Believe in Second Chances

25) Listen, I'm Scared

-Kylie

Though it takes me no seconds to decide, because I just saw a man wandering on the street through the window. A man with dark hair and olive skin, his belly sticking out of his blue jeans and dressed in a red apron over a white shirt. His overall presence tells me that he's from somewhere else...

Maybe it's the importance that more people should realize what immigrants really are. Maybe it's because I feel guilty about keeping that away, like I don't trust her. Maybe I simply wish we are close, like we used to.

Whatever my real reason is, I decide to tell her.

"Well, I have to tell you." I mumble and smile at her.
"Ok! Start!"

I stare into to her green eyes for a while. They seem to change color in the different lights, right now they're blue-ish. Woah.

I clear my throat and sit up straight.
"There was this girl I met, ehm, lemme explain... Anne's friend Journey took Anne and me to a LGBT+ club. We had a great time. Then this girl told us about her parents. She was this Muslim exchange student and was actually from Sweden. Surprising, right? She told us that her parents are, or, were from Iran. Her mom was pregnant while they went to Sweden. So she was born there. Either way, her parents received little to no help after her birth and their apartment or something," I start with a shaky voice.

I give Lexi a nervous glance and she nods for me to continue.
"Anyways, so yeah... when she wa-... I mean, first her dad started cooking and baking to their neighbors for stuff. I think, or, I mean, her mom borrowed books, I don't know where, so they could learn Swedish. So they got another kid, her brother. They had no other way. Eventually he started getting money. When she was six and her brother... younger? Anyways, they started selling a type of cookie to the neighborhood. Her dad opened a restaurant. He did have a small kiosk, but then he had an own business. That's basically the story of how they succeeded all alone in a whole different country."

"That... was, so beautiful and inspiring..." Lexi gasps in a breathy tone.

Her expression exposes true feeling behind her words.

I nod, in hope to not breakdown and cry right here.
"I know. She changed so much for me..."

Blood, blood, blood. Screams! Can you hear the sound of the real terrorists attacking?

My teeth dig into the flesh behind my lips as my fingers clench and my toes curl under the table.

Remember all those slurs thrown, remember the bone-crushing sound of literally a bone crushing... remember all of that...

I chuckle nervously, even though I'm rattling from the very core of myself. I play with my fork in the last bit of soup in my clear green bowl. Lexi tells me her viewpoint of the story, yes, it's so unfair how they were treated and oh no, they should not, poor people! Yes, so glad they're better, wow, God must've been kind and they were lucky to get help and all that shit.

"It's kind of ignorant to say that..." I remark, mumbling the shit of the sentence.
"What?" Lexi asks, reflecting confusion.

"I mean, to say that it was simply a god who did it. They had to go through so much shit and had to fight. To give the credit to a god is to dismiss what they've accomplished."

What is wrong with me?!

"Oh, ehm... ok, sorry, I just wanted to, y'know, yeah..."

Why Kylie? Why the fuck did you do that? Don't you remember that the girl said she wanted to thank Allah for giving her parents strength and finding opportunities or something for them to catch?! She did say something like that! Don't neglect it because you're a bitch.