Little Things

My Little Accomplishment

I was busy trying to figure out how to find out the area of shaded figure drawn in my maths book when I heard the door slam. I turned around and caught sight of her. Not her, well, mostly her hair that was out of her braid and were fulfilling the purpose of a brown curtain in front of her face. She dropped her bag to the floor and turned around, her back facing me. I almost swore I saw her shake. I looked at my book, then at her, then back at my book. I cleared my throat and twirled the pencil around my fingers.
"Umm..... you okay?"
"I'm fine."
Came her stony reply. The ultimatum in these two words was enough for me to know that she didn't want me to bother her anymore. Before I could say a word, she spoke up.
"Did you do the SAT maths questions we got?"
I closed my mouth and swallowed hard.
"Yeah, I'm doing them right now."
"Good. I need to complete them too."
Her definitive reply was followed by her plopping down in the seat next to me, her books in front of her. She took out her pencil and opened her book, furiously scribbling something. Her hair still covered her face but I didn't bother disturbing her.
After 10 minutes or so, I decided to speak.
"I don't think that's maths that you're doing."
She stopped, her grip tightening around her pencil. I could feel my heart beating wildly, scared of offending her. My eyes followed her fingers, which had loosened their grip on the pencil that was trapped in between them, writing words that had now filled the entire section where - I was pretty sure - we were supposed to solve quadratic equation.
She exhaled loudly and for the first time today, she looked up right into my eyes. I felt my heart clenching at the sight of her brown eyes, filled to brim with shining tears. I didn't know what to say. She turned to hide her face, but a second later, I heard her inhale and she looked back at me. Her eyes were clear, but held a question.
"Have you ever-----have you ever had the feeling that maybe the place you're in- like the place where you live right now- would be better off if you weren't there? That maybe, everything would be so much better if you just- you know- ran away?"
This simple questioning statement made a thousand thoughts race through my mind at once, and I settled on speaking up the only words that immediately came to my tongue.
"Well, my place- the place I'm in right now- would never be complete- much less better off- if you weren't there."
She let out a chuckle and turned around once again, her hair hiding her face as she once again gripped the pencil she was working with.
"Seriously, though. But if you're planning to run away, take me with you. Lord knows that you can't survive without me picking out your cereal at Walmart."
My statement made her laugh genuinely and I don't think I'd ever been more proud of myself before in the past few months when she looked up, a sparkle in her eyes and a playful nod of her head.