The Only Hope

Book 4: Chapter 15

Now

I had to get away. Sitting there, listening to stories, hearing Varrick play our- Bolin’s story- I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t stand to hear about Opal and him living happily ever after. Hear the pain in his voice as he cried at the thought of her never talking to him again.

So I got up from the circle, my face clinching up from the stinging in my side, and moved towards the front. Once there, I sat down and leaned against the railing. Shaking my head, I rubbed my face into my palms. It had been nearly three years, yet I cried like a broken child.

I hated that I was crying, I hated feeling like a broken child.

“Hey- you okay?”

Not lifting my head, I nodded my head as I attempted to control myself.

“You don’t seem okay.”

“Well I am!” He didn’t say anything, but I could feel that he hadn’t left. “What are you doing up here?”

“I came to see if you were okay.”

“Why should you, why do you care?”

“Because, you’re my friend.”

“Yeah, your ex-girlfriend, the girl you only dated for five and three fourths of a month.” Lifting my head, I turned my red, puffy eyes towards him. He took a seat next to me, and lifted a hand. Bringing it to my cheek, he wiped away the tears that rolled down my flushed cheeks, careful of the cut on my right side. I had found a first aid case in the boat’s small cabin and was able to tend to both my cut and my bruised cream. I placed some numbing cream on my rib, and wrapped it. I left my cheek cut open to vent but put some cream that was meant to help it heal quicker.

“That doesn’t make you any less of my friend, Bri.” Pulling my head away, I shook it and let out a bitter chuckle. His eye brows fell. “What?”

“I’m not your friend-”

“What, Bri how could you say that? After everythin-”

“Friends tell each other things; they know stuff about each other. You- Varrick, Korra, my grandfather- you all don’t know anything about me…” I shook my head, looking at him once more, “I haven’t told you anything.”

He dared to slide just ever so closer, making the small space between us shrink. I looked at him, our eyes locking.

“Then tell me.”

~~~

“…My father never wanted me. He never loved me, never liked me… My mother was a wild child, my grandfather tried to tame her. The tighter he grasped for her, the harder she pulled away. Then, one day, she broke free. She left, and my grandfather didn’t hear from her for 18 years… 18 years she was out in the world, not being a princess or an air bender, but as Luna. She was willing to give it all up, because she wasn’t happy. She thought she would find happiness through traveling the world. Happiness had yet to come to her, so she would go to it. Unfortunately, she got pregnant and thus saddled herself to a life with a man who held something for her, something that wasn’t love. Whatever it was, they somehow found a way to have Maia. She’s…”

The words fell off, almost four years, and yet, I still spoke as if my sister was alive and well.

“She was named after my grandmother, you know. She wanted to honor Lady Amaya by naming her youngest child in her honor. Different person, different spelling, but said the same way, in the same manner. When my mother died, I don’t remember much, but I do remember begging my father to not leave Maia and I with Tenzin. I was nine- I was barely a child. Maia was six. He had woken us up in the middle of the night; we boarded a ship and with barely a goodbye was ready to leave us there with no reason… He told me they didn’t want me- he couldn’t take care of us, my mother’s family didn’t want to take care of us and that we should be grateful that Tenzin was willing to take us in and teach us, even with his duties and own child on the way. And he was gone. I never heard from him again. Maia never gave up hope. She was so optimistic… I loved that about her… You know,” I looked at him, fresh tears filling over my eyes, “I still celebrate her birthday… For the past four years- I try not to, I try to wake up on that day and treat it like no other… But for some stinking reason, I can’t- and I hate thinking about it- about her…Because if I do, then I just might lose it…