18

MICHAEL

"MIKEY!"

I whip my head around to find all two-hundred-ten pounds of Cam up a wall he's not supposed to be on, fingers slipping halfway up.

I smirk.

"MIKEY I SWEAR TO—"

"Left foot down and to the right!" I shout, my voice bellowing across the expanse of Skyfall. Cam shakily obeys, moving down. At least he can get a better grip—on his life, and on the wall.

I turn back around, confident my friend won't break his face on the ground.

Bending down to a knee, I meet little Sadie eye to eye, her blue ones wide and apprehensive.

"This rope," I begin, showing her the kids harness in my grasp, "will never let you fall."

She intakes a shaky breath. "But what if I slip?"

"It will catch you."

Sadie nods, but swallows a little too roughly.

Her mother, blonde like her, coos behind her. "Sades, baby, if you don't want to do it that's—"

"I want to," says Sadie, more determination in her voice. Her pale brows are pinched together as she flexes her hands in front of her.

I grin, already proud of yet another student, braver than I ever was.

"I'm ready," she tells me, meeting my eyes.

"Well let's do it then," I conclude. The three of us walk towards B-Yellow, the beginners wall. Then there's a scream, a thud, and a groan. We spin to see my idiotic best friend, Cameron Sun, a pancake on the thick blue mat at the base of the wall he was on.

Sadie's mother gasps, grabbing her daughter. "Why are there no safety measures here?!"

I clear my throat. "I can assure you we—"

"Is that young man okay?!"

"Yes. He falls all the time."

Her eyes bug. "You let your students fall all the time?!"

Shit. I'm going to get fired.

"ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!" yells Sadie's mom.

I nod. "Yes ma'am, I apologize. I'm listening."

She steps back, a brow raised. "Ma'am?"

Double shit.

Sadie breaks free from her mother's arms. "Mom! Stop! I just want to go climbing like dad! You never let me have any fun like he does!" Her eyes redden. "I hate you!" Then she's running out the front door.

I look to the mother. "Are you going to...?" She's frozen, eyes dead. I decide to run after this kid in distress that I met only five minutes ago. I run because I know that look. It's dark. Guilty.

Sure, it's not in my job description, but hell, why not?

SADIE WASN'T FAR, JUST sitting on the large patch of grass outside Skyfall. I've been chatting with her for almost half an hour while her mother watches from her car, choosing distance.

"Then he kissed me!" exclaims Sadie. "Right in front of the bus driver!"

"Oh," I say, nodding. "Bold move from Nolan."

The seven-year-old blows out a breath. "You're telling me."

"What'd you do then?" I ask, picking at the grass under us, knees up.

"I pushed him onto the sidewalk, obviously."

My lips twitch. "Obviously."

Sadie doesn't say anything for a while after that. We sit under the sun, a mother's eyes keen on us from the parking lot, and just enjoy the breeze. It's definitely the easiest lesson I've taught at Skyfall.

My mind ventures through dark alleyways and crypts, and I pull it back like a thick, fraying rope. Over and over until I can't do it anymore and open my mouth again for a distraction.

"So," I say, clearing my throat. "You hate your mom?" I wince. I probably could have led with something less...direct.

Sadie sniffles. "No," she whispers, lips wobbling.

Triple shit.

I look around, meeting her mother's eyes more than once. 

"I say things I don't mean all the time," I tell Sadie. She looks up, big blue eyes red again. 

"You do? Like when?"

"Sometimes to my friends. Sometimes to my...dad." 'Dad' isn't the right word, but it's the closest one that will make sense to her. "Sometimes the best thing we can do is say sorry. Are you sorry?" She looks to the grass. She nods. 

"I made a big mistake," she whimpers. "I keep making mistakes."

"I do that, too," I say, hoping her tears disappear soon. "Once, I accidentally put sugar all over my dinner instead of salt."

Her lungs bubble a laugh and she looks up with enthralled eyes. "Really?! Was is yummy?!"

"It was like eating dessert before dinner."

"I love dessert! My favourite is peanut butter chocolate cookies. Me and daddy bake all the time when I go to his house. Do you bake?"

I shake my head. "I'm a bad baker."

"Oh. Hey, what happened to your face?" Her small hand reaches up to my mouth and points to the gnarly scar running under my nose to my lip.

Fighting the urge to cover it, I bite my lip. "When I was born, my...mouth was...broken. Kind of. It's called a cleft palate."

Her eyes bulge. "So you had surgery?! I had surgery too! My tonsils!"

I can't help but laugh a bit. "Yeah, they fixed me. But now I have a scar."

"I don't have a scar." She yanks her jaw apart to show me the roof of her mouth. "See?" she mumbles. "No scar!" Then she points to her pale knee where a small line catches my eyes. "But I fell once. This is the only scar I have."

"Sades, time to go."

I scramble to my feet fast enough to spin the world for a moment. "Sorry," I say quickly. "We were just talking about cookies."

Her mother glowers up at me, then reaches down for her daughter. Sadie looks up and sets her shoulders with a shuddering breath. 

"Mom, I'm sorry."

Her mother takes her hands. "For what, baby?"

"I don't hate you," says Sadie. Then they hug like the world is ending, which maybe it was by the look in that mother's eyes.

I turn around and walk away, feeling better about this lesson then I usually do. Under my pride is grief, fresh every day that passes. I miss my mom just as much today as I did when I lost her. When she lost herself.

I walk back into Skyfall, pulling at the tight collar of the long-sleeved running shirt I threw on this morning. Everything feels wrong and my heart isn't beating right.

Then, someone in all-black catches my eye at the front desk.

Black baggy shorts and a tight black shirt to her wrists. Long, flowing hair the colour of fresh pennies, or maybe fancy wood. Something brown and red, and very bright.

Something is so familiar about that hair.

I wait for her to turn around, and when she does, she has a pass in her hand and a determined look in her eyes.

Her eyes, two very different colours.

Ember.

I shuffle towards her, shocked to see the same random person so many times in a row, but then she turns to the Black wall, shoves the pass in her shirt, and starts climbing.

Without a harness.

A/N

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-Laurel