Meet Me Here

I brushed my wet brown hair off of my face, only to have it stick back on my face seconds later. My breathing was heavy as I walked towards the railing. I was ready, I had everything figured out and had taken care of everything. I was confident that I needed to do this. As I got closer I spotted a male figure resting his hands on the railing, looking out at the cold water below. I had gotten used to the stinging on my arms and face from the cold rainy drizzle that was falling from the night sky.

I stood behind the guy with short brown hair, and looked down at my soaked clothes.
I cleared my throat and stood next to the guy, leaning my right elbow on the cold, red metal railing. He turned towards me with a blank, expressionless face.

I finally spoke up after looking at his thin frame, "Excuse me, sir, But I have plans to leave this place, and you’re in my way.” I paused and watched as his mouth opened a little, about to speak up. I stopped him and continued, “I bet you're gonna say it's not right, but I don‘t care." I was getting ready to continue when he cut me off.

"Excuse me, miss, but do you know what you just said to me?" he spoke up, his face still emotionless, his voice was warm and comforting.

"I don't care, you don't even know me." I said coldly.

He smiled a little, setting his hand on top of mine, "I know but I'd like to change that soon, hopefully" he was flirting the tiniest bit, I forced myself not to smile a little.

I rolled my eyes, sliding my hand back so it was no longer touching his.

“Did you want to talk?” he whispered, his voice was firm and confident, yet concerned.

I didn’t say anything, I looked at him, wondering why he was still standing in front of me, let alone on this bridge in the middle of the night.

"Trust me, girl I know your legs are pleading to leap. But I offer you this easy choice-instead of dying, walk away from here with me, we can go get something to eat."

I thought about what he said, I fixed my eyes at the cold water rushing below us. My legs were shaking, I was forcing them not to move forward and step up onto the rail. I was hungry, I hadn’t been eating a lot lately. Nice warm food sounded delicious.

I spoke up, my voice a little shaky, "Are you crazy? You don't even know me. Just get out of my way."

He smiled a genuine smile and his hand laid on top of mine again, he said, "I can‘t do that."
I looked at his hand, my face showing no emotion, “I’m Michael.” I looked up at his kind smile, and cute dimples in his cheeks.

I returned the smile, looking into his brown eyes, “Katie.”

“That’s a start.” he laughed lightly, “Do you wanna tell me why you want to do this?”

I hesitated, fidgeting with the hem of my wet shirt, “Everything just sucks, life sucks. I just can’t get out of this darkness. I’ve just hated life for so long.” That’s all I let him know.

“I’d be lying if I said that things would never get rough. I could stand here all night trying to convince you. But what good would that do? You see the trick is that no matter how unbearable this misery gets, you're never supposed act on it.”

"You make it sound so easy to be alive, how am I supposed to live when everything inside me has died?" I asked.

He shrugged, “My offer still stands.” he peered his head over the railing and whistled, “That‘s a long way down.” He looked back at me, waiting for an answer.

I looked back up into his warm eyes and concerned smile that was so welcoming. I sighed, "All right, you win, but I only give you one night to prove yourself to be better than my attempt at flight. I swear to god if you hurt me I will toss myself from this very bridge and you'll never see it coming."

His arm reached up to my left shoulder, rubbing it softly, comforting me.
"I know what you're going through. Just ten minutes before you got here I was gonna jump too."

His hand reached out and grabbed mine, I looked down at them, then back up at him, feeling the tingle from his hand warming up my body as it traveled up my arm. I looked up at him through my wet hair that was sticking to my face, a small smile on my lips as I looked up into his eyes. He returned the smile, his dimples appearing. And then we started talking as we made our way to the diner down the street. I slowly started forgetting everything bad in life and just focused on him. For the first time in a long time, I finally felt the smallest ounce of happiness in me.