The other side of the river

My best friend

Zachary Carter had been my best friend for as long as I could remeber. In fact, I can still see the day we met clear in my head. It was ten years ago. I was 9 years young and yet heartbroken. Perched beside a tree stump near the old run down school, tears slipped down my pale cheeks and to the ground beneath me. It was late in the evening and I had just figured out my father's addiction. The tears burned like fire, flooding my eyes making it hard to both breathe and see. I had run out saying I had to practice self defence. I did that often. That's when Zachary Carter passed by. He was carrying home a dead turkey in one hand and a small bag in the other that I could only assume to be a small amount of coins inside. I hadn't looked up in a while since I started sobbing. I believe that he heard my muffled cries and stopped in his tracks because after a few seconds, I couldn't hear his steps in the wet mud from the rain the night before. 2 seconds later, I heard a soft whisper coming from in front of me.
"Hey, you OK?"
I didn't say anything back. I hadn't the energy.
"HI, I'm Zach. Wanna maybe tell me what's wrong?" He whispers again. "Bad day?"
This time, I nodded my head slightly. It's as if I had felt him smile to himslef.
"Well, when I have a bad day, I find it helps to go for a swim," He remarked. Who on earth would swim at this time?
"I specifically like the one through the forest."
I froze before I slowly lifted my head. Even though my eyes were blocked with tears, I was astonished by how handsome he actually was. I mat have been tough, but I know beauty when I see it. He was pretty much 10 at the time and yet the most magnificent person I had ever seen. He had dark fluffy hair with a small ponytail at the back running down his neck. His mouth naturally curved into a sincere smile, dimples on each side of his cheeks.
"Hey," He said with a smile, his eyes piercing through mine. Somehow, when I saw him, I felt...safe. he took my hand in his and helped me stand upright. My mother had taught my about strangers and as soon as I remembered this, I shot straight back down and crossed my legs, trying to stop the tears from pouring out of my eyes anymore. I couldn't help but feel a little hurt when he seemed to have rolled his eyes at me a little and suppressed himslef from sighing.
"Look, I'm trying to help, ok? You can trust me." He kneeled down to my level and aced a hand tenderly on my shoulder. I flinched hard and stayed tense. I scanned him up and down, searching for a weapon he could have been hiding.  He noticed and sighed. He the looked around for anything he could use to gain my trust. In that moment, my stomach suddenly roared with hunger for multiple seconds until it hurt and I clenched my stomach, closing my eyes , i allowed a single tear to escape my eyes. When I looked up again, I noticed his sympathy towards me. He looked down at his turkey and then back at me. He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath of air before saying,
"Here."He held out the bird and placed it in my cold hands. "Take it, you look starved to death." I was so wide-eyed I thought they may just pop out of my head. "I'll find another." He said happily grinning. However, for a second, I noticed home become a different person. For a second, I saw his eyes almost well up with tears. For a second, he looked scared. He then looked back at me as happy as before.
"We'll share it," I replied. "Now, which lake did you say it was?"