Mirabelle with an E

Chapter 8

She grabbed my hand and dragged me inside along with my stuff. Did I just get manhandled?

She forces me to sit on the chair. "Where is your- found it" she comes back with bandages ointment and a rag.

she sits on the table. My eyes widen she's right infront of me with her feet in my lap. "Does it hurt?" She asks touching me cheek. I hiss at the pain. She jump a bit "sorry" she grabs the ointment and gently dabs it on my cheek. It hurts a little but she knows what she's doing. She grabs the rag and my hand. "You wanna tell me where you learned how to do this?" I ask curious. "When you tell me who did this to you" "fine but no fighting" she looks like she's thinking. Her heads tilted and her lips are puckered. "Okay" she continues. "Billy, we got into an argument and I went straight for punch" she goes to speak. "But don't worry I won" she cracks a smile.

"If i can't hit anyone you can't tell anyone" I nod.

She goes back to my hand. "They used to hit me a lot the people who took me in and the orphanage" she states. I look at her sympathetically. "I used to have to patch myself up after every single hit, id lie and say they didn't used belts and whips like they do in class but" she stops and chuckles.

Her hands are shaking. I use my free one and touch it. She flinched and looks at me. "Don't look at me like that" she says moving her hands away. "Like what?" I ask her. She hops off the table since she's done.

"Li-like you feel bad for me" she says resentment in her eyes. I stand up "why not you're a kid nobody should touch you like that" I reassure her. "Nobody's ever looked at me like that" she says her voice becoming softer. She crossed her arms and looks down. "They told me I sounded like a nails on a chalk board, they'd hold rats up to my face and taunt me. I didn't do anything to them they-they just did it, then a boy came and he stayed for a while. I thought I could trust him but I couldn't. He tried to do things to me I've only heard of from the other girls, until he was caught and I got beatings for it while he got adopted the next day. He kept telling me my voice was beautiful angelic even he said innocent things made him funny on top of that I'd sometimes get blamed for Anne's wrongdoings and I'd get hit for it. I told her to speak up and tell them it was her without saying anything about the beatings but she didn't. So that's why I don't speak why I don't really care about everyone's feelings anymore nobody cared about mine" by the end of the story she's crying. I don't even think she notices.

"So when I get mad or too upset I'd scratch myself subconsciously or just dig my nails into my skin that's why I ran out of the class room that day I was scared"

It was my fault I pushed her she didn't want to talk to me but I kept pushing it. So she hit me and got in trouble I saw red on her sleeve but I didn't think anything of it.

I take her hands in mine and bring them to lips and kiss them. "It's okay to be scared and vulnerable I shouldn't have done the things I did that day for that I apologize I'm just glad we're friends now because now you don't have to worry about that you can always confide in me" she grabs my shirt and starts crying. I wrap my arms around her.

We ended up talking in my room. About random stuff making each other laugh. God her laugh is adorable.

It was late. So I had walked her home.

We get to the farm and stop "thanks for walking me home and for the talk" she says sheepishly. Almost like she's nervous. "It was my pleasure and thank you for the bandage" she nods.

She walks inside the house and waves to me. I wave back.

I smile to myself thinking of her.