ERASED

Chapter Six

“You want to be my friend?” I asked her again, still shocked at her kind offer,

“Yes!” She answers as a matter of factly, “we are neighbours, I can come play at your house and you can come play at mine. We can always walk together to school and back home if you want so you don’t ever have to feel alone,”

“You don’t know me, you don’t want to be friends with a deject like me. No one likes me, I’m dull, boring, a broken record and a monkey as most people have called me, what makes you think you would get a different experience from getting close to me?”

“I don’t believe all that you’ve just said. I think you’re repeating what people have said to you.”

“How old did you say you are again?”

“Six.” She said with pride, raising her hands up, a full fingers up on her right and just one finger raised on her left, I could see few missing incisor teeth,

“You think you can give perfect advice to a nine year old like me? I can’t be friends with a little girl like you, go and play with girls your age, play with your dolls,” I walked past her. I was in no position to reject anyone, a dork like me finally had a friend, no matter how young, but I felt like I didn’t deserve it, I thought I’d be a negative influence on her so I began to walk fast to keep distance from her.

“I don’t have any friends either. Kids says my mom does a disgusting job, that’s why my dad left. They call me a bastard, you know, a child without a father. That’s what their parents tell them of me and they’ve been warned to stay away from me so I don’t influence them negatively.” That’s why she was able to help me, she’s able to understand my pain, the pain of rejection and bullying, being called names that your not just because of situations and circumstances that you can’t change. I faced her, the smile disappeared from her face, her head was hanging low and the small had turned into a sad pout, I lifted her chin to make her look at me and could see that she was on the brink of bursting into tears. I pulled her into a tight hug,

“I’ll be your friend, Tiana.”

“Thank you for hugging me Liam, no one has ever hugged me before,”

“Your mom doesn’t?” She shook her head. “She’s always yelling at me to get away from her.” That made me hug her again. My life wasn’t going as I had planned, but here’s this little girl that’s only six but treated so poorly by her own family. That was the day that I vowed with everything inside of me to protect and care for Tiana. And so when she disappeared, I blamed myself. I didn’t what I had to, to protect her.

“Liam!” Katrina snapped. “Take my hand now!” She was still holding her hand out, again.

Take my hand.

“Lee-am! Take my hand,” she yelled from the top of the roof. “We can fall together if you’d like,” she giggled and that made me smile. As moments like that began to build up, I began to realize that I was falling for her, and the desire to protect her became even stronger even at such a young age.

“Lee-am! Take my hand let’s walk home together!” She always ensured my hand was laced with hers as we walked home from school.

“Lee-am! Take my hand and never let go!”

I looked down to find the hand of someone else trying to replace Tiana’s and I just couldn’t. I felt like I was cheating on her, like I was going back on my word. “No matter where you go Tiana, I’ll always wait for you until fate brings us together.”

I always promised her that’s but then she left, she left and I stayed, waiting for her to come back, to run into my arms and tell me how she would never ever leave me again.

I heard the laughter of someone coming from the door behind us, the door that led to the threshold of the church. The laughter came again, that same innocent laughter, that could cause the saddest of souls to light up with joy. I found myself hurrying out during the prayers to the door opening it forgetfully when I saw this lady, standing on the stairs, her eyes rolling to the back of her head and her body about to hit the ground. I immediately rushed to catch her before she fell.

She was slipping in and out of consciousness, her eyes would open and I’d see her honey brown eyes that looked so familiar and then they’d disappear to the back of her head once again,

“Miss, should I alert the church? Should I take you to the hospital?” I asked hoping for a response but she shook her head. Her pupils became visible again, and she held on to my hand so tight, in and out of consciousness as usual,

“Lee-am,” she said in a whisper.