This Is What I'm Good At {Adopted By @CommanderALFA}

Let Me Go

I saw her sitting hunched over at the bar counter, tracing the design patterns with her fingers. I walked over to her and sat on the barstool next to her. A pretty bold move in my case, actually. Neither of us uttered a word and just stared at the counter for the longest time. Then she spoke. "So... you work here...?" she asked. I looked up at her, but she still hadn't lifted her head. I nodded. "Yeah... Not the best job out there, being an eighteen-year old already working at a bar, of all places. But it does pay well. Plus, Gobber's like a father-figure to me." I told her. I heard her hum in response.

I mustered up the courage to spark a conversation with her. "So..." I started with the same thing she had. "How long have you been coming here? To The Forge?" I asked. She shrugged. "A month, I guess? I don't really remember how long it's been since I started to show up here." I nodded. "Why, though?" I questioned further. She sighed and shook her head lightly. I was about to tell her to forget I asked, before she spoke. "I'd been having some family problems lately. Usually, I just come here to try and forget about them without my parents finding out. Although, sometimes... it doesn't help me at all..."

'Why was she telling me all this...? And how... Why is she actually comfortable with telling me this?'

"I bet you're wondering why I'm actually comfortable with telling you this, aren't you?" she asked me. I stared at her, surprised that she knew what I was thinking. "Hmph... Guess you thought I was such a perfect girl, huh...? That I had the best life in the world, and had everything I wanted. But the truth is, that... I'm not perfect. My family's broken, and been that way, ever since my brother died three years ago."

Ah... I remember her brother. Jason Hofferson. He was a great person. Three years older than the two of us. Most of the time, if he saw me getting picked on in the school corridor, he'd come up to me and get the bullies off my back. Now that he was gone, well... no one was there to come to my rescue anymore.

Damn... It's as if he died just recently... I was there to witness his death.
______________________________________________

Flashback; three years earlier

I was cornered by Snotlout and his goons again. Great... Damn it all... "What's the matter, Useless?" he taunted me. "Scared? Need that guy Jason to come in and save you again?" He just laughed at me mockingly. "Bad news for you... He ain't coming to save you this time."

I was just sitting on the swing in the town's park, when Snotlout came up with his two jock friends. They saw me sitting there and started to tease and mock me, eventually backing me into the wall.

"What's the matter, huh? Huh!?"

"Leave me alone, Stan!" I yelled at him. His face turned red and scrunched up in anger as he grabbed my shoulder and shoved me downwards. "Never call me that! You runt!" He told his goons to pick me up and hold me still. "Never call me that name, you got that!? You got that, runt? Useless? Hiccup!?"

Across the street was Jason. I saw him walking, and he looked my way, right when I didn't want him to.

"Henry!?" he called. He turned and prepared to run across the street to my aid again, if necessary. "Let go of him and leave, Snotlout!" he yelled. "Just try and make me, Hofferson! You know what'll get me to stop? Let me date your sister! Or else nothing good will happen right now!"

I could see his face turning red even from across the street. "No! Get away from him, Jorgenson!" He didn't check the road before he ran across.

Meaning to say... he didn't see the incoming bus until the horn blew at the last second.

But it wasn't fast enough. It didn't stop in time.