A Helpless Romance

"God it's cold" I mutter to myself as I wrap my arms around me. It's raining fucking elephants everywhere as we had passed raining cats and dogs hours ago. I don't have an umbrella so I have been standing under a tree for a while though it's hardly doing itself justice as it's winter and there are no leaves.

How I ended up under this useless tree,you ask? Well I was walking home from my part time job after school. I usually catch a ride home with a co-worker but they had to leave early because they were 'sick'. The useless bastard. But it wasn't like I lived too far away..but not exactly close either. I let out a long loud sigh as I look to the sky, seeing a rather dark large cloud looming over head. "Fuck this" I say as I start my trek home.

I live in a small little town in West Georgia. I'm in high school and it's my last year. My grandmother has saved up money for me to go to college. It is definitely more than what my mother has done. She's an alcoholic on the verge of losing her job. Most teens have part time jobs to get themselves a car, but I have it because my lazy ass of a mom needs the money or we will be evicted. Countless times she has tried to take money from my collage savings account but I won't let her and neither has my grand mother.

I'm nearing the corner of the street I'm walking on and I stop to make sure no cars are coming when I hear a car pull up beside me. Instinctively, I turn to look and see a shiny silver car just sitting there. The passenger window rolls down so I take that as my cue to step closer. I do. I lean down to peer into the window and see a girl with a stunning smile. Her light,almost blonde,ginger hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail and tied into a bun. Somehow it still manages to look decent and shows off her cheek bones in a way that makes them seem as if they could cut through anything. I see my own dark black hair in the window and it's a mess, it doing nothing to help my slightly round face. It is also soaked as the rest of me.

"Hey!" the girl calls through the window. I look back up to her and she's looking at me with...what I'm guessing is a look of concern. "You still here?" she asked with a small chuckle. "Listen. I've seen you around school and I have a few classes with you.." she trails off and motions with her hand for me to get in. "Enough with the small talk. Get in. It's pouring and I'm sure you'd like a ride. " she said with another smile. I look at her for a moment, my mind still trying to process ' same class. ' "Are you getting in or not?" she asks again, to which I nod. "Yeah." I say as I slip into the car.

I'm well aware that I just got in the car with a stranger, but...It's not like I'm in any situation to disagree. Besides, I did go to school with her. "My name's Abby" she said throwing another smile my way to which I return, though it probably looks forced. "Abby Saxon. We have homeroom together." she says to confirm her previous statement. That's when it clicks. She sits two seats in front of me. She's practically a straight A student and always had the nicest things, but she's surprisingly not as stuck up as most of the other girls in my school.

"My name's Jess..Jess Miller." I say lamely to which she giggles and turns a corner. "I know. We have homeroom together" she says again. I chuckle a little and have the nerve to blush. "Right..sorry. I don't really...I'm bad with names." he say apologizing indirectly for not know who she is. But she shrugs it off with a warm smile and asks for my address.

Somehow we ended up turned around on countless streets, but that may or may not have been my fault. I was enjoying simply being in the company of someone so beautifu,after our awkward introduction I found I liked being around Abby and we had a few things in common. She was quirky and funny. She had a smile that could brighten any room or anyone's day. I honestly believe I haven't smiled or laughed so much in a while. I wouldn't say I was depressed, but pretty damn close to it. Abby just made everything better. I felt alive around her.

I found myself looking at my watch and sighed softly. "Uh..Take a right up here..It's the third house on the left." I lied. It was on the next street, but I didn't want such a lovely girl to know I lived in the slums. She nodded,clueless to my lie and turned as I had asked.

When she came to a stop I sat forward and grabbed the handle but didn't open it just yet. "Hey..Listen" I started and looked over to her before continuing, but before I could she put her hand up. "Don't." she said and giggled a little and said, "I mean, It was no problem really. Besides, I enjoyed talking to you." She offered me another sweet smile,to which I returned genuinely.

"Thank you. I'll uh..I'll see you around." I say before getting out. She waves to me and I wave back before watching her pull off. I stay where I am at and watch her go. I couldn't help but feel attached to her already, which was never a good thing. I always get hurt. But as I stood there in the rain. I realized that that girl, the girl two seats in front of me with straight A's, and the sweetest smile...was the girl that made me feel alive..