Free Write

Prompt; The most beautiful smile I ever saw.

I pull the coat closer to me as the cool breeze of London kissed my skin when I stepped out of the warm embrace of the apartment. It couldn't be any later than 8 am as the sun slowly began to rise up behind the building casting shadows upon my face. Not many people were out this early but those who were walk quietly their separate ways going on with their day. The sweet smell of freshly made pastries fill my nose as I walk past one of the local bakeries. Making a quick decision to continue on the sidewalk that takes me to the cafe as I was in desperate need for some coffee. The bridge near the school courtyard comes into view and I was only yards away from it when I notice a boy standing close to the edge of the tall bridge. This messy brown haired boy seemed oddly familiar. It then hits me that this boy was the same boy who I grew up living next to, the same boy who was so many of my classes yet I never got the chance to learn the name of. The same boy who I heard yell in pain at night and leave the house in the morning with old and new bruises he so desperately tried to cover. The same boy who use to laugh with his friends a couple seats in front on my ride to school. He always turned his head away before I could catch a glimpses of the smile. Who's laugh turned more into a bitter whisper that seemed to be forced as the years went by like season.Almost as if summer turned into a dark winter but never seemed to ever reach spring. In till it was as dull as the spark in his eyes. Instead of looking at his friends he would look off in the distance as if he wasn't even there. The boy who no matter how many bruise covered his body I still thought he was beautiful. The cold breeze knocks me out of my thoughts as I noticed that he was standing on the other side of the railing on the bridge his hands still gripping the bar. His eyes staring intensely at the water that flowed so far under him. His eyebrows were knitted together as if he was trying to make his mind up. The thought hit me so hard that I thought I was going to fall. He was going to jump.If only my body reacted faster. My body jolted as I sprinted at him yelling that sounded more as a plead, "No!"I wondered if the breezing wind drowned out the sound of my broken voice. But he seemed to hear me as he turned his head. His dull brown eyes that use to sparkle with joy met mine. And I swear that second felt like a thousand years and I wish it was so then I would have more time. But the world seemed to slow down as if everything was now moving in slow motion. I was less then a yard away when his cut chapped lips whispered out loud enough for my ears to hear in a voice that was almost as if he was pleading out, "I'm sorry." He let go of the bar and pushed back falling backwards. I reach my hand out and I felt this knitted sweater  brush against my hand, he was a inch away from my grip. A inch to big. A inch to late. A inch that separated life from death in a second. Half my body was hanging over the edge while tears were flowing from my eyes.  I continue making eye contact with him as he falls closer and closer to the frozen water when.. When for the first time in my life, out of all the years i could stop the beating that haunted him daily. I saw his lips twitch up into a small smile. A smile that has been broken from the sadness  and the abandonment of happiness that the universe provided him with that made his smile so broken. But a smile none the less and no matter how broken his smile may seem. I swear its the most beautiful smile I have ever seen before. The smile doesn't break when his body hits the cold water before disappearing.