Saved by the Emo Kid

Chelsea didn't know what to say to him first. Or what even to say at all. She was still in shock, her face a mess of mixed emotions. Minutes ago, she had forseen her strong, rock solid boyfriend who played for the football team bursting into the room, making the evil men who had abducted her pay, and then sweeping her up in his strong arms and kissing her passionately. And this boy had done that--he had slid in the back, noticed only by her, and felled the horrible man with a suprisingly vicious uppercut before the man coudl have even drawn his gun. Then he had grabbed her tied up figure and run, never stopping until he had burst out into the alleyway with her. He had untied her before he had even given himself a chance to breathe. Then he had set her down, held her close in the rain and said in a gentle voice, "It's okay...you're safe."

A tear formed in her eye, because she knew this boy. It was Steven DeLowe, otherwise known by the other seniors as "Stevey the Emo." They all laughed at him. He was the brunt of all the jokes...including hers, as she'd hung on the same jerks who did the same. He was quiet and took it all in quietly as he bent over his notebook and wrote, never looking up or speaking to anyone. He'd never done anything wrong. He just listened to "My Chemical Romance" on his iPod and ignored them. And then, it had been easy for her to laugh at his mascara and attire, his music, and his shyness. And now she was so sick with herself how superficial and cruel she'd been, and how she would still be were it not for this...somehow...he'd known she was in trouble and where she was...and he'd saved her, even after the way she'd treated him. She didn't deserve his kindness, his heroism...but he'd done it anyway. And now he was smiling at her. The very first smile she'd ever seen him make. She wanted to return it more than anything.

The gag in her mouth suddenly seemed so much more than what the kidnapper had used to shut her up. She realized that she'd been stifling herself all along...trying to fit the model of the pretty girl at school that was popular. The good girl all the bad guys wanted, and that position required insulting those not part of that stupid click. Yeah, she'd had something in her mouth anyway: choking on alibis and popularity to cover up what she really wanted to do and say. Why had she gone along with it for so long, especially when her hands had been free--as they were now--to remove it? She didn't know, just as she didn't know now why she couldn't take her trembling fingers and pull it out.

It was time for that to end. So, still ashamed, she made eye contact with him. And his eyes were warm and happy, possessing none of the cold and sadness she'd always thought they would, and that made her feel worse. She put a hand on his chest. And as she continued to look in his eyes. A light in his eyes told her that he understood how she felt. His smile did not disappear. He put one hand around her shoulder, and with the other, he put his hand around the back of her head. His fingers, in her mind, took an eternity to loosen the knot that held the cloth between her teeth. When it was finally undone, he pulled it from between her lips.

"I'm sorry!" she suddenly said. It was then that a look of confusion crossed his face.

"For what? You have nothing to be sorry for--"

"I've...I've always treated to horribly in school, Steven," she said, more tears coming, "and now you've saved me. You've saved me, you rescued me! After I did all that to you, and I don't even care how you did it...I'm just so...sorry that I never treated you....treated you right..."

Steven ran a hand through her hair. "Chelsea...do you know that you are more of a hero than I am?"

"How?" she cried.

"Because you were more concerned about telling me that than thanking me or whatever. And I don't need thanks. Any human being in the world would have seen the right thing to do in that situation..." he said. "And you can go back to school and say you escaped. I wouldn't want to damage your reputation by letting everyone know you were saved by Stevey the Emo--"

"Don't say that!" she sobbed. "Don't call yourself that, it was wrong for me to ever fall in with those jerks, Steven! I hate myself for it...I hate myself for never getting to know you..."

"Don't." Steven said. "Hating yourself...I've done enough of that...it doesn't help."

"But I didn't deserve to get rescued..." she sobbed, putting her against his damp hoody. "I didn't deserve it..."

He hugged her, and it was the most reassuring hug she'd ever gotten from a friend--and yes, he was her friend now. He was more than that. He was her hero. "I deserve just as much as you." Steven said. "And everything's OK now. I was just trying to do the right thing."

She took her head off of his chest. And as tears and rain wettened her face, she kissed his chapped lips softly. He was not a good kisser, but that did not matter at all. It meant nothing. Those jerks at school were good kissers, and that's how they delivered their poison. He just accepted the only way she could thank him with his characteristic modesty. And when she done, she said, "Don't...take me home just yet, Steven..."

"Why not? The police, your parents...everyone's looking for you." he asked.

"Because," she said, once again resting her head against his chest in the rain, "I'm tired, and I don't want to go back to the real world just yet and all the mess I created there being a stuck up snob...I want to create a new world with you to take back with me. I don't want the life I made back there anymore." And then she managed a small laugh. "And I never want to forget the night I was saved by the emo kid."