My "Imaginary" Best Friend

1

A ten year old girl sat at the swing with a tear stained face as she overheard some of the kids talking about her.

"Did you know that her parents are getting divorced? We shouldn't hang out with her, her parents getting divorced is so weird, It's probably her fault for being so quiet"

"I think we should actually hang out with her"

She paid closer attention at the kind words of one of the girls but her momentary happiness was destroyed when the girl finished her sentence.

"What if she goes crazy and shoots up the place?"

She sighed sadly and slowly walked out of the park. She and her now divorcing parents lived at a fenced in trailer park and they had a small playground for the kids there.

On her way home she let her thoughts take over, she began to wonder who she'd be staying with, if it really was her fault, who was going to keep the house. As she got home she cleared her mind of those thoughts, she would let the adults deal with all of that. She sighed and began going up to the door but stopped abruptly when she heard her mother and father's muffled voice sounding like they were arguing once more, instead of walking in she turned around and walked the other way.

"Hey!"

This perked the young child's attention and she looked up to see someone waking towards her direction, she smiled shyly and waved back, then the person who had shouted 'Hey' made a 'Come here' motion, just as she was about to comply however she was rudely shoved to the side by a guy who ran passed her to the girls.

The girls giggled obnoxiously and threw a glance her way with a smirk on their glossed lips, they were the cool girls, the girls who's parents allowed them to use make-up, the girls with parents who were not getting a divorce...

She sighed for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that day, she saw that there was a dirt-way to a part of the trailer park that no one really went down, it's not like it was haunted, just there was nothing to do down there so no one even bothered to waste their time by going over there, well no one her age at least, all the older teenagers went over there to throw parties and drink substances that they shouldn't.

She walked the unmarked path with her gaze glued to the floor, she didn't want to bump into one of the older kids, that'd be disastrous and embarrassing. But since this was her and her life seemed to hate her at that very moment she had bumped into someone.

She looked up to see a very scary looking male with a black shirt, black pants, black hair, a very weird looking face with red bumps everywhere and earing everywhere but his ears, instead of earing a 'normal' person would wear he had these holes that opened up his ears which just made him look 1000000 times scarier.

"Sorry kid, didn't see you there"

He looked down right terrifying but what had confused her was that he was nicer than any of the other girls her age, she tilted her head to the side, her tight pony tail falling over her shoulder as she did that.

"Why are you so nice to me? Didn't you know that my parent's are divorcing and that makes it bad luck if you talk to me?" She questioned the terrifying guy with innocent yet confused brown eyes, he just stared at her for a second before sighing and crouching down next to her which caused her to flinch away a bit.

"Listen here kiddo, just because your parents are getting divorced does not mean anything is wrong with you, they just uh.... Need to live separately is all, which in some ways is good for you... like for instance you get two birthday presents instead of one, for Christmas too"

He tried to explain in a way that wouldn't make the girl sad, the reason being that he had gone through that very same thing when he was younger but no one was there to help him as he was helping the little girl in front of him.
She had a look of confusion on her face before her face perked up in an instant she began clapping and giggling, she then did something that startled the male, she hugged him tightly and that had made him fall over and land right on his butt, he chuckled and pat the little girls hair.

"Alright kiddo, where are your parents? You wouldn't want to get lost now would you?"

She shook her head and was about to point towards her home when another older kid came out looking for the male that she was speaking to.

"There you are Ty, we were looking all over for your dumb-as- uh whos the kid?"

A female with bright pink hair and an earing in her bottom lip asked as she smiled down at the girl who just smiled back shyly.

"Just a little girl that I bumped into by accident, I was just about to walk her home when you guys showed up" He explained as he looked back at where the little girl was just a second ago, but now she was by his friend with the pink hair, Candice, she was looking at her hair with wide eyes and a goofy smile on her face.

"Can I play with you guys?"

She asked giving Ty the puppy eyes, when Candice saw the puppy eyes she laughed and nodded, Ty looked at the face that Anna was now making too and sighed with a smile, he rolled his eyes playfully.

"Fine, but no more puppy eyes, got it?" the young girl saluted and giggled when Candice ruffled her hair. "What's your name by the way sweetie?" Candice questioned when she realized she didn't know the girls name.

"Danielle but my friends call me Dani.... Or that's what my mom said my friends would call me.... yours?"

"Nice name Dani, mine is Candice, and the doofus who ran into you-"

"Hey!"

"-Is named Tyler but we call him Ty"
Danielle giggled at the pout Ty gave Candice when she had called him a doofus.

"Hey, we were on our way to get some pizza from that place down the street, since your parents don't know who we are we can go by ourselves and you can wait by that table over there? Deal?"

Candice questioned and laughed slightly when she saw that Danis's eyes brightened up at the mention of Pizza, she nodded vigorously and ran to the table, Ty and Candice laughed and walked towards the pizza, holding each others hands as they did so.

Dani frowned at that, her mom and dad used to do that before, she sighed sadly and rested her head on her hand.

"Cheer up Butter-Cup, they'll be back with their pizza" a voice said from beside her all of a sudden, Dani let out a small startled scream, she looked at the new person she has never seen before.

She looked at his face, well more like the freckles that littered it, her mouth flew open, it looked like someone splattered chocolate drops all over his face. His hair was as black as night, yet it looked more natural than Ty's.

"Like something you see?"

He questioned, smirking slightly at how adorable the little girl was acting, she closed her mouth and shook her head.

"You have dots all over your face" She deadpanned and he just chuckled.

"Snarky already I see, Just to let you know, if you ever need someone to talk to you can count on me, my name's Ethan, want to be my friend?"

He asked as he took his hand out, she looked at him a little weirdly, but since she didn't have friend's she couldn't complain, she smiled and shook his hand with her tiny one, then something felt like it burnt her, she quickly removed her tiny hand from his.

"Ow!"

"I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" He questioned a bit startled and scared, she smiled and shook her head "I'm ok" she answered while looking down.

"Dani? Who were you talking to sweetie?"

Candice questioned with a raised eyebrow and a bit of worry in her blue eyes, she was going to reply when she saw that the spot where Ethan was, was now empty. She blinked in confusion but looked up with a small smile.

"No one, I just hurt myself but I'm okay now"

She continued to throw glances towards the spot where Ethan was at just seconds before Candice and Ty arrived until they decided it was time for her to go home before her parents began to grow worried.

She glanced back one more time, this time seeing him sitting in the same spot he was before, a finger to his lips as if to tell her 'Shhh' she nodded in her head and smiled, realizing she hadn't just imagined him.

She then remembered when she had felt a burning sensation when she shook Ethan's hand, she looked down at her wrist and saw what looked like a tiara on her wrist but it was fading away, what Dani didn't notice was the look of regret on Candice and Ty's face as they clearly saw the mark.