Troubled

THIRTY EIGHT

KYLE GARCIA

I had never explained myself to someone before, but to get something, you have to give something else in return. If I wanted to know about her, I needed to give a bit of myself in return. But hearing her say it was okay to be selfish, for reasons best known to me. Ray had said I was being unnecessarily reckless, selfish, whatnot. Dawson said I did leave it in the coolest way possible, because reporters crowded him and he had a few minutes of Fame.

But all of them, none of them understood the way she did. She said it was okay to be selfish, they only wanted me for the monetary gains, and it was up to me to bounce whenever I saw fit. I wish I knew that all those months ago, I wish I met her then, that was when I consumed the highest number of cigarettes to be honest.

When she showed me her mismatched eyes, I was only ever more smitten by her. Her beauty had me smitten already, and now her eyes.

I have learned to look into her eyes to see her emotions, so I look into her eyes. They were nervous, it was clear she had never let anyone see them before.

"Cora..they are beautiful." I whisper because it's true. The two colors shone so vibrantly that it was hard to concentrate on one color, you have to look at both of them, they demanded attention.

Her eyes look at me in shock.

I smile at her gently, to show I was serious.

"They literally took my breath away, they are mesmerizing, I can see why you want to keep them to yourself."

Her eyes smile at me gratefully.

"And for some reason I thought you couldn't get even more beautiful."

She averted her eyes down in what I assume was shame. I guess no one had the confidence to walk up to her and tell her just how beautiful she was, and I said it for the first time ever, she must feel shy.

Her fingers move to put the lens back in her eye, I stop her before she does.

"Leave it, it's just the two of us here, let me see them some more." I plead.

She looked at me for a minute before getting them to drop it in the solution.

"Okay. Sure." She says quickly as she walked back to her chair.

I was disappointed. I really did want to see her eyes again. But I couldn't understand why she visited Miss Suzie for her eyes, I knew it was extremely rare for people to get mismatched eyes, I never thought I would see one in front of me, much less on the most beautiful girl on the planet. The green was so vibrant that I wondered how it didn't shine past the blue of the lens.

"It's my turn to ask." She announced.

I smile, she didn't like when the air hung with questions about her, It wasn't her comfort zone. I guess that was why she hid them from view.

"Why did you invite yourself over to Xander's house?"

I chuckle, she was going for the lighter stuff, something we can easily talk about.

"Because of you."

She paused her drawing for a second. I hadn't realized my eyes were glued to her hand, I liked the way it gripped the pencil, the fluid way in which it glided on the paper.

"Me?"

"I already told you, you intrigue me. You interest me, I want to know more about you than the gossip mills in school can offer."

"Was that why you came today?" She had resumed stroking the pencil on the paper.

"No, I was genuinely worried about you."

More strokes.

"So you would have done the same for anyone?"

I frown.

"No, I would only do it for you."

She paused her drawing.

"Why me?"

"I guess because you interest me."

She was going to say something before the opening of the front door distracted us.

"Are you expecting someone?"

"It's just my mother."

The way she says it tells me there's more to their relationship than using her brother to get her to visit Miss Suzie. But I wasn't going to ask that. At least not today.

"You asked a series of questions, I let you. It's my turn now." I say in a bid to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, but some other time, it's late, you have to leave."

The tone of her voice tells me my departure has nothing to do with time and everything to do with the woman that was rummaging through the kitchen. She didn't want me to see any interaction between them.

That was fine by me, we had entered into each other's personal life enough today. There was still time, we could do more.

"Okay, but first, I would like to see how far you have gone with that. To be honest I'm itching to know what you want to show." I tell her honestly. With her, honesty came pretty easily.

She shuffled with the papers, I resist the urge to go over and check. With her, I needed to learn patience, patience to wait for her to come to me herself. Rushing her had proved to be stupid.

"Here." She gave me the sheet of paper.

Patience did pay.

I collect it from her gingerly, holding my breath because what I was going to see could haunt my dreams for days unend.

Immediately my eyes land on it, I release the breath I was holding. Someone was holding a whip, above someone else. A gadh similar to the ones I cleaned earlier lay beneath. It was fresh because I could see the blood albeit black from the pencil seeping out.

No. No. No. Did this happen to her? I felt anger rush into my veins. I was enraged.

"Who did this to you?" My voice was low and rasp.

Her eyes showed me pain.

"That's not what we are discussing. Does it show emotions or not?"

"Cora, answer me, who did this to you?"

"Kyle, don't do this, just answer me."

I hear her mom's footsteps climb up the stairs. Her eyes showed me panic, fear. Mine widen in response.

"Cora, did your mother do this?"

She looked away, telling me all I needed to know.

"Cora?" Her mother called out.

I start towards the door, so her parents did abuse her, what kind of sick parents do that?

"Kyle no." She rushed at me. Stopping me just before I reach the door. Her mother was coming closer. Good.

"Are you with someone in there?" Her mother sounded so detached.

I make to open the door before Cora caught me again, and did the unexpected.