Kace

It was our first date. Her name was Kylie and she was pretty, funny, and a painter. So we sort of just meshed together. I’d met her on Monday after we both reached for a rustic cobalt color at the local paint store. I was restoring a bench for an addition on some guy’s house. She was planning on painting one of the walls in her studio apartment. Sometimes it just happened like that. A quick spark, a quick smile, and here we were, walking on the sidewalk at night, chatting it up.

Our hands bumped together a couple of times before I finally just took hers. We didn’t interlock our fingers though. Too soon on the first date. Although, it wasn’t too soon for me to think about the time to stop and steal a kiss. Then get her to my truck so that I could get her back to my place. Finish up this first date properly, and then decide what the morning would bring.

“So I quit art school and just did my own thing.”

“You quit school? Wow.”

“Yeah. I couldn’t take some of the classes anymore. There was just too much structure for me. You know? Like they wanted their hands in my pockets for stuff I didn’t need. I mean, if you’re going to stick your hand in my pants, at least be cute and buy me a drink first.”

I laughed. “I know one of those two things have happened with us tonight. What about the other?”

“I guess we’ll wait and see,” Kylie said with a smile that gave herself away.

We turned the corner, leaving the well-lit main street behind us. I figured that we could walk to the next block, turn right again, and circle around to the back parking lot of the bar and get to my truck.

Straight ahead there was a small gathering in the narrow street. Five people standing there, all looking and pointing up. One of them had a cell phone to their ear.

“What’s happening?” Kylie asked.

“I don’t know.”

I took a few steps and looked up. I could see to the top of the building, which wasn’t exactly some big city skyscraper. All of the buildings in this town were three or four stories high. Which meant that whatever was happening up there would be pretty visible.

And visible it was.

I did a quick double take, looking down, blinking, looking back up again.

“Ohmygod,” Kylie said, squeezing my hand tighter. “What is that woman doing?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

I couldn’t believe my eyes though. There was a woman standing on the very edge of the building, staring down. Slowly stepping to the left, then to the right. But far too close for comfort.

“Please don’t jump,” someone shouted.

That’s when the reality hit me.

Don’t jump?

I let Kylie’s hand go and started to run.

“What are you doing?” she called out to me.

Trust me, being a hero was not my thing. I didn’t rescue cats from trees and I didn’t go running into burning buildings for the hell of it.

But this was different. And it made no sense why.

Other than one thing.

I knew who it was on the top of the building.

It was the woman from last week.

* * *

The back steps were the fire escape steps. The thin, black metal steps and railing moved with each of my heavy steps. Rocking enough to suggest that they were one step away from breaking away from the wall, and I was going to be the one that fell off the building.

My heart pounded in my chest.

I thought about the first time I met her. Swaying side to side near the ledge of the roof at the bar. Listening to music, until I accidentally punched the boombox and sent it flying to its death.

I didn’t think much of it then, but here she was, doing the same thing a week later.

What the hell is she thinking? Is she doing this on purpose?

The thoughts collected and tried to weigh me down as I fought to get to the roof of the building. Maybe I should have just stayed back with Kylie. Held her hand, tried my best to help from the safety of the ground. Let the police or firemen or whomever help this woman out. This wasn’t my job to… save her?

It didn’t matter though. I was dead set on getting to her and dragging her away from the edge. At the rooftop at the bar, it was one thing. That had a higher ledge that you’d have to really work at to get over. Not this building. The rooftop here was flat.

I got to the very top and slid my way across from the untrustworthy fire escape and ran right toward where she had been walking. When I got there, she was gone. My heart sank as the momentum of my running pushed me forward, leaving me with no choice but to look over the edge. Down below, there was the same small group of people. And Kylie.

No sign of the woman though. At least not on the ground, leaving everyone watching a nightmare that they’d never be able to shake.

I turned, and there she was on another part of the roof.

Balancing on the edge, swaying to a song that wasn’t playing. Wearing jeans and stepping barefoot along the roof, tempting fate, death, and whatever else she could think of. Including me. Because now I started to get pissed. I spotted a pair of teal flip-flops on the ground and I picked them up.

I walked toward her, cleared my throat, and said, “You dropped these.”

She let out a yelp and turned to look at me. “It’s you. Kace.”

“Yeah. Me. And it’s you. The woman who never gave me her name.”

“Good,” she said. “Then you won’t have a chance to know me and miss me.”

“Know you and miss you, darlin’? How about we start with a get you the fuck off this roof situation first?”

“No,” she said. “I’m staying here. Until it’s time.”

“Time for what?”

“To disappear. So nobody can miss me.”

I swallowed hard. This was getting real and getting deep.

“Are you up here…”

I looked around and really started to take this in. She was up here to…

I stepped toward her. I had no experience in this. No training. No way of knowing if my next step was right or wrong. But I put myself on the edge, facing her. To my left, I had about two inches before it dropped off, and if I fell, I’d kiss the ground with perhaps the last kiss of my life.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“What’s your name?”

“What?”

“Your name. I need to know it.”

“I’m not telling you my name. Leave me alone. I have something to do.”

“Fine,” I said. “You don’t tell me, I’ll jump first.”

“What…”

I turned to face the edge and I swung my left foot out. Believe me, I felt it. My right leg tingled and a nerve pinching feeling went through my body.

“Are you crazy?” she yelled at me.

I felt her hand touch me. I moved to the right and threw my hand out to grab the woman. It was a repeat of last time. I jumped back and pulled her far enough away from the edge that I was a little more comfortable. She all but melted into me, stumbling, her hands sloppy, the noises she made even sloppier.

She was drunk.

I looked down at her and saw the look in her eyes.

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered. “You’re high. You’re high and trying to jump off a roof.”

“I took too much,” she said.

“Of what?”

“Stuff.”

I broke away from her and she collapsed to the ground. She sat there in a heap of a mess. She leaned back and completely missed the nothing behind her and kept going, smashing her head on one of the large air conditioning units. She groaned and fell to the side.

“Shit,” I said.

I dropped to my knees and slid my hand under her head. “Hey. Look at me. Are you okay?”

“No,” she whispered.

“People are watching you. I’m pretty sure they called the police.”

“Great.”

“Darlin’, tell me what happened. What did you do?”

“I survived.”

“Survived? What does that mean?”

“I survived,” she whispered again.

Her eyes started to shut. I put my other hand to her cheek and gently tapped. “No sleepy time yet. Not until you tell me what you took.”

“Just a couple of little white pills,” she said. “To calm me. That’s all.”

“Drugs?”

“No. Prescription.”

“Where are they? Where’s the bottle?”

“No bottle. I found… them…”

She was trying to fade on me.

I shook her to keep her awake, even if she wasn’t alert. Her eyes fluttered and opened again. She turned a little and reached into her pocket. Out came a little white pill and she held it up. I took the damn thing from the palm of her hand, gritting my teeth. I looked and could guess what it was.

“How many?” I asked.

“A few.”

“A few as in three or a few as in ten?”

“Just a few… I swear… I had other plans…”

I glanced at the edge of the roof and it made me swallow hard again.

I started to play more scenarios out through my head. If and when the police and medics showed up. What was going to happen to her. She’d get taken to the hospital for observation and questioning, that was for sure. And she’d be alone.

“Darlin’, do you have a phone on you? Is there someone I can call?”

Her head slowly moved left to right. “Nobody. Not tonight. I survived. Nobody else. I’m so tired right now. My head hurts.”

“Yeah…” The word trailed as she turned her head. I saw a small smudge of blood from where she hit it. “Shit.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do, but I scooped her up and stood up. She was almost completely limp in my arms. I shook her to keep her eyes opening a little.

“I’m going to get you to safety, darlin’. You’re going to get to the hospital. Get your head checked out. You need to remember what you took and what the hell you were doing up here.”

“Shhh… it’s a secret,” she whispered.

“I can keep a secret. But why don’t you tell me your name first?”

“Secrets are dangerous,” she said. “But I survived.”

“Okay then. You survived. And you’re going to survive tonight. No need to be messing around on the edge of the roof like that. You’re too pretty to risk falling.”

She laughed. Her eyes opened wide and were completely spaced out. “You’re sexy. You know that? You keep asking my name, but you’re the sexy one.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“Kace,” she said. “Kace. Your name rhymes with… face. Kace face.”

I laughed as I walked across the roof with the woman in my arms. There were a million ways that I could think of about meeting a woman, and this was not one.

“You broke my friend’s boombox,” she said.

“I did, didn’t I?” I asked. “If you tell me your name, I’ll get you a new one.”

I heard the sound of a siren in the near distance. I rushed to the rooftop exit door and tried pulling on it. Of course it was locked. Which meant that I only had one choice. To stand there and wait for help to show up. In the meantime, I kept walking with her in my arms.

“So tell me about your night,” I said.

“There was sauce everywhere.”

“Sauce?”

“I lost… I quit. That’s right. I quit. And then the calendar. Oh, crap.”

She let out a groan and slowly slipped her hands around my neck.

My hands spread wider as I cradled her.

Her eyes opened again and she stared at me.

She slowly smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I said.

“What are you doing up here?”

“Making sure you don’t fall. Like last week.”

“We have to stop meeting like this,” she said.

I laughed.

Maybe not the best time to laugh, but whatever.

The rooftop exit door finally opened. Out poured the medical team ready to tend to the woman. I gently placed her down and told them everything I knew. I tried my best to sugarcoat it, but the facts were still the same. She took some pills to calm herself down and probably took one too many. And she fell and hit her head on one of the air conditioning units.

They asked her questions, but her responses were short, and all she did was complain about being tired.

“And who are you to her?” one of the medics asked me.

I opened my mouth. “I… uh… she was up here and I came up to check on her. I didn’t know she was like this.”

“Has she ever done this before?”

I looked down at her and then back at the medic. “Not that I know of. I tried to get her to sit down and she fell back and hit her head. That’s my fault.”

“We’ll take care of her. The police are going to want to talk to you. And her.”

“Police…”

“Yeah,” the medic said. “The call came in that a woman was threatening to jump off a building.”

“Jump?” I asked. I shook my head. “No. She…”

I looked at her again. Her eyes slowly opened.

It was like someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart into sad submission.

Her left hand reached for me. “Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t,” I said.

“I’m scared. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I messed up…”

“It’s okay, darlin’,” I said. “I’ll come with you.”

“Sir, I don’t…”

I looked at the medic and showed my teeth. “She’s alone. She’s scared. She messed up. She’s not going to the hospital alone. I can talk to the police later. I don’t give a shit. I’m going with you.”

“Okay,” the medic said.

He started to talk to the others.

I took her hand and squeezed a little.

I watched as they stabilized her neck and put her on a gurney. We all stood up as they lifted the gurney up onto its wheels. She looked at me and her lips started to move. I couldn’t hear what she was saying though.

I leaned down close enough to hear her.

“What is it?” I asked. “I promise, I’ll go with you. Just relax.”

“Sienna.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Sienna.”

I pulled back a little and looked into her eyes again. Those hazel colored eyes. It was like time froze for a few seconds. That we weren’t on the roof of a building. That she hadn’t taken a few pills to relax her and made her do this. That we weren’t actually meeting for a second time like this.

I was supposed to be walking Kylie back to my truck, working my tough guy charm, making comments about working with my hands to create beauty, then turn that into a cheap move to touch her waist, pin her against my truck, kiss her, and keep our first date going strong. But Kylie was somewhere down on the ground and I was holding hands with…

“Sienna,” I whispered. “That’s a really pretty name, darlin’.”

Her eyes slowly started to shut again.

And she smiled.

* * *

She was going to be fine.

A mild concussion, if that, and just lots of sleep thanks to the anxiety medicine that she took. The dosage was very low, so taking a few of the pills wasn’t going to hurt her. Of course, me having one of the fucking pills only got raised eyebrows and judgmental eyes. I bit my tongue, not wanting to lash out at the nurses and doctors who had worked to make sure that Sienna was okay and now comfortable in the hospital bed.

It was right around midnight when I sat down in an uncomfortable chair in the hospital room and stared at her.

Honestly, I had no fucking idea what I was doing.

And the strangest part was that I didn’t feel bad for bailing on Kylie. It was a first date. She was funny and pretty, but what were we going to do? Just talk about painting the entire time? Talk about restoring old things as new? That’s not what I wanted. Sure, the build up to getting to my apartment and my bed was the payoff, but here I was, sitting in a hospital room with a woman who was really just a stranger.

The door opened and an officer approached with caution. He looked right at me with slightly tired eyes and motioned for me to come to him. I pushed up from the chair and walked around the bed. I couldn’t take my eyes off Sienna.

So much I wanted to know. So much wasn’t my damn business. But it mattered to me. Whatever she was feeling or thinking…

“Can we step outside?” the officer asked.

“You’re the one with the badge,” I said.

“Step outside with me.”

We exited the hospital room and the officer stood there with his hands at his belt. “What happened tonight?”

“I’ve explained it ten times now.”

“You were in possession of-”

“She handed it to me,” I said. “If you want to search me? Do it. You want the keys to my truck? My apartment? You can dig through my entire life. I don’t mess with that stuff. I promise you.”

“You know how many times a day I hear that?”

“And I just gave you permission to search my entire life. I don’t know why Sienna got like that tonight. She said that she messed up and took one too many.”

“Does she have a prescription?”

“I can’t answer that.”

“You can’t, won’t, or you don’t know?”

I shook my head. “Look. I got to her and made her sit down. Now she’s here. I’ve got nothing to hide in this. I was trying to help out a friend.”

“Friend, huh?”

“Yeah. A friend.”

“She’s lucky you were there. The call that came in…”

“What? That she was going to jump? Come on, that’s bogus.”

“Is it?” the officer asked. “She took pills that weren’t hers. Wandered up to a rooftop and walked along the edge. People on the ground heard her saying that she was going to step off and fall.”

I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. “Christ. I don’t think she…”

“Well, I can tell you this. Just a word of warning, since you’re her friend. She’s going to be monitored for the concussion. Then she’s going to be questioned to see what her mental state is.”

“What?”

“Looks like she was trying to hurt herself.”

“Seriously?”

“That’s the call that came through. We have protocols to follow and so does the hospital. For her safety.”

“You’re telling me this to see if I get nervous, right? In case I did have something to do with it.”

“Are you nervous?”

“Nope.”

“I might be in touch again.”

“You know where to find me.”

“I do?”

“Right here,” I said and nodded to the door. “I’m not leaving her side.”

“You must be one hell of a friend.”

I didn’t respond.

I had no idea what I was. Some fool that almost followed Sienna off the edge of a roof. And if what they all thought was true, she couldn’t be left alone. Not for her safety, but for her care. If she really felt that alone in life that she considered not living anymore, I didn’t want her to wake up alone.

Why did it matter?

I had no fucking clue.

I put my hand to the door and went back into the hospital room. I walked to the bed and stared down at Sienna. Gently, I touched her hand and nodded.

Not sure if this qualified as a first date, but if so, it was the most interesting one I’d ever had in my life.

“Get some rest, darlin’,” I whispered. “Sienna.”

I plopped down in the chair next to the bed and let out a long breath. I looked through the narrow slits of the blinds and saw a few lights that were off in the distance.

I couldn’t relax or even attempt to fall asleep for a good reason.

I was a liar.

I knew exactly what I was doing there. And I knew exactly why I had gone up on the roof after Sienna. No matter how hard I tried to force it down into the pit of my stomach, I knew the truth.

I was trying to make up for the one I couldn’t save last time.