Page 19 of Save Me
Still, it’s awfully tempting…
Xander
She hasn’t seen me yet, but I know it’s her. I can tell from the caramel waves running through her wayward hair, still wild from her run. She’s perched, hunched, and looking sad on top of the fence at the end of the pier. I would never have predicted coming across Beth Taylor along this pier, somewhere I only agreed to meet Casey because she’d been whining about us never hanging out anymore. She and Kyle are now buying an ice-cream from the stall that has been a permanent fixture here for as long as I can remember. Casey and I always used to pull out the puppy dog eyes for Mom and Dad whenever we were close by.
What’s going through that head of yours, Moneypenny? What secrets lurk behind those icy blues and thick, blond hair?
The primitive male in me notices the skin-tight running bottoms clinging to her legs, while her crop top runs just shy of her bellybutton, meaning I can see the curve of her waist, the nudity of that band between her top and hips. The human part of me wants to run to her and catch her before she falls into whatever problem she’s managed to land herself in. For now, though, I just watch her, silently appreciating the fact that I can take in her body without her knowing I’m even here.
“What are you staring at, perv?” Kyle calls out, instantly ruining the moment with his idiot mouth before looking over toward the focus of my attention. Before I can register what he’s doing, he’s already walking over to her.
“Is that British bitch?” he laughs. “You got the hots for her, man?”
“Oh God, please don’t say you have, Xander,” Casey groans, “you are worth so much more!”
“Shut up, Casey,” I reply bluntly, ignoring the gaping fish look she’s sporting as I shove past her to try and catch up with Kyle. He’s edging his way over to Beth who is still looking far out to sea.
“Well, let’s go and see if she’s game?” Kyle grins while biting his bottom lip with his teeth on show like he’s some sort of supermodel wannabe on TikTok. “I bet she’s nice and tight!” he says before grotesquely grabbing his junk.
“No!” I shout, but the idiot is already behind her, lifting his hand to slap upon her back.
Beth screams in shock as soon as his palm makes contact, causing her to lose her balance in the process. She slips below the wooden beams of the pier’s edge and the impact of her hitting the water deafens my ears. I close the gap between where I’m stood to where she fell, in record time, looking over the side to find her floating face down toward the ocean floor. Kyle had initially laughed at her falling, but now his face has lost his Californian-boy-bronzed sheen and is looking like he’s about to shit himself.
“She’s not coming up, man!” he shouts, proving how useless he really is. “Look, there’s blood. I think she’s hit her head on the rocks!”
“You fucking penis!” I yell at him, kicking off my shoes before climbing over the top, and down the wooden beams to jump into the water.
The coolness of the water hits me first, but it doesn’t stop me from kicking into action, grabbing at her motionless body while taking in the amount of rocks lining the bottom of the shallow water beneath me. No wonder she hit her head from this height; she’ll be lucky if she doesn’t have a more serious injury than a cut to her temple. However, right now, I need to get her to shore and call for some medical assistance, because bleeding and unconsciousness are never good for anybody. With that in mind, I place her on top of my chest and swim back to the shore and onto the beach where Casey and Kyle are now waiting.
“Call an ambulance!” I shout over to them.
Kyle pulls out his phone and makes the call, stuttering as he tries to explain what happened, minus the part where he practically pushed her. Meanwhile, I’m shitting myself because I can’t feel a pulse. I’m fast realizing that I need to give her chest compressions, something I’ve only ever done on one of those Resusi-Annie dolls. With a blue tinge to her complexion, wet hair sticking to her face, and a distinct coldness to her skin, I waste no time in trying to get her breathing again.
“Come on, Beth!” I shout after almost crushing her ribs into several hundred pieces. I continue to give her compressions with a grimace on my face. Blood is oozing from her temple, dark and pulsing from the cut beneath it. “Please, Beth, wake up, please!”
“Shit, Xander!” Casey cries, visibly shaking from the sight of Beth’s lifeless body. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Shut.up.Casey!” I growl through clenched teeth, not able to deal with her shit at the moment. I’m still pounding into Beth’s chest which is both terrifying and exhausting. As time seems to go on for what feels like hours, I begin to let the thought of how futile this is slip into my head. All of a sudden, she jerks up and down a little. With my breath held in suspense, I watch as she coughs up a bubble of water from her mouth. I then flip her over onto her side, so she doesn’t end up choking on it all over again.
The sound she makes afterward is akin to my old dog when he used to bring up balls of grass, but it might as well be the most beautiful piece of music to my ears right now; it means she’s alive. Greedily taking in more and more gulps of air, her skin starts to look the color of alabaster instead of ocean blue, with only her lips holding onto their purple tinge. She instantly begins to shiver through cold and shock, so I remove my vest and throw my arms around her, sharing what little warmth I have.
“Thank God,” I whisper so only she can hear me. If she can hear me. She huddles against my skin, taking whatever she can get from it, all the while I give her whatever I have in me.
“Is she breathing now?!” a paramedic shouts over to me and with a single nod, they reach us and begin getting out equipment to deal with both her shock and the cut to her head. Whatever they do after that is lost on me. My own after-effects of trauma begin to take hold as I flit my gaze between Casey and Kyle crying against one another, and Beth, who is now breathing deeply with her eyes remaining firmly shut.
“I’m coming with her,” I announce with determination to the paramedic when they place her onto a gurney.
“And who are you?” one of them asks, clearly getting ready to argue with me.
“I’m her…her brother,” I lie, hoping they’ll miraculously believe the dark, Mediterranean-looking guy who has just claimed the blonde, English Rose, is closely related to him. Casey, who can never be accused of forward-thinking, frowns at me, but thankfully stops dead in her tracks after I give her a withering glare and a shake of my head.
“Ok, you can ride with her, but you’ll need to call her… I mean, your parents. She needs a guardian with her,” the driver informs me with a casual wink before getting in upfront.
Not wanting to question their decision to do me a solid, I jump up and sit next to Beth in the back while the other paramedic begins to find more items with which to warm her up. She’s still a little out of it when I grab hold of her icy cold hand, which I notice is still shivering. She looks at me in question, but I offer her no words, just rub at the back of her hand with my finger pads.
“Are you her boyfriend?” the female paramedic asks without even looking back at us.
“What?” I gasp, giving away my anxiety with my usual tick of rubbing at the back of my neck.