the park bench

f o r t y o n e

after stripping off their jackets and shoes, the couple lay on joanne's bed, lark spooning the brunette who had stayed silent for five minutes now.

"jojo?" lark whispered into the brunette's ear, "are you alright?"

"you know when i told you about joseph relying on our parents for a few years and not celebrating birthdays?" lark nodded against joanne's neck as she pressed gentle kisses against it. "i was involved in an accident five years ago when i was thirteen on my birthday."

the blonde's eyebrows knit together. "please tell me you're okay now."

"i'm fine." joanne replied softly. "but back then, i almost lost my right arm and suffered from mild amnesia." she paused to take a deep breath. "after i got out of the hospital, i still couldn't move my arm properly without it hurting or getting stuff and it was so scary.

"the kids at school, they were... a couple of the guys subtly made fun of me at first, they would nudge things out of the way, so i had to reach over and get it and they would pretend to lose memory in the middle of a conversation." lark's hold tightened. "then, they started to just take things and lift them up or say that i forgot that i had put it away.

"it was fucking depressing, i have a huge scar below my arm to my shoulder blade from the glass on the car, so when we had swimming lessons, the bullying got worse, i got tripped over once. i, um, i got really stressed out and self conscious. my parents and joseph wouldn't understand why i would eat tiny portions of food and stay in my room for hours without moving a limb."

she didn't speak for several seconds, the blonde buried her face into joanne's neck, feeling angry – no, absolutely seething, because of what the young joanne went through.

"they sent me to my uncle's house in america for four years, there wasn't anyone who bullied me at my old school, mostly because i didn't talk to anyone and they didn't know about my accident. my uncle thomas encouraged me to exercise my arm and thanks to him, my life was slowly going back to order, i ate normally and when i got back, heather and jo were waiting for me. that's basically it."

"i love your uncle, your brother, and your best friend," lark eventually stated. "and i love you."

joanne's face split into a smile. "i love you, too."

"is this too fast? we've been officially dating for two days." lark frowned.

"it's fine, larky. we already got to the know each other part and to complete everything, i just need to meet your parents."

lark didn't reply for a while, silently appreciating her girlfriend with a soft smile painted on her face. "can i see your scar?"

the brunette swallowed the lump in her throat before getting out of lark's grasp and gingerly taking her shirt off, only showing her back to lark. then, she felt lips on her shoulder.

"i'm in love with you, joanne gibson, i love every part of you."

the brunette slid her shirt back on, turning around to hug lark tightly and buried her face into lark's neck as they eased down into the bed and as a couple of tears leaked out of joanne's eyes. "you're perfect."