god. I hate to say this but his name suited him. Every inch of him was like of a god. He was every girl’s (me excluded) dream guy—rich, good-looking, funny, smart and popular.

...and a jerk, an asshole, a bull-headed egotistical maniac who only cares about getting laid! Okay so I might have said harsh things about this guy but who could blame me? This jerk was one of my tormentors. In fact, he was the leader of ‘The Fuckers and Hoes Club’ (just some title I gave the assholes in my school).

“What the hell are you doing here?” I growled back at him and slapped his hands away from my shoulder.

“Saving you, of course!”

“And what makes you think I needed saving?”

He scowled at me. “Are you crazy?”

“I should ask you the same question but I already know the answer to that so...” I drifted off as I sat up awkwardly and slowly moved away from him, trying to stand up.

“Easy there,” Zeus muttered and reached over to support me.

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled at him angrily.

“If I knew you’d act like this, I shouldn’t have saved you.” He muttered with brows knitted together, telling me he was pissed off.

Well, who cares? I was pissed off too!

“Yes, you should have left me to die instead. I would pretty much appreciate it rather than getting me out of the water!” I stood up successfully with the help of the tree. I leaned over it to balance myself until I felt that I was able to stand without support.

Zeus went silent but something flashed in his expression before his questioning look took over. Was it remorse? I wasn’t sure, though. “I-Is it because of me?”

“What?” I snapped. “Don’t flatter yourself,” I said and chuckled, rolling my eyes in the process.

“No! I mean... w-was it because of the bullying?” he muttered, more quietly than before.

I stared at his expression and saw the guilt in his eyes. For some weird reason, my heart suddenly clenched and tears started to form, ready to spill out anytime.

Looking away from his gaze, I said, “Trust me, bullying is the least of my concerns.”

“Then why the hell do you want to kill yourself?”

Was he mad at me? Well, that wasn’t the first. I laughed. I didn’t know why but I just laughed. I found the situation funny. Who would have thought that the person whom I loathed the most was the one to save me from an incident I never wanted to be saved in the first place?

“You’re totally nuts,” Zeus said and raked his hand through his hair in exasperation.

“Oh, how I wish I was,” I said and continued laughing.

My plan didn’t work this time. I had to move it for another day and make sure nobody could follow me wherever I wanted to die. I guess I have to get my letter before Mom sees it.

As a habit, I looked at my wristwatch. It was already 23 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. Oh, crap!

“I gotta go,” I muttered hurriedly, grabbed my bag and ran.

“Hey, wait!” Zeus said and ran after me.

“Oh, geez! Stop following me, will you? I won’t kill myself anymore—at least not today.”

“Then