15 Days Before I Left Him novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Eleven

The last bus left at three twenty, and by three thirty the playground was empty.

Raylan was sitting on the bench under the maple by the swings, in his dark coat, with his hands between his knees.

Somebody's hopscotch squares were still drawn in pink chalk on the blacktop.

I sat down on the other end of the bench.

"You don't have to say anything," Raylan said. "I'll go first. I should have gone first seventeen years ago."

"Raylan."

"I was sixteen. I was walking back from the boat road with a friend's dog." He kept his eyes on the chalk. "I heard a girl screaming for help by the road, and I ran toward it."

He stopped.

"Go on," I said.

"She was eleven. She was soaked up to her ribs, and she was lying on the bank, and she'd been crying so hard she couldn't speak. Her right hand was open and bleeding, and it was dripping onto the snow."

His voice cracked on the last word.

I looked at my hand in my lap.

"I asked her what happened," he said. "She said, 'He went through the ice.'"

"I remember."

"I ran down to the pond, and Roscoe was already out on the bank, face down, not breathing. And another girl, a skinny one with a red hat, was kneeling next to him."

"Faye."

"Her hat was dry. Her boots were dry." He swallowed. "Her mittens were wet to the wrist, because she'd put her hands on his back."

He turned to look at me then.

"I did the compressions. By the time the ambulance came, Roscoe was coughing, and the first thing he saw was Faye. Everybody saw it. And nobody asked you anything."

The wind moved the swings.

"Say it," Raylan said. "Please. Say it out loud once, so somebody has heard it."

← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend