A Girl From the Past

To think that life was easy, it was so wrong. Savannah realized how naive she was as a little girl, always been spoiled by her parents and relatives. As she grew older, she began to feel more understanding.

The more she aged, the more weight of responsibilities being put on both her shoulders. Imagining about it was a lot easier than actually experiencing it.

She began to understand.

Even her now cold feet was nothing compared to the things await her in the future. It was only the beginning of her tales. People say that real-life begins right after someone graduated high school. They were not so wrong after all.

The magnificent castle she built in her head, consists of the things she wanted to achieve suddenly just vanished in a matter of seconds. It went downhill starting right after she turned eighteen.

Hardships in life didn't make her falter anymore. She was so used to take care of things carefully. Mistake after mistake made her learn little by little.

She had learned to calculate everything she had done carefully. But, humans are still humans after all. She sometimes still got things wrong.

Like now, she certainly didn't consider that today would rain, or did she? Maybe, she was too caught up preparing for everything that she forgot to bring the umbrella.

Pedestrians around her were hurriedly looking for shelters as soon as the rain started pouring down. Some taking out an umbrella, and the small part of those people chose to challenge the cruel little drops.

She was one of those small parts. Though, she began regretting it. Had she waited a little longer, surely this wouldn't have happened.

The rain started pouring down with no mercy as soon as she exited the front gate of a company she had applied to. Going back inside wasn't a choice at the moment. She would just add a little work to the cleaning service there due to her wet attire.

Looked like a wet dog in the middle of some neat, sophisticated company employees didn't exactly sound pleasant at all.

In her opinion, her house was quite near. But, it felt like hours. Rain and cold started to chill her bones, almost feeling like it was freezing up her entire body. She felt numb and a bit dizzy, nevertheless she continued to walk. A few more minutes and she would be cocooned in the warmth she yearned.

A sudden huge splash of water caused by a car hitting the pooling rain made her jump in surprise. The coldness creeping in her body made her temporarily stood still. She gritted her teeth at the shiny looking black car that passed by, then shaking her head.

She continued to walk, however, after some time, she began sneezing, but still adamant about moving her seemingly reluctant legs. She wiped her wet nose, pinched it quite hard to hold the sneezes, although she failed to do so. Savannah was sure she would be hella sick in the morning.

She didn't even see it as her body hit something in front of her, making her stumbled and fall. The body sprawled pathetically on the floor as she still held into her little purse. She snorted and continued lying on the pavement.

Now, she didn't really care anymore if she would be a frozen statue. She chuckled lightly in her poor state. Seemingly she didn't even have the strength to stand up, or even walking to her home. She felt like a dolphin being outside the water right now.

No doubt, she looked crazy to anyone if they ever saw her in this position. But who cares, she had accepted it a long time ago the fact that she was probably insane.

Savannah slowly closed her eyes. She just wanted to sleep as she didn't get much sleep last night. Getting out of the house while she was sick didn't help either. Her body wasn't so fragile, maybe it just reached the breaking point in which she should get some rest.

In her closed-eyes state, she was sure she hit a tree that the little drops were blocked by leaves above. That explained the lack of water attacking her face.

Savannah just smiled bitterly. She enjoyed the rain, but she was also tired. A little sleep wouldn't hurt, right?

Just then, suddenly...

Slap!

Savannah's eyes gasped open only to meet the eyes of a curious child. A little boy holding an umbrella.

In her blurry eyesight, she could almost saw a quite tall man behind the little kid, scolding his behavior. Great! Savannah thought sarcastically. A slap to be added to the list of an already bad day.

She faintly heard the tall man asked if she was alright. She numbly nodded before closing her eyes again.

Savannah felt her body being lifted to the air. A moment later, she was placed in a leathered area, seemingly the seat of a car.

A realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Her eyes snapped open as they widened.

"W-what?" She uttered through chattering teeth. Her hands rubbing her eyes.

The man's gaze turned towards her and in a matter of seconds, she felt two chubby hands holding her cheeks.

"Oh, she is awake!" The voice said excitedly. She heard some scoldings before the hands in her cheeks were gone. Warm tea was shoved into her lap.

"Are you alright, Miss?" The man asked her carefully. His dark eyes scrutinizing her entire figure.

"W-where a-am I?" She shakily asked, looking around.

"I found you almost unconscious in the middle of the street." He told her. And that did sound so embarrassing. She looked away to hide her embarrassed face.

"O-oh." Came her short reply. She inhaled the warm air before the figure of a smiling, the excited little boy entered her sight.

"If you don't mind, may I ask where do you live? I suppose you are not in a condition to walk on your own, much less under the rain." He asked while explaining his cause. That made her realized just how formal he sounded. To add to that, he was also wearing a black suit that screaming how wealthy-looking he was.

Right at the moment, Savannah decided that maybe it was safe to give away her address to a stranger. She understood she wasn't in a condition to walk, or even fight a robber. If anything were to happen, she would just kick him where the sun doesn't shine. Yeah, that would definitely work.

Savannah slowly sipped on her given warm drink after she thanked the man. He just gave her a small formal nod, then went back focusing on the road.

From where she gave up walking to her house, she admitted that her house was rather near. Only three to four hundred meters and she would be arriving at home. That was why they only need a few minutes to arrive at her front door.

She forced a smile to her numb face and opened the car's door before an umbrella was shoved into her hands. Savannah frowned and argued that she didn't know how to return it back.

Her house had a quite large lawn, but she didn't mind getting in the rain again as her body had regained some energy back.

"You can take it, or if you insist to return it back to me, I would give you my phone number." Savannah just nodded, sure the man was so persistent to get things his way. Nevertheless, she was so thankful that he was such a gentleman. He began scribbling down his number in a small paper, then handed it to her, which she accepted with a thankful smile.

She thanked the man once again and was about to walk before a voice made her stop in place. The little boy's excited voice from the backseat. "Pretty Lady! You forget to pay for taxi money."

Savannah's mind went blank for a moment.

This man was a taxi driver who took advantage of unconscious people lying in the rain? Savannah scrunched her face. That just sounded wrong! Maybe helping people was more of the right terms.

She knew she should be grateful for that, or she could've been dead somewhere, but also couldn't deny the annoyance gnawing at her feeling. She took a glance at the car's top and true, there was a taxi sign being put there.

She sighed and rummaged her purse for some money before handed it to the little boy.

"What are you doing?" A voice made her jump in surprise.

The man frowned and gave the little boy a disapproving look. He began apologizing for his behavior, sending Savannah a sorry look. He explained that they were no taxi driver and that the little boy was only kidding.

The little prankster smiled cheekily the whole time while giggling. When Savannah finally looked at him, he held up a peace sign and gave her a cute smile. The sight of the five-year-old boy with blonde curls smiling at her was truly adorable.

Savannah just sighed and gave him a genuine smile back. She somehow wanted to pat the boy's head but refrained from doing so as she was very cold and wet. She didn't want him to feel the coldness.

Savannah's gaze finally was back to the older man, now noticing how attractive he actually looked. His prominent jaw and chiseled face compliment his seemingly strict figure. Dark intimidating eyes and soft blonde hair looked quite an odd combination, but it still didn't manage to hinder how a perfect being he was.

Then, Savannah realized something. She smiled, "I am very thankful that you kindly had helped me, Sir. I hope that I can repay your kindness one day. If you don't mind, may I know your name?"

His face didn't give away much emotion. That made Savannah thought that maybe he didn't want to tell his name. Savannah just sighed mentally and was about to excuse herself when he finally uttered the name that sent her in a frozen state once again.

"Lucas Hernandez," he said as his dark eyes completely focused on her.