If I Said Your Smile's All That Mattered, Would You Save My Life?

"You're alive!" It was the first thing I heard as my eyes started to blink open, the sound sending my head into a pounding rage. Soon, after blinking like crazy, I was able see again and saw that the voice most likely came from Alex, who was resting his head on my chest, as if he was checking for a heartbeat. I laughed, but soon stopped, pain rising in my chest.

"Hey guys," I said, my voice a low, hoarse whisper. "What happened?"

"You fainted," Rian told me, being as vague as ever.

"I did?" I asked, not having any recollection that I did. I was back in my room, not in some hospital like I felt I should be.

"Yeah," Zack said. "After Alex left he remembered he had said he would pay for lunch so he ran back, hoping you were still there. He entered the restaurant just in time to see you hit the floor. Then he just picked you up and took you here."

"Aw, Alex," I said, smiling, "how sweet of you." He lifted his head off my chest and smiled. He put his face near mine and began to poke his cheek, with his forefinger. I rolled my eyes and lifter my head up and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, his smile growing wider in the act.

"What about us?" Zack and Rian whined. I rolled my eyes once more and told them to come over so I could give them both kisses so they wouldn’t feel left out.

Once finished, I asked, "Where's Jack?"

"I'm not sure," Rian replied. "He won't answer his cell, the whore."

I laughed. "He's probably out with Courtney," I said, trying to sound as if it didn’t bother me as much as it did. "Anyways, it’s a good thing he doesn’t know. If he did he would probably tell his mum, who would want me to go the hospital and my mum would be so freaked."

They all nodded in agreement, all understanding how afraid my mum was of hospitals. She didn’t mind the doctor or the dentist, but actual hospitals scared her to death.

"So you're feeling better then, right?" Rian asked. I nodded. "Good. We should celebrate then." Once more, everyone nodded in agreement.

"But let's not go out," I added as Alex pulled me out of bed. We made our way downstairs, making plans to watch a movie that wasn’t about stars or wards. But, of course, I was allowed to pick once more. I decided on Better off Dead because movies from the eighties are the best.

Seventy-four minutes in, Alex's phone began to ring. He pulled it out, looked out the caller ID and yelled, "Its Laura!" He then ran off, answering the phone. I hadn’t known that they had already exchanged numbers, but I was glad that she called.

"Who's Laura?" Zack, who was sitting next to me mouthed to me as he caught my eye.

"'The love of his life,'" I mouthed back, using my fingers as quotation marks. Zack laughed, but then turned back to the TV, knowing how much I loved this movie. I moved closer to Zack, laying my head on his chest. And although Zack was comfortable and great overall, I couldn’t help but wish he was someone else, someone that used to always be here for me, and yet was suddenly gone.

I'll give you three guesses on who he is.

&&

It was English class and we had to write a short story as to how we were feeling. I sat there for almost the whole class trying to decide how it was that I felt. It was so hard to decipher. I was happy, I was sad; my head was trying to murder me. But overall, I realized ten minutes before the bell was to ring, I was beyond lonely. No matter how great my friends were, I was lonely and I didn’t want to be.

So I began to write.

Once upon a now, in a place not so far away, there lived an ugly Princess. She was the nicest, most loving, and most amazing Princess there had ever been, but her face showed her differently. She had never noticed how horrid she looked until one day, everyone having been told by the Queen [there being no king in this royal family] not to mention it around her.

That one fateful day she was to see her first group of suitors. The Queen had planned on telling them to please not mention her 'unusual appearance'. However, before she could, she was called away on urgent business and just had to usher in the suitors as the left that August morn.

They were to come in one at a time, say hello, and speak for a few moments if they wished. However, one by one they came and one by one they looked at her face, at her uneven skin tone, and odd body shape. And one by one they ran out, some yelling shouts that she was a demon, some saying that they thought they were going to throw up. Some just yelled that she was the most hideous thing ever. But they all left.

Except one.

He sauntered in, hands in the pockets of his old, ripped jeans. His eyes were towards the floor out of habit, his hair falling in front of him and forming a curtain. Soon he reached where the Princess was sitting, afraid. She didn’t want him to look up. She wasn’t sure how to react to all those things that people had said to her, but she knew she didn’t want to hear it ever again.

But he did look up, his curtain of hair falling back into a normal position. He looked up at her and smiled. He noticed her disfigured face and didn’t run out like the others. He noticed her uneven skin tone that ran all over her rough looking skin, but didn’t yell at the Princess. He noticed her odd body shape and just smiled even wider.

"Hello, Princess," he spoke, his voice sounding like velvet, "my name is Bright and I have come to save you."

And then she was saved. Form what, she didn’t know. But somehow, she knew she was. And that's all that mattered.

The bell rang seconds after I finished writing the last word. I ran up to the teacher, happy with each word I wrote, knowing how true I felt them to be. Except the ending. That hadn’t happened and I wasn’t sure if it would.

And then something happened to cause me to think a bit differently.