How I Saved the Life of a Girl from My High School
I was walking down the long, narrow hall when I saw a girl looking lonely and alienating herself from everybody else. I didn’t understand why she alienated herself; she seemed nice and was pretty. She had brown hair, eyes as green as emeralds, and carried herself around as if she was a princess. But then again, that’s the only time I seen her. It wasn’t a 5 minute stare down either; I was walking to my next class and just happened to look her way. I didn’t have any emotional interest in her, but I did wonder who she was.
So instantly, I asked around school to find out what her name is to begin with. So I began to ask questions and, being shy little ole me, I had to add her on social networks before I were to even confront her in real life. Before I even found out her name, people told me about how much of a “slut” or “whore” she is. I’m not going to say I don’t base people off of what their reputation is, because everybody has before. But I’m not the one to do it to everybody I hear of, because if I were to, many of my friends would be much worse people than I know they are. I used to all the time. Right off the bat, my mindset towards her was bad.
I then found out her name, and added her on Facebook. I didn’t even message her until about two weeks after sending the friend request. But I had seen constant statuses about her being lonely and sad, but she always looked so happy. It’s like she didn’t have friends either, she had many, and she just didn’t associate with them as much as she should’ve. One weekend, I had seen many statuses talking about how she needs someone to be there and many other things. Being the nice guy that I am, I messaged her.
I said, “Are you okay, you’re statuses are making me sad?”
She didn’t reply instantly, but she then replied, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
With that reply, I was instantly mad. I don’t mean to go off on a tangent, but don’t make statuses about wanting somebody to be there for you if you don’t want to talk about it. So I kind of ignored her for a while, until I seen her in school. She was in the hallway crying and I was already late to class so I stopped by and talked to her. As I slowed down to ask her a question she cleared her eyes as makeup was running down her face. I can tell she didn’t want to be seen but I didn’t care, so I asked “what’s wrong?”
She sniffled her nose and then replied, “nothing, I just don’t feel good”
I know she wanted me to leave her alone so she can cry in peace, But I did not feel as if that was the right thing to do, so I stayed nearby and kept talking to her. I know how girls lie to cover up their emotions, so after I handed her a tissue to stop sniffling, I told her “it’s okay, you don’t have to lie, and I know you’re sad. Just talk to me.”
She thanked me for the tissue and repeated the same response, “No, really, I’m fine.”
After that, I felt as I was in the cliché teenage girl movie. So I gave her a hug, said “if you need anybody to be there for you when nobody else is, just hit me up.” I then went on to my next class.
I went on throughout the day, and I truly felt like a good person. I don’t know why, it wasn’t the first time I’ve ever helped a girl, I just feel like I made an impact on someone’s life. I went home still feeling good, ate everything in my cabinet as every teen does after a long day of school, and opened my Facebook. First thing I seen was a message from the girl. I opened the message and it said “hey, I know I was being stubborn earlier and I seemed careless to what you did but I really did appreciate it and nobody has ever done that for me.”
I felt even more heartfelt about what I did and replied, “no problem, I’ll be here anytime you need me”
We had small talk and I felt like this was going to be the start of a long relationship. Not an intimate relationship, but I felt as if I could help her with all of her troubles and be a good friend. The next day at school, everybody somehow found out about how I helped her and I expected good judgment of me. I mean, I did something good, but everybody was talking bad. I was confused until one of my female classmates said “why are you trying to help that slut, she cheated on her boyfriend, she deserves to cry.”
I felt as if that was one of the most harsh, narrow-minded things I’ve heard. I assumed the cheating part was true but I did not think she was a slut and nobody deserves to cry. I thought this girl just hated her, so I ignored her. But I continued to hear harsh comments about her being trashy and hearing jokes. I slowly started leaning towards the people that said the harsh comments, but then came to common sense. I decided to ignore all of them, and associate with her even more. I felt as if she deserved it having a friend to be there for her, everybody deserves that, but not many people have one. So I had seen her lonely yet again, same place, just a different time. This time I knew what to do and I acted quickly.
It was awkward at first, but I slowly walked up to her and started talking to her. There were many awkward silences until I broke the ice by saying random things. She looked happy, but deep down looked insecure and confused. I grabbed a chair and sat down right next to her. I then asked “is this awkward for you?”
She cleared her throat and said, “yeah, not because you’re making it awkward, but because I’ve never really had anybody care for me or how I feel”
There was then an intense silence and I was frozen under the pressure, I had no idea how to reply. So as I stuttered, I replied, “y-yeah, th-that’s what I’m here for.”
So we smiled and laughed together for a while, and she seemed happier than I’ve ever seen her. She was finally oblivious to what everybody was saying about her and didn’t care about anything else. I don’t think she liked me, and the feeling was mutual but we had a special relationship. We were each other’s support groups, and we were both there when nobody else was. We didn’t really relate to each other but I see a side of her nobody else took the time to see. We never really hung out outside of school but we still were there for each other. She was the strongest girl. She was still getting bullied daily but looked past it and found happiness in the smallest things.
All was fine until she decided she couldn’t take it anymore. She was pushed over her limit from the bullying. She hated herself, and everybody around her made her hate herself. She texted me telling me she took 16 pills.
Nervously, I instantly called her and yelled, “Where are you?! Get help from somebody!”
She bluntly said, “I don’t want help.” and hung up I was freaking out; I had no idea what to do. I contacted everybody that knew who she was and I was trembling of fear it’d be too late. What made it even worse is the act that her phone died. It took me about 15 minutes to message every single one of her friends on Facebook. I soon found out her mom’s number and I called it about 6 times before she answered. I wasn’t trying to freak her mom out so I said it as quickly and calmly as possible.
I immediately said, “your daughter is harming herself, rush her to the hospital”
She angrily said, “this isn’t a fucking joke, you are sick if you kid around like this”
I was intimidated, but I had to get past that and convince her I wasn’t kidding. So I convinced her I wasn’t kidding and she was scared out of her mind. Before she hung up the phone, I heard the words “GET IN THE CAR.”
I wasn’t as worried as I was at first, but I was still shaking. I know she’d be mad at me for a while, but I’m sure she’d appreciate the fact that I saved her life and all. That is, if they got to the hospital on time, it was about 11:00 when they left and I stayed up until 6:00 just waiting for a call from her parents. They told me they’d notify me when they find out her status. I stayed up all night, patiently staring at my phone. Constantly wondering what could be happening, and I was waiting, and waiting, for my phone to ring or anything. I couldn’t watch TV or do anything else because I didn’t want to miss a call. So after staying up for about 13 hours, her mom called me. She was sobbing as she said “I want to thank you so much for saving my daughter’s life, I don’t want to think about what would happen if you weren’t to have called, would you like anything in return?”
I happily exclaimed “No thank you, but I can’t accept anything you offer to give me, it was the right thing to do”
We were both joyous and talked and talked. Usually, it’d be awkward to talk to girls’ moms, but at that moment, I was happy to talk to her mom. So as soon as she was out of the hospital her mom came with her to visit me. They were both crying and ran up to me to hug me and I was happy just to see them. I promised to never tell anybody of the story which is why I’m not using her name, but this has taught me a great lesson. I used to judge everybody by their reputation, but now I do not.
I used to label people, now I do not. We are still friends to this day but we do not talk as much because she moved. If I were to be sad, or just need someone to talk to when I feel alone, I know who to go to. Now I do not look at people with labels. I do not look at the fattest person on campus and think “wow, what a slob.” Before I get to judge them, I get to know them first. So I can have my personal opinion rather than what everybody thinks. You never know, the person that everybody hates might end up being the coolest person to ever live. Don’t judge somebody by everybody else’s opinion, get to know them first, you may find a hidden truth.
