Concrete Angel: The Story

[Based on the song by Martina McBride]

The first moment he'd seen her had been an odd one. It wasn't that anything was particularly different or unique about her. She was pretty and young and shy and everything else he'd seen in hundreds of girls before her. But the way his stomach fell and his heart stopped the second their eyes locked, he knew something was wrong.

It wasn't a moment of love and complete attraction. It was a moment of time when he'd looked into a stranger's eyes and seen so much more than the face showed. He knew he'd never be the same.

Was it possible to see years of hidden secrets in a matter of minutes; seconds, even?

He'd stopped breathing and he'd watched as she had, too. She'd known. He'd seen it all--everything she'd struggled to hide for sixteen years--and she'd known. Neither had moved, neither had breathed, neither had thought or spoken or laughed... just felt, and at the same moment had begun to cry.

~ * ~

Nick looked at her over the rim of his glasses, his arms crossed over his chest. Jamie hated when he got this way. It was as though he were trying to see into the very depths of her soul... the reason she hated it so much was because, most of the time, he could.

"Jamie, don't do that," Nick scolded her, his eyes set on her and his voice firm.

Jamie tried to appear confused by his behavior, but it didn't work. From the moment he'd met her, he'd known it all. It had scared them both... and it still did.

"You know what I'm talking about, James. Don't play dumb; it doesn't work with me. He did it again, didn't he?"

"Nicky, don't," Jamie whispered as she looked away and stopped walking.

"Don't what, Jamie?" Nick shouted and turned to face her, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and ignoring the pedestrians around them. She was the only person in the world that mattered to him at that moment. There were many moments like that. "Do you know how hard it is for me to sit back and watch you hurt? A home is a place where you're supposed to feel love... NOT pain. God, Jamie, he's going to kill you and all you ever tell me is there's not a damn thing that I can do about it!"

"Because there's not, Nick," Jamie looked up at him and for the first time he saw fire in her eyes. "There's nothing anybody can do."

"Yes, there is," Nick's voice grew exceedingly calmer and he walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "There is. You're just too afraid-"

"And wouldn't you be?"

Nick sighed and dropped his arms back to his sides. "Yes. Jamie, I just wish I could take you away from there. You deserve to be around people who would never, ever hurt you. I'd never hit you... ever."

"I know," Jamie looked up at him and couldn't help but smile. "But it's not right-"

"Don't, Jamie," his tone sounded oddly cold. "I hear it from every other damn person; not from you. Do you hear me? Not from you."

Jamie nodded and walked to the end of the pier, gazing out at the horizon. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, feeling the wind on her face. If only she could open her arms and fly away... gone... gone... She opened her eyes and looked back out at the water. "They're right, Nick."

Nick looked at her, startled. "What? No, they're not, Jamie. No, they're not. I've heard it all and none of it is right. 'It's inappropriate for me to be friends with a sixteen year old girl' and I need to 'be more careful not to touch or hug you, 'cause you could go to the police with sexual harassment accusations.' God, James, they've said it all and none of them know what the hell they're talking about. I've found in you a friendship far deeper than I've found in anybody else."

It was silent for a few minutes. The air was growing cool and both had shivered more than once, but neither planned on moving.

Jamie's voice was quiet, as it often was, "He'd kill me... if he knew about you."

"He'll kill you if you stay there."

"He can't, Nick."

Nick looked at her with frustration. Why didn't she want to save herself? "Yes, he can, James-"

"No, Nick," her voice was the firmest he'd ever heard it before, "he can't." And then she turned her face to look at him and whispered, "He already has."

And at that moment, as his heart tore and ached and cried for her, Nick felt just how true her statement was. And he knew that she wouldn't save herself, because there just wasn't anything left to save.

~ * ~

"Thank you," Jamie whispered, her eyes locked on Nick's,  as they stood at her car, the sun setting behind them.

Nick looked at her, surprised. "For what, Jamie?"

There was a slight hesitation in her voice as she spoke, "Giving me a reason to hang on a little longer."

The way she was speaking sounded so final and Nick didn't want to hear it.

"Hey, don't talk like that."

Jamie smiled lightly and reached up to touch his face with trembling fingertips. "You've been my best friend. I love you, Nicky, because you saw and knew things nobody else ever had."

Nick sighed and closed his eyes. "You're okay, little one," he wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on her forehead. "You're okay."

~ * ~

"I don't know what to tell ya, Nick. It all sounds pretty crappy, if you ask me, but there doesn't seem to be much you can do for her, man."

Nick pressed the phone to his ear a little tighter. He knew he shouldn't have told his little brother all that he had, but boy, if the kid didn't have a wonderful ear for listening to all of Nick's issues.

"I know, Aar, I know." Nick sighed. "You think, maybe-" he stopped talking as his ear listened intently to the radio playing softly in the room.

Nick felt his heart skip a few beats and he fought to catch his breath as images overtook his mind. Fists, tears, blood, bruises, and a grave site with an unreadable name etched into its stone. And he knew. Much like he had the day he'd first seen her. He knew... and he wished he didn't.

"I gotta go, Aaron," Nick hung up without waiting for his brother to reply.

Jamie had once told him that if she suddenly stopped calling or coming by, it was because of her father--that he'd finally done it. That same day, she'd given him the cross necklace that she wore around her neck, and asked him to wear it until the day she died. Whether she was old or young when the day came didn't matter to her. Regardless of the circumstances, she wanted him to take the necklace and drop it into the water at their favorite pier.

Nick clutched the necklace hanging from his neck in his fist as he stood outside her house, watching as police milled around her yard and inside of her house. He turned his head when her body was wheeled out, covered with a white sheet.

Nick made his way to the pier, tears silently falling down his face. He could see her everywhere. As he walked on shaking legs, he could see her standing at the end of the pier with her head tilted back and her eyes closed, much like she'd stood a million times.

Nick looked at the water and the sky and tilted his head back to feel the wind across his face. He couldn't believe his best friend was gone. Pulling the cross out from beneath his sweatshirt, he placed it against his lips before yanking on it and breaking the chain. He held his breath as he threw it into the water.

With a deep sigh and tears falling freely down his face, Nick looked up to the sky again. "You can fly now, Jamie," he whispered, sobs overtaking his body. "I love you, little one... enjoy your wings."