Timidly

02 | the mirror garden

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"YOU, DONNA WALSH, made a friend?!"

I stretch my legs out across the plush carpet, digging my shoulders into the wall behind me. Manny and I sit together in the corner of our hotel room, sipping the lukewarm beverages I had picked up from Hopeless Beans, as the sunshine creeps through the window, providing a golden halo that dances off of our bodies.

"Why do you sound so shocked? It's not like I don't have friends" I reply, slightly unconvincingly. Manny, to the side of me, begins to laugh uncontrollably, the mouthful he had sipped of cappuccino spilling from his lips and dripping down his chin. "Don, I love you so much, but the truth is you suck at making friends, and you are even worse at keeping them!"

I eye my friend in disbelief. "What do you even mean? You're still here"

"I don't count, Donna. But it's okay that you're not a total friendship magnet. I'm not either. It's how we met, remember?"

My lips tug up slightly as I recall meeting a very nervous Manny on the first day of kindergarten. It's hard to imagine him as anything other than a 'confident fox', as he likes to call himself. That day, when I saved Manny from drowning in the toilet bowl and sandbox, was the start of an everlasting friendship; and though people had left me in life, Manny had stayed by my side through thick and through thin.

"Anyways, so what's this Nina chick like?"

As I swallow the last of my drink, I then balance the empty cup on his head, for no particular reason than to humour myself. "She's really sweet. Kind of reminds me of a cool aunt or a bubbly second cousin"

Manny proceeds to nod slowly, ingesting my words. "Is she sweeter than me?" He asks, fluttering his eyelids dramatically.

Rolling my eyes, I give Manny a light shove. "Of course not. You own that title"

"I do, don't I. You bought me a trophy with the words 'kindest soul in the world'"

Memories of an eleven year old me using my two-week allowance on a cheap trophy painted a trashy gold for Manny's birthday enter my mind.

"That felt so long ago.." I pause. "Only a few months after that dad died"

Closing my eyes, I feel my heart ache slightly. Just before I turned twelve, my father got into a terrible car accident. It was fatal. The driver of the other vehicle was never revealed; even I wasn't given that information. Almost as If reading my thoughts, Manny speaks up. "Maybe It's good you never learned of the drivers identity. No need for revenge, right?"

"Yeah..I just hope that drunken idiot got what was coming to him in the end"

Turning to Manny, my vision blurs slightly, a few wet droplets landing on my cheeks. Daily crying was something I've learned to become accustom to. Sometimes for hours the tears pour, staining my pillow case at night, and leaving me completely drained.

"Karma exists, Donna. Don't you worry about that"

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IN THE AFTERNOON, MY phone rings for the first time since I arrived in London.
Part of me is hoping it is my mother. Part of me is hoping it is anyone but. I long for her concerned voice pleading me to come home. I can imagine the tears in her eyes and the hitch in the back of her throat. "I can't handle Keys alone. I need you, Donna"