Crimson Limerence

Let Me Help You

[⚠Implied abuse, substance abuse⚠]
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐈𝐈 Part I
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"𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐘𝐨𝐮"

By the time fifth grade had come around, Mei just found it routine to walk home to Anthony's house every day. She hardly ever went to her own house anymore, and if she did she had to deal with...Zach the whole time. She couldn't afford to go to school with bruises and burns, couldn't afford to go to school in clothes that were drenched in the scent of beer. Everyone already thought she was weird, called her things that a sweet thing like her didn't deserve to be called...anything more would be too much for her to bare. So now she stayed with Anthony as much as she possibly could. Even though it wasn't good enough to please those around her, he provided her with the best she'd ever had, probably the best she would *ever* have and that was enough for her.

By now she'd become used to being alone throughout the day. Breakfast- she didn't even eat that. Classes were alone, lunch was alone, break was alone, and she walked home alone. Being alone had become her way of living, and as accustomed to it as she'd become, it still hurt her sweet heart. But at least she could say that she was the smartest in her class. All that time alone...there wasn't much time to goof off or talk to anyone. There was nothing distracting her from her work, and it gave her something to get her mind off of some painful memories that haunted her at random points every day.

So that's how it would be. Stay away from dad, stay at Anthony's and wait for him to get home from work every night, go to school and be alone, walk home alone... And the cycle would repeat. That's just how it was, for quite some time. It was like that long enough for her to accept it, so that said something in itself. Even when there was a new student she didn't try to reach out, even as much as she wanted to.

Really, she saw something good in every person she knew, and it made her want to talk to them but every time she tried it was the same thing. It was rejection and avoidance, maybe even some odd cynical fear. So she stopped trying to talk to people a long time ago. There wasn't any point in it if that's the only reaction she would get, and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin someone's day just by being around.

But this new kid...he seemed to be in a lot of the same places that she was in. At breakfast, lunch, break? The library- that's where both of them seemed to go. Classes? All of the advanced classes, they were both in all of them. That caught her eye...and she caught his eye too but not in the same way. She found herself wanting to talk to him for the pure fact that he seemed to be the only other kid with some actual sense here. She wanted to see if he was really as smart as she thought him to be, and he was from France? That just made things even more interesting, but did that really matter? Did it matter what she wanted to know?

Did it really matter just how much she yearned to have someone to talk to whether they were intelligent or not? No, no in her eyes it didn't mean shit. She wasn't the center of the Earth, and she was nowhere near even being in orbit.

This kid on the other hand...he noticed how...sickly she looked. He noticed how quiet she was and all the things that people said about her, even the teachers of all people. He couldn't fully understand English- much less with this thick southern drawl in every other word they spoke but he wasn't stupid. Those looks that everyone threw at her and how she was never around anyone at all...it didn't sit right. Why was she in all of the advanced classes yet so...isolated? It was pitiful and a little irritating to look at.

It was even more irritating to look at that same baggy green hoodie she wore every day, and that long pith black hair that draped over her shoulders and cascaded down to the back of her knees knotted every day. One day, he finally got tired of just watching that thing sit there in its silence with nothing to talk to but the pages of a book. He got up and walked over to her while they were in the library. She didn't notice immediately because people didn't often approach her, so when he spoke she couldn't help but jolt a little despite how soft his voice was. "...'Ello". You know your 'air is a mess?"

She stared at him for a moment, her eyes flickering back and forth from him to her book. He was speaking to her, and that made her heart pound but what was he saying? "My...air...is... Huh?"

"No, no, your 'air." he replied as he reached out and pinched a strand of her knotted hair between his fingers. "Et is, 'ow you say... terrible. I do not like zis. Eh...let me fix eet"

She finally understood but it was useless that she understood because with no time for her to reply, the boy- Rigeal- had reached into the bag slung over his shoulder and grabbed his comb, threading it into her hairs. Mei winced a bit as he pulled it through her knotted hair, though he was being as gentle as he could. "Ah, sorry. You will be fine" he uttered as he continued his attempt to straighten the mess of hair on her head.

Surprisingly enough, it didn't take him very long to work through all of it. It was just some few minutes later that her hair was overall straight and neat. Mei noticed when he'd put the comb down and she was just about to speak before he grabbed her hair against and began to braid the side strands. Her brows furrowed for a moment, almost as though she were offended but she just couldn't bring herself to feel any negativity about this interaction. She couldn't go against the feeling of his fingers in her hair, against the thought of someone being willing to be this close to her. "I will make it...ah... How you say..." his words trailed off into a mumbled as he worked deftly with her hair, "beautiful".
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