#collection project

Beth noticed that she was getting close to Joyce’s house. She didn’t want to go there just yet. She was so into the rhythm of the music and the pounding of feet on the sidewalk that she ended up going to other parts of the neighborhood. In this moment she felt like she could fly. She was going so fast. Why couldn’t she jump into the air and fly off? With the wind going in and other of her lungs and her muscles working so hard. It felt impossible to be held down by gravity. She just need to—

Beth’s foot caught on an uneven part of the sidewalk. She began to fall.

Her momentum made her fly in the air for a split, terrifying second and then she crashed into the ground. Apparently gravity was a very real possibility. Beth laid there in absolute shock at what just happened. Her music seemed quieter as her heart beat in her ear.

She took deep ragged breaths and then she noticed a shadow standing over her. Beth looked up and she could see that the guy standing over her was talking to her. She pulled off her headphones, “What?”

“Are you alright?” He bent down and she could see him properly. Beth didn’t recognize him but that wasn’t a surprise, she lived in a pretty big down. He had short black hair and bushy eyebrows that reminded Beth of caterpillars. He had tan skin, not as dark as Luis or Justin but tanner than Beth’s own.

“Uh, yeah…I think.” She said starting to sit up and winced. The shock of the fall was starting to ware off and now pain flooded her body. Her muscles ached, because when she went flying her body reflexively went tight. Now that she was relaxed it hurt like hell. Her keys on her lanyard had practically stabbed her and now her chest hurt. Then Beth’s hand, leg and chin burned with pain.

Panic made her heart race she quickly felt around her legs and arms for anything wrong with them.

“Whoa, what’s wrong? Let me look at that hand.” The guy sounded worried, his voice wasn’t that deep but slightly accented and he took her left arm.

“I’m checking to see if I hurt myself too badly.” Beth said and thankfully nothing seemed to be majorly hurt. How could she be so stupid? Running around like this. She could have gotten badly hurt and then she could kiss what little chance she had at Juilliard goodbye.

“I think you just have a few scrapes.” He said, “Here come with me, I have a first aid kit in my garage.”

“Okay, thank you.” Beth said standing up carefully and then followed him. He was taller than her by just a few inches; he was wearing a blue button up and jeans. She’d apparently fallen right in front of his house. He manually pulled up the garage door and then went to a shelf with a big blue kit. They sat on his porch and he started cleaning her up.

First he gently cleaned her chin, which she had scraped. Great this isn’t going away any time soon. He cleaned her left hand that had been pretty badly scraped while she looked at the side of her right forearm and right leg.

“It’s not every day you see a girl fly outside your window.”

Beth gave a mix of a snort and a wince as he continued to clean and bandage a hand.

“I was really getting into the idea of flying and then gravity had to interrupt my groove.” Beth said looking down at her leg, there was a trickle of blood. God she really did a number on herself. “I’m Beth Montgomery, by the way.”

“Amaan Fareed.”

Beth extended her not scrapped hand to him and they shook hands.

Amaan went to clean her leg but Beth said, “It’s fine, I get can get it.”

Amaan blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck, “Heh, okay!”

“What school do you go to?” Beth said wiping off the blood on her leg. “I haven’t seen you around before.”

“My family and I just moved here.” Amaan said handing Beth the antibiotics. “I will be going to Orcutt Academy.”

Beth grinned as she put a Band-Aid on her leg, at least that cut wasn’t too bad. “Hey, I go there, too!”

Amaan grinned, “That’s great!”

“Maybe you’ll see me flying down the halls, I’m usually more graceful.” Beth winked trying to do a pair of finger gun but winced because of her scrapped hand.

Amaan laughed anyway, “Maybe!”

“I should probably get going, but thank you for helping me and for letting me bleed on your porch.” Beth said standing up and wiping herself off.

Amaan quickly stood up, “It’s no problem. I’ll see you around, Beth.”

“See you around.” Beth waved and then started walking to Joyce’s house. She checked her phone and it wasn’t cracked. Her entire body ached but hey at least she wouldn’t have to go around with a cracked phone.