Sparrows Song

Bittersweet

"What did I do?!"

Laila spun around, her golden brown hair whipping against her shoulders. "What did you do? What did you do? What you did was left me behind! Again! What is WITH YOU?"

Amy gaped back, her hazel eyes swimming in confusion. "But I only just..."

"But what? You left me stranded Amelia. You left me alone. At the stupid park, in favor for your boyfriend. Do you know how long it took me to get home? An hour and a half. My phone died on me."

The blonde looked guiltily at the ground. Bitten nails thrummed against her denim shorts. "I didn't mean- I didn't know..."

Laila scowled. "You know what you do? You rush through life. You speed through, rushing past anyone in your way. You're jerky and harsh and rough. You hate people that hold you back Amy. Like you mother. Like... like me...."

"Lai no-"

"DON'T TELL ME NO!" Laila jerked away from the calloused hand that had rested on her shoulder. "You keep doing this! You speed ahead of me, and you don't notice until I catch up and call you! YOU NEVER LOOK BACK! You know so many people, but you just can't keep up with all of them! You go and go and when you lose one it isn't your problem anymore."

The blonde's eyes filled with tears. Her eyebrows furrowed and she couldn't find a plausible reason to deny. So she attacked. "WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH?" She shrilled hands coming to fists at her side. Tears dribbled down her chin.

Laila always contained her emotions better. Her tears watered wearily. "I care," she began carefully, "because I know what its like to be left behind. I care... because I hated that feeling of being left behind. For being replaced."

She breathed in shakily, closing her coffee brown eyes to blink back the tears. "Do you know why I'm always so cautious? Why I always look behind me? Because I'm scared. I'm scared I'll leave someone behind and leave them with that bitter taste in their mouth. I have been trained to be choosy, to be careful, and to cling. I can't do anything else but hope that they still need me. There's nothing else I can do."

She turned away, heading towards her homeroom. A crowd of their friends (and others) had begun to form around them. Amy reached out to Laila, but she was cut off. The bronze eyed girl always did this when she was upset, always shut down and closed herself off, to the people she knows and herself.

Laila turned around, two tears trailing down her pink flushed cheeks. "Don't come find me anymore. I don't need this."

Amy couldn't shake the look from her mind. How all the anger, betrayal, sadness and loneliness washed up in her irises before she pushed it down, chocolate eyes going flat and expression empty. The words she said, I don't need this replayed like a broken record. Laila's entire world had just smashed into her like a freight train and she had let herself be run over for to long.

Amelia's dark green irises scanned the courtyard, wishing the brightness of toffee colored eyes greeted her. She wished her hands would wave frantically as she told her stories her pouty lip when she was playfully upset.

Amy wished that she hadn't had left her best friend at the park that day. She wished it hadn't drizzled, and she thought selfishly how inviting her boyfriend's umbrella looked.

Amy wished that she could see the joyful face of her former friend and she waved a book around, hoping but knowing she will never get a glance at her finished manuscript.