She stood over the slate building, watching the figures below move past like ghosts with missions. No one looked up to see her looming over head, no one saw her ready to do what she came here to do. Scarlet, with her tangled red hair and mismatching clothes; no one bothered to give her a second look. Except him, he was far different than the rest. He loved how colorful she was, how exciting and willing to go to the ends of the earth she was. “Victor,” she whispered into the wind, letting his name blow away into the town on the outskirts of the main city.

Just then, a door leading to the top of the building slammed open. Short blonde hair bouncing, Victor appeared at Scarlet’s back. “Please Scarlet, don’t do this to me; can’t you just forgive and forget?” he begged of her. It was only two weeks ago that she decided she couldn’t take it. She caught him kissing another girl, a girl that he hadn’t seen in over a year. It was obvious they still had feelings when they met up, all three of them, but he hid them from her. Victor lied when Scarlet confronted him on his position. So when she caught them in his apartment, she was livid.

Trying to withhold any harsh words, she tried to find beauty in the negative. Normally she was the most optimistic person around, never one to say a curse against someone else, never one to wish harm on anyone else. The clouds overhead threaten to cause a thunderstorm, one of Scarlet’s least favorite things in the world. Lightning didn’t strike twice, could she forgive this man? “I could forgive, but I don’t think I could live with knowing I wouldn’t forget.”

“Scarlet, you’re being irrational! It was a kiss between friends, I swear to you,” Victor frowned. He wanted her to believe him so very bad, so bad that it crushed his heart. Luci was the other girl in his life; years ago they too were the best of friends; they dated off and on and had their fair share of ups and downs. The thing was, Luci was moving away and Victor couldn’t stand to see her go. On her moving day she waited for him, told the cab to wait for her. He stood her up. The kiss was his way of making up for standing her up.

Scarlet decided she had heard enough from her ex-lover; she shuddered at the thought of those two sharing a kiss. Those lips that she cradled in her own, the lips that belong to the person most special to her, now no one in her life. “If that’s how it’s going to be, then I will wait for you at the bottom,” Victor mumbled as he turned away. Scarlet felt like letting go just at that moment, because she knew that he would catch her if she fell. In a way, he always did. Scarlet carefully removed her shoes and tossed them down the side of the building. It was odd how they fell at a normal speed; would she fall at the same rate?

Victor stood below the building, where he knew she’d land. He eyed her carefully as she stood atop the building, looking down. This was a test, he thought. “I have to tell others this was an accident; no one must think my baby is crazy.” Scarlet dangled off the edge, just her legs at least. She felt so out of her element, this was outrageous, especially for her. Behind herself she heard footsteps, but they surely weren’t Victor’s. Ignoring them altogether, Scarlet prepared herself.

Before she had any second thoughts, she was blatantly pushed. That was it. The sun shone through the overcast skies, the ground was illuminated for a brief second and then the light faded, occasionally coming back for short periods of time. Victor moved back and forth, trying to calculate where Scarlet would fall exactly. According to those calculations he would fall short if he didn’t move in time. As he looked up above to the slowly falling figure, he caught wind of a small brown haired girl. “Luci?”

Diving forward, Victor reached out for Scarlet, her unkempt hair falling but the rest of her body stopped. Her ruby red dress tore in his hands; the fabric was stretching from wear and tear. He loved this dress, and to think, she would’ve spilt herself all over it. She had succeeded; he had saved her, her knight in shining tin foil. Victor was running out of breath, the adrenaline was kicking in far too late. It was an amazing feeling to have her soft contrasting skin in his arms, for the red against her white looked out of place. He couldn’t help but look up again, to see that familiar face weeping down on top of them. Luci’s tears dissipated as soon as they fell from her cold cheeks; Victor had chosen the strange one over her.

The next day, Scarlet was released from the nearest local hospital. Victor claimed she fell when really he was hiding that she was pushed. He lied to the nurses and doctors, said she was too happy to do such a thing. They tried to convince him otherwise but he knew better. It was another case of a broken heart…

Victor left her side before she could wake up, all the hustle and bustle inside the hospital was making him nervous. The moment the sliding emergency room doors opened, Luci appeared. They stood, still inside the hospital, but feeling very awkward upon locking eyes. “Hello, Victor,” Luci appeared a tad stunned by this experience. Her guilty looks gave her away, Victor knew and she knew what she was hiding. She extended a hand to Victor, in hopes that he would forgive her for her wrong doings, the thing she was most ashamed of.

But he denied her. His right hand reached out to grab hers but instead it slapped hers down. Luci was crushed, absolutely wounded. Victor wanted to spit in her face, call her names that she wouldn’t like to hear, just somehow avenge the one he loved. To think that if hadn’t been there this might not have happened; instead, Scarlet might be lying in on a tray, waiting for her own autopsy. There was no doubt in his mind that Luci was a cold hearted woman, almost a murderer!

Scarlet emerged from her sheets, tossing her head around wildly. Where was Victor? He had carried her, sobbing all the way. She remembered that before she passed out from all the excitement that she told him not to worry, those were her exact words, “Don’t worry.” Leaping from the bed and stumbling down hallways, she caught sight of him, look furious at the woman she so desperately hated. “You have no place in my life anymore, Luci! You blew it sky high, if it wasn’t for you, my Scarlet might actually be happy,” Victor growled at a terrified, cowering Luci.

What exactly had happened? Scarlet remembered standing up high at the building and getting ready to step down from the jump but something, or someone propelled her off the building. She was going to submit to her heart and go for Victor but that Luci girl had changed the course of fate. Now she was standing in a hospital gown waiting to be released. Charging forward, first at a fast walk then to a sprint, Scarlet threw herself out the sliding doors, right through the arguing Victor and Luci.

Victor immediately knew what he had to do. “Don’t come near me again,” were his final words to his ex-lover. That was it, he was just about free. All he had to do was make amends with the one he actually cared about. “Scarlet!” he took after her down crowded streets, shouting her name at the top of his lungs. Scarlet didn’t bother to look back; she wanted him to prove to her that she was worth fighting for. There weren’t girls like her in every dozen, and she wanted to show him that.

“Scarlet!” Victor shouted again, as he felt people stop all around him. Speeding up, he caught up to Scarlet and grabbed her wrist as tight as he could. People stood with mouths agape, others kept moving around the two as Scarlet and Victor stood staring into each other’s eyes. “Please, Scarlet, don’t let me lose you.” He held her tight to his chest, his blonde hair dripping with anxiety and sweat.

“You won’t, don’t worry.”