• She’d always been the odd girl out..
    “You can’t do anything good, can you? You idiotic girl!”
    She got beaten, scold at and humiliated. And worst of all, I just stood there.. Watching how her head got held down to the ground by a dirty sneaker.
    Children are the worst when it comes to telling the truth.
    They’ll never lie.
    But she never stood up, never spoke a single word to the bullies who’d throw her in the mud on a daily base. Who’d shove her up to the wall to hit her in the face over and over.
    My eyes widened, seeing her not fighting back at all. And I was too scared to run up to the scene and break it.
    She had a sweet voice, the one day I heard her talk for the first time. I’d taken her after she was beat, feeling the grudge to myself that I’d never helped her before.
    “Are you ready yet?”
    “…No.”

    ---


    It was like elementary school had never ended.
    “You can’t do nothing! Go die, devil child!”
    There she stood again, surrounded by hunched bodies. Hands clenched in fists, smirks on their faces.
    Her face looked like the bruises would never go away again, her lips covered in blood as she sat there. Slumped on the ground. She was never hard to find, she had something that made her stand out from the others.
    “And now, you ready?”
    “… Not yet..”
    Her eyes met mine, my breathing stopped for a moment. Empty… Her eyes radiated loneliness. It scared me, and I staggered away, leaving her there on the ground.
    Bruised and hurt.

    ---


    High school had to be the place you’d remember for the rest of your life and long for to get back.
    “You dirty slut, why aren’t you dead yet?!”
    Harsh words were thrown at her every day, like daggers. They hit me, but didn’t seem to hit her at all. She stood there, her books pressed to her chest as insult after insult was thrown at her.
    Was it ever going to end?
    I followed her after school, following her one meter behind to be sure not to get noticed. But in the end, she did.
    She looked at me with her empty eyes, the wind blowing through her long brown hair as she just stood there, in the center of the bridge.
    “Are you ready yet?”
    “.. Just a moment..”
    Her voice died, she pulled herself onto the edge of the bridge, the water dangerously flowing beneath her. She held on tightly to the bars on the sight, but I saw her grip loosening more and more while I waited. But..
    Her fingers slipped from the iron bars, one by one, until her pinky was the only one that held her in place.
    “NO!”
    In automatic reflex I held onto her legs, she looked at me with questioning eyes.
    “Don’t end it like this! Fight back!”
    Her eyes widened as she heard my words, her lips trembled as well as her whole body. I tilted her off the edge and held her in my arms, embracing her with every grain of love I had in me.
    “Are you ready now?”
    “I’m ready now..”
    “You must be getting sick and tired of this..”
    She nuzzled her face in my chest, her tears warm as I felt them through my shirt. I sighed in relief, holding her as close as possible.
    Then, hand-in-hand, we walked, together.
    We were not afraid anymore.