Rocket To The Moon.

When I woke up the next morning the first thing I noticed was that Rocket had already gotten up and wasn't in the room anymore. I don't know why that was the first thing I noticed...it just was. I rolled out of my bed and made my way towards the bathroom to take a shower. There were three bathrooms upstairs, one of them was attached to my parents bedroom as an ensuite, one was attached to Madison and Trevor’s bedroom, and one was right outside ours on the landing. I walked towards the bathroom outside our bedroom with my head down, watching my feet which were clad in pink and black stripy socks. I stumbled backwards as I walked straight into something that was blocking my path. As I regained my balance, I looked up and gasped as I saw Rocket standing before me…shirtless. His hair was wet and ruffled, meaning he had just gotten out of the shower, and he was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. For some reason, my throat had gone dry, and I found myself lost for words as I stood there staring at him open mouthed. My heart thumped out of my chest and my legs turned to jelly.

“What the hell is happening?”

“Watch where you’re going” he muttered. He then barged past me and went back into the bedroom. I realized how idiotic I must have looked and blushed furiously, then I began to get extremely confused as to why I behaved like that in the first place. I assumed it was because Rocket had his own bathroom at our old house, so I had never seen him without a shirt. But I couldn’t shake the thought that he actually looked really good. Better than good. I shrugged the incident off and went to take a shower.

After I had showered, I got dressed and went downstairs. Everyone else was sat at the table eating breakfast, and they all greeted me as I entered, apart from Rocket who seemed much more interested in his shoes.

“Sleep well?” my Mom asked.

“Yeah” I nodded.

“We thought you and Rocket could go and explore the town together this morning?” Trevor suggested. I glanced uncertainly over at Rocket, who hadn’t moved a muscle since I came downstairs.

“Umm…okay” I said hesitantly. I could sense that this was going to be very awkward, but I didn’t particularly want to cause a scene by refusing.

“There’s a beautiful park near the city centre that you guys should really consider going to” my Mom said “And some really cool shops nearby as well”

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll keep that in mind” I said, forcing a smile.

-3 years previously-

“Wow, isn’t it lovely” my Mom breathed as she took in her surroundings. We were on vacation. We had decided to do something a bit different this year and go to France. Our parents had taken us to Southern Bretagne, and we were currently exploring a town called Concarneau, which was, of course, next to a beach.

“I’d kill for a coffee right now” Trevor said wearily.

“I second that” Dad agreed.

“Me too” Madison nodded.

“There’s coffee shops everywhere. We could pop in for one and leave these two to explore on their own. Rocket’s 14 now, he’s responsible enough” Mom said. I shot a nervous glance at Rocket, who appeared to have not responded to what she had just said.

“Good idea” Madison agreed “We’ll meet you kids back here in half an hour, okay?”

“Okay, Madison” I said unenthusiastically. They disappeared into the nearest coffee shop.

“So, where do you wanna go?” I asked Rocket. He didn’t reply.

“Should we…go and check out what’s over there?” I indicated to a small side street. Rocket simply shrugged.

“Alright listen, you” I poked his chest and he looked up wearily “I don’t wanna be here with you either…but there’s nothing we can do about it so we may as well just put up with it and explore the fucking French town” I growled. Rocket remained silent for a little longer.

“Come on then, let’s go” he said, taking me by the arm and dragging me quickly down the street.

“Slow down” I said, having to jog to keep up with him. He ignored me. I was scared that, because he had a hold of my arm, I would fall if I failed to keep up with him. He lead me down various streets, which turned into various side streets, which turned into various alleyways. It wasn’t long until I had absolutely no idea where I was.

“Can we go back now, please?” I pleaded.

“No. We’re not done exploring yet” Rocket said. His voice sounded normal, but I detected a hint of spite in it.

“Do you have any idea where we are!?”

“Nope”

We were gone for much longer than half an hour. We just walked and walked, and Rocket kept refusing to go back - not even when I started to cry. When we finally made it back, it was dark, and the parents were a little less than pleased with us. Luckily for me, I was able to easily put the blame on Rocket due to his reckless tendencies, so I was off the hook. He was severely punished that night. His punishment started with a fifteen minute long lecture from Madison, during which he refused to make any eye contact with her whatsoever. He just stared at the ground. Madison was absolutely fuming, and there were very few occasions when I’d seen her this angry.

“You not only put yourself in danger…but you also put Hero in danger! I trusted you to be responsible and look after her…but you just can’t do that, can you? You just can’t listen to what anyone else says because you’re THAT stubborn! Is it any wonder why you were having so much difficulty getting adopted?!”

I thought those last words were a little harsh, but they were very true at the same time. Rocket lowered his gaze further when she said this.

“We took you in because we saw potential in you, Rocket!” Madison lowered her voice, and now spoke with a softer tone. She crouched ever so slightly so that her eyes were on a level with Rocket’s and placed both of her hands on his shoulders. He shrank away at her touch “You’re a very bright boy, Rocket. You could have a brilliant future ahead of you if you weren’t so damn careless all the time! I mean, this is stupid! You’re only making things so much worse for yourself! You can’t let what happened one year ago affect your life from now on, it’s just plain ridiculous! You’re with us now…we’re here to make your life better - happy. So why won’t you just accept that?”

Without a word, Rocket shook himself out of her grasp and ran out of the hotel room towards his own, knocking me almost off balance with his shoulder as he went. I heard his door slam all the way from across the hall. Madison sighed heavily.

“Why does that boy have to be so difficult?”

-End Flashback-

Half an hour later, Rocket and I were ready to go and explore the town. I said a quick bye to all four of my parents before heading out of the door. Rocket was walking swiftly in front of me. Every time I tried to catch him up to walk next to him, he just increased his pace, indicating clearly that he didn’t want to walk with me, so I decided it would just be best to walk behind and follow him wherever he goes. After all, it was better than being dragged there. He took me down various streets, all of them much more pretty than the suburbs of where I used to live.

I focused my attention on the directions in which we were going, determined not to get lost this time. It was a hot day, and I could feel the heat of the morning sun beating down on my back as I walked. It felt quite intense already and it wasn’t even midday yet. I thought that I might do some sunbathing in the garden later. My skin is naturally pretty tanned anyway, but I quite like sunbathing - it’s relaxing. After about ten minutes of following Rocket I emerged into the city centre.
There were various rows of shops, and a fair amount of people around, though it wasn’t too busy. We walked past various places such as clothes, books, music, furniture, food, toy and many other kinds of stores until we reached the park that my Mom had mentioned.
There were long stretches of luscious green grass, with neat stone paths running up the side and an impressive fountain in the centre in which young children wearing bathing suits were playing and splashing each other.
This scene made me smile. Up one of the side paths walked a woman with a pushchair. She was smiling into it and saying things that I couldn’t hear to the child inside, and giggling every few seconds.
Behind her, walked an elderly couple who were holding hands and deep in conversation, both with content smiles on their faces. On a bench opposite me sat a couple in their twenties who had their arms wrapped round each other’s waists and were stealing the odd kiss on the cheek every now and again, and on another path, a mother and father walked together, their child perched comfortably on his father’s shoulders. A group of young teenage girls passed that family, possibly aged about 13 or 14, chatting and giggling excitedly. A young man sat across from me on the edge of the fountain, strumming a calming melody on a battered acoustic guitar. All around me, people were standing and chatting with others, and it was a generally quaint and happy atmosphere. That is, until, the woman’s terrified scream disrupted it.

The whole park turned in shock to the woman who was standing and crying hysterically, flailing her arms in panic.

“Help me!” she shrieked “My daughter…she…she fell into the pond! I can’t see her! For the love of God, she can’t swim!” Panic arose amongst the people of the park as people frantically dashed around in search of help. The guitar music had stopped. The friendly atmosphere had disappeared.

“What happened?”

“What age is the girl?”

“I’ll call 911” “How did she fall in?”

“Was the Mother watching?”

“Someone contact the emergency services”

“She said her daughter couldn’t swim”

“Somebody help them!”

“This is terrible!”

“Is she okay?”

Amongst the chaos, I glanced around for Rocket, but caught no sight of him at first. I called his name and tried to see over the expanding crowd, but it was no use. I was about to give up when I saw a tall figure dash at an immense speed through the swarm of terrified onlookers. It was him. I never knew he could run so fast, but he darted through the masses of people like a cheetah through tall grass, and within seconds, he had reached the pond. I shoved my way through the crowd in an attempt to follow him.I could see that the pond was not a shallow one at all. It was extremely deep, and extremely cold. One faded warning sign stood a few meters away, but that was it. Rocket began to remove his jacket and shoes and I froze in terror as I realized what he was about to do. I made to stop him, but it was too late, swiftly and gracefully he dived into the pond.

“My poor Amy! Please help her!” the woman cried helplessly. She hadn’t yet noticed that there were now two people in the pond, but the crowd had, and it had caused even more panic. Rocket was underwater for seven, maybe eight seconds, but it felt so much longer. I was deeply, genuinely worried about him, despite the fact that he had never done anything for me to make me want to worry, but I couldn’t help it.

Finally, he emerged from the water, with a girl of about six years old in his arms. Her long red hair was plastered to her wet face. She was unconscious, but breathing steadily. She was shaking from the cold as Rocket handed her to her Mother, who wrapped her up in her own jacket and kissed her forehead multiple times.

“Oh, Amy, I’m so glad you’re safe! I was so scared, sweetie!” she turned to Rocket “ Thank you so much! You’re such a brave young man to risk yourself saving someone else! I honestly can’t thank you enough!”

“Don’t mention it” he shrugged. He then got up, retrieved his jacket and shoes and started walking away.

“Wait! Can’t I at least get your name? I want to thank you for saving my daughter!” she called after him. But he ignored her and carried on walking. The ambulance arrived, but I didn’t have time to see what happened because, for some reason, I felt obliged to follow Rocket.

“That was amazing!” I said once I had caught up with him.

“Don’t tell anyone at home about this” was all he said. Still without the slightest hint of any emotion in his voice. He was shivering slightly, and his hair was dripping wet. For a moment, he looked scarily similar to how he’d looked when he’d wandered off on the beach that day.

“But…”

“If they ask why I’m soaked - tell them some kids water bombed me or something”

“But Rocket…you’re a hero! You deserve so much credit for this!” I insisted.

“I’m not a hero” he muttered, before increasing his walking pace once again and speeding off ahead of me.

I felt like I was in shock. I couldn’t rid the image from my brain of him running with incredible speed, of him diving so gracefully into the icy water, of him emerging with the young girl in his arms. It had seemed truly amazing. He looked just like a hero in a movie.
But his modesty was puzzling. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want anyone to know about this.
That woman clearly wanted to reward him for saving her daughter, and loads of people would admire him for what he did. What was wrong with this guy? At that moment, I did what I usually did in confusing situations with Rocket, and shrugged it off.

Once we got home, Rocket went straight up to our room as I expected him to. I was about to go and confront him about the incident that day. I was way too curious and really wanted to know what the hell was up with him and why he was being so modest. I wasn’t really expecting to get much out of him, but I decided it was worth a shot. I was just about to take the first step upstairs…

“Hero, sweetie, lunch is ready. Go tell Rocket”

“Dammit, Dad! Why’d you have to ruin my opportunity!?”

“Okay, I’ll tell him!” Once again, I forced a smile, and made my way upstairs. I thought that I might be able to ask him anyway, before we went down to lunch. The parents could wait, right? They’d just be too busy talking about the weather and what work they want doing on their cars to notice us being late. And plus, I was just overloaded with curiosity; I felt like I might explode if I didn’t get answers. For some reason, I knocked on the door first before I entered. Even though it was my bedroom as well, I felt like I was intruding. He didn’t answer when I knocked, but I went in anyway. He was laying on his bed staring at the ceiling again. I cleared my throat

“Rocket…”

“Hmm?” he looked at me expectantly. This was my chance to ask him again, no not ask, demand. I wanted to know what the fuck was up with him and I was going to know. He was going to tell me. I was going to make him. No more Mrs. Nice Hero. He was going to explain everything. I cleared my throat again.

“Umm…lunch is ready”

“Why? Hero, why? All you had to do was ask him why he saved someone’s life then acted as if nothing happened. Are you afraid of him or something? It’s only Rocket…”

He nodded and went downstairs. I’d blown my chance.

-3 Years Previously-

It was a couple of hours after Madison had lectured Rocket on his carelessness, and we were still in the hotel room in France. I was peacefully reading a book, when my peace was interrupted by Trevor.

“Could you tell Rocket that we’re going down for dinner now?” he said.

“Umm…I don’t…” I began.

“Just do it. Come on, we’re gonna be late” Trevor said, before disappearing into the next room. I sighed. I knew what kind of mood Rocket was going to be in after something like that, and I really didn’t want to have to face him when he was in that kind of mood, so I did as I was told. I knocked gently on the door of his hotel room, and got no reply, so I gingerly pushed open the door. I looked in just in time to see Rocket shoot up from his bed and give me a look so filled with anger that it frightened me a lot.

“Get out!” he ordered through his teeth.

“R-Rocket…” I stuttered timidly “We have to…”

“GET OUT!” he repeated at full volume, grabbing a lamp from the bedside table and ripping the plug out of the socket. He raised the lamp upwards in a threatening movement, as if he were about to throw it.

“Rocket…”

I thought he wouldn’t do it. I thought, that despite his grumpiness and mysteriousness, he was harmless anyway. But I thought wrong. With an angered groan, he launched the porcelain lamp at me with full force. I screamed and dodged behind the door, avoiding it only just, and hearing it smash on the other side of the door.I thought he wouldn’t do it. I guess I really didn’t know him well at all. He wasn’t as harmless as I thought. He actually intended to hurt me.

-End Flashback-