Peppermint - Short Story

Her breath smells like sweet peppermint. The smell is all he can concentrate on. It intoxicates his mind and his world starts spinning. She is suddenly in his arms before he knows it, her body trembling with heavy sobs.

He attempts to clear his head as the smell of peppermint fades. Why is she crying? He wants to make whoever did this to her regret ever laying eyes on her.

Her sobs grow louder, though he didn't know that would be possible. She's usually a girl who keeps to herself and doesn't let others see her pain. For her to be in this state, she must be going through such immense pain he can't even begin to imagine.

He closes his arms around her and rests his head against the top of her silky hair. He wants to say something, though he's not entirely sure what he could say. No amount of words can heal this pain she's going through right now. Perhaps it's better he doesn't say anything, he realizes.

Tears continue to pour down from her eyes. He can feel them start to seep through his shirt. They're so cold and wet, and there's so many of them. Will they ever stop?

He can't stand this. Every sob that comes out of her breaks his heart more and more. He has an impulse to just lift her head and press his lips against hers, making all her pain melt away. Even if he did do that though there's no telling what would happen. They're not a couple, they're just best friends. Doing that could just make her a lot worse and she would run away from him.

He sucks in a deep breath. No, this is the best thing he can do for her right now; just give her a shoulder to cry on and don't utter a word.

What happened before she started to cry? He thinks back.

He was walking down the road and he saw her sitting outside her house. He decided to walk over so they could talk for a little while. He knew something was wrong because she had a strange look on her face, and she wasn't quite as talkative as she usually is.

She suddenly clears her throat and takes a step back. She wipes the tears from her eyes with the back of her sleeve and looks down at her feet. Her hair is a long dark curtain covering her face. She mumbles something inaudible and he can't quite make it out.

He frowns. He can't see her expression, but he can tell she's ashamed of herself,and very embarrassed. She shouldn't be though. He wants her to be able to show her true feelings like that to him, without being ashamed.

He shuffles his feet, getting an awkward vibe from her now. "Do you feel any better?"

Suddenly, she looks up at him and stares into his eyes. It was so sudden and her eyes are so full of emotion, chills go down his spine.

She rushes past him and when he turns around to look at her, all he sees is the door slamming shut behind her. He stares for a moment, then starts heading back to his house.

An Autumn breeze pushes against him and there's a small part of his shoulder that feels cold where her wet tears still remain in his shirt.

He looks down and sees the two big wet spots on his shirt.

Why can't she open up to him? He's known her for years, but she is still like this toward him. Through all the years, he can only remember her as a bright and happy girl. There was never a time where she truly opened up to him and let him know what's troubling her.

There was always this wall up separating them from each other and he was never able to break through it. With all his other friends they were all able to talk about anything, even things that were incredibly awkward. But with her they only talked about basic stuff and never got into really deep conversation. So then how could they be best friends?

All these questions circling around his head is starting to give him a headache. He decides to go home and relax. Maybe he'll watch some TV or go online and talk to his other friends.

The next day, he drives his car up to her house and parks it. He goes to college but she is still in high school so they can't ride the bus together anymore. After what happened the previous day he decided that they needed to talk, and hopefully she would be a little willing to today. He doesn't expect her to be though.

Actually, he's not sure what to expect her to do. When she sees his car sitting outside he knows she'll either yell at him and tell him to go away, or she'll get into his car. More than likely she'll yell at him though.

The door opens up and he sees her bulky book bag sticking out. A couple seconds later, she backs out of the door and closes it. She turns around and starts heading down her driveway. He watches her as she walks right in front of his car and goes over to her bus stop.

Okay, this was another option he overlooked. He did not expect her to completely ignore him as though he's a ghost.

He thinks for a moment about what he should do and then decides to get out and try to talk to her.  He turns the ignition, shutting his car off, and opens the door. She is bobbing her head to the music blaring out of her head phones. He walks over and lightly pulls one out of her ear.

She looks down at her headphone with a weird look and takes it in her hand.

"Don't put it back in your ear," he says softly. "I want to talk to you."

She twirls it in her hand and a silent tear rolls down her cheek.

"What has you this upset? Why can't you tell me?"

She sniffs her nose and more tears roll down her cheeks. A gentle breeze blows her hair around. A piece falls over her eye and he tucks it behind her ear.

The bus comes and parks right in front of them.

"Are you going to get on there without saying a word to me?" As an answer, she boards the bus and the doors shut behind her as it pulls away.

He sighs and gets back into his car. When he starts it back up, he realizes that his car is almost out of gas. He drives over to the gas station and goes inside to prepay for it.

While walking over to the counter, he sees a stack of newspapers with big bold letters "Local Teen Killed In Car Accident". Out of curiosity, he walks over to it. Maybe he knows this person. Perhaps it was an old friend, or an old enemy. Perhaps this is why she is so upset.

He begins to read it, and ends up reading a perfect description of the car accident he had gotten into two days ago. His stomach falls as he realizes that the local teen that was killed was, in fact, him.