I spent the rest of that day thinking of him, and it didn't help that he sat one row over and three seats in front of me in calculus, a class I despised for the subject and the teacher. A perfect class for staring, I suppose, not that I would. He was awfully pretty though.

"-- Sydney!"

"Wha--? Oh. Yes, Mrs. Daniels?"

"If you can't listen, you can excuse yourself. Now tell me what the probability of a judge picking three places for a contest out of seventy contestants. Start off first by telling me the proper equation."

I never did do so well in math classes, and it didn't help that the class, yes, even Tyler, stared at me while I attempted and failed to answer her questions.

"No," he muttered. "I - I mean, yes, I do. I just . . . How did you remember me?

I looked at him, and I pitied him. I realized that he was shy, though he tried to hide it. He reminded me of the way I felt inwardly a lot of the time. I just had succeeded in hiding it all. "How could I forget you?" I shrugged. "I mean, your life - everyone knew . . . It's just something no one forgets."

"Yeah, but how did you know who I was last night?"

"Well, it's not like you look very different," I muttered. At least, to me he didn't. I saw him shoot me a funny look, nonetheless. "Look, I don't know. Maybe it was a lucky guess." At this point I pulled into my usual parking space and got out of the car. "Lock your door."

He did as was told while I walked away to my first class. "Hey! Wait!" He called.

"Yes! What?" I said, irritation edging my voice.

"Well, could you tell me where the office is?" he said, his voice matching the tone of mine.

I sighed, "Walk in the front door, and it's the door to your left."

When I was younger, every sound I made at night woke my mother, but somehow she had managed not to wake after the enormous racket I had just made. I waited for the world beneath my eyelids to stop whirling, then I opened them and realized that I was not at the foot of the stairs but lying in bed.

"What the - " I half-yelled before jumping out of bed. The immense pain that shot through my body brought me to my knees.

"Sydney? Are you okay?" I looked up to see my mother standing over me. She was dressed for work in a gray skirt and a white blouse.

"Um...yeah," I mumbled. " I just ... Um ... fell out of bed."

"Well, okay. Are you going to get ready for school?"

"Yes. I'm ... I'm going," I said, giving her a smile that I hoped was convincing. She shot me a strange look then left the room. I waited until the door shut and my mother's footsteps were gradually fading down the hallway before getting up.

I winced through getting dressed and grabbed my bag. By the time I got down the stairs my mother had left. I didn't care for breakfast so I made for the front door, stepping through it quickly, and locking it behind me. When I turned, I ran straight into the muscular chest of Tyler Donnelly.

He was wearing a black [i]West Coast Choppers[/i] shirt and a pair of baggy black cargo pants. His brow ring was out, but I could see the hole clearly. He held a  black bookbag that seemed to be nearly empty over one shoulder and held his cell phone in the opposite hand.

"What the bloody - !" I began before grabbing for my side.

"Sorry if I scared you. I ... I - um ... didn't meant to," He mumbled.

I noticed he wouldn't look me in the eye. "What do you want?" I asked slowly, still recovering from the new shot of pain.

"Um ..." I could tell he wanted to ask if I was okay. "Can I have a ride to school?"

"Can you - what?" I asked before I could stop myself. I glanced down the street at his black mercedes parked in the front yard.

"My car's screwed up ... I'm not sure what's wrong with it yet. Until then it's either ask you for a ride or ride the bus. Trust me ... I would rather ride the bus, but I've already missed it." He explained, following my gaze.

I thought for a second, sighed, then muttered, "Get in." I brushed by him and got in the driver's side, slamming my door.

"Thanks."

Although the ride from my home to Baritan High School was short, the silence made it seem like an eternity. I took a cd out of its case and slipped it into the radio. "That's not country, is it?" Tyler asked. "I can't stand country."

"Even if it was, it's my car. If you're going to ride with me, you're going to have to listen to what I listen to," I replied sharply, "But no, it's not country." I hit play and let the profane lyrics of Eminem reach my ears. I noticed Tyler watching me from the corner of my eye. "What? Do you not like Eminem?" I asked, not really caring.

I walked in the house and saw that my mother was just going to bed.

"Don't stay up too late, okay?"she smiled as she closed the door behind me. She then leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"All right, Mother."

"And eat something. You look pale, and you're getting so thin. Which reminds me, I bought another couple pairs of jeans for you today. I noticed your others were beginning to be loose," she said in that beautiful, magical voice as she walked into her room.

I sighed and walked into the kitchen where, sure enough, I found my dinner waiting for me in the microwave. Mother had the time set and everything. All I had to do was push the start button. I worried about my mother sometimes, and she worried about me too. She had cancer a few years back, and that was the scariest thing I had ever witnessed in my young life. No doubt it would be the scariest thing for the rest of my life. There was nothing as horrible as thinking my mother could just as easily slip away forever as one could slip into dreams.

I carried my plate and a glass of iced tea with me and walked toe-to-heal up the long, dark hallway to the stairs that led up to my bedroom, careful not to wake my mother. Lights from the street shone in the windows at the end of the hall through the blinds and for a second I could have sworn I saw a shadow break those fluorescent rays. I gasped and froze. What the hell was that? I could hear the near-frantic words that I almost couldn't prevent myself from saying aloud echo inside my head. After a moment, I just shook my head. It was nothing. I'm just tired.

I climbed up the stairs, careful to skip the third step from the bottom and the second stair from the top. When I came to the top of stairs, I saw a shadow standing just inside the hallway window. My eyes widened, and I dropped my plate. The sudden crash at my feet and the shattered glass falling against my pale skin caused me to look down, for some reason more alarmed at the sounds than the shadow.

I looked up . . . And it was gone. Agitated with myself, I stooped over to pick up the shattered plate.

"Ouch!" I hissed as one particularly sharp piece of glass cut my finger. "Damn."

"You might want to clean that, you know," I heard someone say above me. I looked up to see a tall, lean figure standing above me.

"Bloody hell!" I screamed and fell backwards, tumbling down the stairs. When I finally landed at the bottom, I saw that dark figure looking down at me then the dark seemed to spread from the center of it, and I was alone in the darkness - in my dreams.

"That's comforting to know," he sighed and run his hands through his hair. For the first time I really looked at him. He was tall, about six foot three, nearly a foot taller than myself, with broad shoulders and a lean waist draped with dark clothes. His hair was shaggy, thick, and hung low over his brow (his left one was pierced). He certainly didn't seem, by appearance, the type that would save someone's life, and he looked  vaguely familiar, but I didn't know from where. "What are you looking at?"

I sneered at him before replying while slipping my flip-flops back on, "Nothing special."

"You know, you're a bitch and a stupid one at that. Whether you meant to jump or not, you could have killed yourself on that beam," he said, thrusting his right hand at my recent perch.

"Tyler Donnelly," I muttered and suddenly remembered the little boy that had once been in my first grade class who I'd had the biggest crush on. He was a tiny replica of what stood before me.

"What?" he said, unable to hide the surprise in his voice.

"You're Tyler Donnelly," I said and pointed at him, "But you disappeared halfway into first grade. People said your mother killed your father and you were sent to an foster home in New York." I immediately shut myself up. What was I saying? How God-awful for me to say that.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said and turned from me. He walked to a black Mercedes and climbed in. By the time I had time to think, he was speeding away from me.

"Brilliant, Sydney," I muttered to myself and walked over to my own red Nissan then climbed in behind the wheel. "Next time maybe you should jump."

Standing atop the scenic overview, I saw a sky seemingly splashed with glittering diamonds beyond the mountains on the horizon from which city lights were glowing like a rising sun. Between that reality and myself, however, sat the few houses around a quiet lake stretched like the glimmering border of a jeweled mirror. I stood alone, gripping the bar on the edge of a cliff loosely. The wind whipped around me, lifting my hair, and below me, that placid lake seemed to call me.

With a great sigh, I kicked off my flip-flops and climbed onto the railing, carefully balancing. I spread my arms like a great bird while the wind whipped at me still. I took a deep breath, completely relaxed, and -

"OH MY GOD! DON'T JUMP!"

"WHA--!?" I cried as I felt myself slip backwards from the edge and hit the ground on my back.

A man's face hovered over mine. It was a young face, smooth-shaven and tanned. Panicked, light-colored eyes glittered beneath straight, black bangs.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" He cried.

"I could ask you the same thing, you stupid sonuvabitch!" I yelled and shoved him off of me.

"Weren't you about to jump?" he asked.

"Hell no! What do you think? That I'm bloody stupid?" I hissed, indignantly, while rising to my feet and dusting myself off. "There are better ways to die than to plummet myself from the face of a cliff."