With you forever, Maybe

7

In the middle of the night, I had this sudden urge to pee, which was uncommon. I opened my eyes sheepishly to head towards the bathroom, as I saw Wilburt wide awake, kneeling on his bed, head hanging down, looking at the box he had brought from his planet.

Was he feeling homesick? He maybe. I would freak out if I have to live on another planet against my will, and despite how much he says it's better here, I doubt that on seeing him like this, sobbing convulsively.

He didn't noticed me getting up from the bed until I rested my hand on his shoulder which startled him completely, as he tried to hide the black cuboidal box which had a big crack passing through its middle.

"H-Hey! I just got up." he said wiping away the obvious tears in his red eyes.
I kneeled beside him, putting my hand on his shoulder, "What happened? Are you feeling homesick or something like that?"

"Nothing! Really. Who would want to go back there?!" he said half smirking - half sobbing. I remembered what Eloria told me previously – 'You have to take the first step if he cannot.'

"Try telling me about it." I said concerned covering his hands holding the muzic-box, "About this box of yours, if it means something more than a remembrance of your planet-"

He interrupted me, smiling with a 'recently cried' face, "A remembrance of my planet?! That's what you have been thinking this whole time!" he mocked me looking at me like an idiot with his wet eyes, "I hate that place. I have wondered to just disappear from that world and it seems I did, and I am happy about it."

"Then what is this about? And why are you crying?" I forced my questions onto him holding his hands tightly, looking sternly into his eyes, as he moved away his face from mine looking the other way, giving off the 'don't want to talk about it' gesture. But I had made up my mind. Now or never. I cannot let him live like this, under some pain. He is my...my...familiar after all.

"Why won't you tell me about it instead of just saying 'it's nothing'?" I released my hands from his, "Look at me! Running from your feelings won't ever help you!" I shook him by his shoulders. He looked at the ground for a while, thinking.

"Okay." he said taking a deep breath as I interrupted,

"Hold it there." running off towards the washroom as he glared at me making his 'you are impossible girl!' face.

As I returned, we both seated on my bed, knees crossed as I covered my exposed knees with a pillow, resting my hands upon it as he started, "You wanted to know right, about my specs, which I asked for, the first day, but I shrugged off the question every time. Well..." he touched his scar running from his eyebrow to his upper nose, "I used to wear it to hide this scar."

Naturally I wanted to know more about I but kept quiet to allow him to prepare himself to speak up.

"As I said earlier, I was used by people for all sort of work, kind off borrowed, until one day a drug dealer gang purchased me from my previous owner, and I did the tasks of delivering drugs from one organization or individual to other." He held tightly onto that box staring at it as he continued, "This music player was given to me by someone, the only one, I cared about at that time."

His voice began to break as I held his hand, probably the only thing I was capable of doing. "Elly was an orphan just like me whom I found by the road after she was discarded from the orphanage as being labelled a bastard. She was on the brink of death, her child like body holding tightly onto her mother's portrait who had abandoned her. I carried her to a food stall washing and tidying as possible, and the pennies I had got from my current job, I bought her some bread. She gave the biggest, innocent smile I had seen in years which sparkled brightly onto her olive-tinted skin."
"Then, I had to find a place for her to live but as all orphanages had dejected her, so I decided to take her with me in a basement of drug secret camp, for a couple of days till I find her a proper shelter. Days turned to months as the bond between us strengthened as she eventually started calling me 'big-brother'. I had kept her hidden for it was a base no other should know about. So it was after two months when I came back from my job, I found her struggling between the hands of the leader of the gang, tugg¬ing in her hair. I attacked them in the heat of the moment letting her free instructing her to run away, as they held me but, she stayed."
He paused for a moment, his eyes pouring out the guilt he had been holding, in the form of tears.¬¬

"She stayed because she was attached with me and me, with her. She didn't run away. A ten year old child didn't run away, not being able to see her brother getting hurt. Despite my continuously shouting to run away she charged at them, blowing her puny punches at them." He paused, smiling to himself, "Foolish girl. And then they killed her, in front of my eyes, stabbing her till she couldn't say anything except her last words – 'Thank you, brother' as she smiled at the face of death. I attacked but was hit unconscious on the head and thrown away in a ditch along with her cold corpse, in the rain. Thus this scar was born, a scar reminding me of who I truly am."

"Who you truly were!?" I interrupted surprised at his remark, "You mean a human who remained clean despite his being involved in such matters? You gave that girl a live which she would never have got."

"But she died! Don't you get it!" he shouted getting up from the bed, "She died because I got close to her! I attached to her! I thought of just staying still and die of starvation lying by her side. After all I was living a life without aim. A life just to survive."

"Isn't that enough? Isn't that which we all do every day? Survive." I replied calmly delving into some of conclusions from the philosophical texts I had read in my basic school.

"No! One should be of some use to someone, matter to someone. Even here I did nothing but cause chaos. It will not matter if I die here," he spoke softly with a sad curve I his lips, "lying somewhere, and it's not that I have some super power to protect y-"

I punched him right in his face, throwing him off the bed. It was the most ferocious one I ever hit someone with, but was ready to give another one if he uttered any more of this. He landed on his back, supporting himself with his elbow, startled at the sudden blow, caressing his bruised cheek which was slowly healing, staring at me shocked with startled eyes.

"Don't you get it?" I shouted at top of my lungs, my voice cracking as I felt the tears dripping through my eyes, "You matter. You matter to me, to Eloria, to her familiar and to each of your friends. Do you think they would just move on when they find out that you are dead?!" my sobbing became convulsive as I continued to shout, gasping for breath, trying to hold my tears in,

And even until now, you have protected me in your not seemingly heroic ways and I see the cause now. You didn't want me to think of you as a savior, did you? You always acted like you were picking a fight with them for fun, but most of the time, you just made yourself the focus to let me slide by! Didn't you!"

He turned away his face, looking down, still supported by his elbow.
"Answer me! Wilburt Moron Taylor!" I shouted with all my might as he was just choked in his own thoughts, looking down at the floor,
"But, how can I p-protect you. I can't e-even protect myself." Looking up to me, he whispered in a slight irritated voice.

"Then use your body as a shield." came a voice from the doorway where Eloria was leaning against the doorstep sleepily, "You voice was too loud, so I had to wake up to resolve your fight, but seems like things were getting pretty intense here, huh!"

She wiped away my tears from the sleeve of her t-shirt, hugging me by the shoulder as she continued in her calm but bold voice, "That's the task of a familiar, to work as a shield. Now it's your choice, you want to be an attacking shield or just a moronic weak 'standing still' shield."

Wilburt just listened in silence, his expressions returning to normal. "Look I don't know about your life on your planet but here you have a new life. A chance to start over."

"Start over?" he whispered Eloria's words back to himself. Thinking to himself, he spoke up with a sparked up face,
"Vess! I can tag along with you in your classes, right?"

"Yup, definitely?" I nodded in oblivion.

"Then I sure can study along with you, learn everything you do and the school cannot stop me because of there saying", he said in a mocking voice, "You and your familiar are one and single soul."

"Yeah." I started to understand his thinking. He also had a wand and was hence the first ever case of a mage as well as a familiar. Smart thinking of utilizing a loophole in the school system.

Eloria also seemed pleased with him having found something to do with his life. We sat there for a while in silence – a peaceful silence- so I thought to bring the mood back to as it normally was.

"Well we'll start tomorrow and," I threatened him pointing my finger at his nose, "You better not cause problems because this will affect MY grades!"

"Yeah, yeah." He chuckled away my threat. I glared at him making a fist, as his expressions changed giving me serious confirmation, "Yes! I will make sure not TRYING to screw anything up."

Then Eloria returned to her room complaining of disturbing the whole dorm, and my familiar, Wilburt went on complaining about that punch which had bruised his face for a while, "You know I heal, but I do feel the pain."

"Yeah, but it was a necessary evil." I smirked switching off the lights, as he went to bed mumbling to himself all sorts of things such as, 'necessary evil, my ass...you just need an excuse to hit me...' and stuff.