The Girl with Cherry Earrings | ✔

25

We both stood still, frozen to the spot, eyes locked in a gaze of disbelief. 

After just a second Wren blinked her eyes furiously, turning her head away as if she had just seen a ghost. But the moment her hazel eyes landed on mine for the second time, it almost looked as if the colour had been drained out of her face.

"Vince...?" she finally spoke up in appall, dipping her head ever so slightly.

"Wren..." I managed to utter, unsure as what to say. 

Now really wasn't the time for a reunion, and I was sure Wren was thinking the exact same thing.

"Small world isn't it?" she asked, pulling the corners of her lips into a hollow smile as she let out a laugh that sounded more painful than lively. Taking one last glance at the marble gravestone in front of her, she slowly made her way down the aisle of gravestones towards me. Although her face didn't show any signs of evident sadness, the way her shoulders trembled with each step said it all.

It didn't take long for her to find her place beside me, right in front of Grandpa's gravestone.

"Your eyes are red," she muttered softly, calmly fixing her gaze back to her feet after just a second of locking eyes with me.

At that moment, I realized how much of a mess I probably looked like. Meanwhile, there was Wren, holding it together like it was nothing.

Taking a large breath, I shook my head at her in shame, my eyes never leaving the granite stone just ahead of me. In my peripheral vision I could see Wren dipping her head respectfully, her eyes skimming over the letters etched in the granite stone.

"Sorry," I mumbled faintly, "You shouldn't be seeing me like this, really."

"Well, I mean, you're seeing me in this state so it's fine," she murmured in response.

Looking at Wren, she seemed to have her emotions together. She didn't show any signs of weakness or despair at all the moment I saw her. She even had the strength in her to flash a smile. Yet here I was, on the verge of bawling my eyes out. There was a reason Wren was here at the cemetery. I wasn't the only one who lost someone. I was acting like a child, a pitiful one to say the least.

The tears in my eyes only seemed to grow in abundance, swarming my vision in blurs before finally streaming down my cheeks and plopping on to my shirt.

Suddenly, I felt a cool tingle spread through my palm as Wren slipped her hand into mine.

"You know, it's okay to feel a little broken sometimes. I mean when things come your way that break you down, all you could really do is reinforce and build yourself back up again."

Silently, I wiped my tears as I simply let her words sink in.

In the spur of the moment I was grateful for her presence, but then again, I had no idea how ironic her words would turn out for her in the end.

***

Since both Wren and I were headed in the same direction back home,  we both had decided to take the long way, which to us, meant that we were walking.

For the first few minutes, we both stayed quiet, wrapped in a bubble of tense silence. But after a while, I finally mustered up the courage to speak up and ask the question that has been bouncing around my mind for weeks.

"You don't have to answer this question," I started, awkwardly fidgeting with the zipper of my tear-drenched jacket, "But, I was curious as to why you hadn't come to school for this long."

Wren opened her mouth to speak, but seemed to snap it shut after second thoughts. 

"You don't have t-"

"-My mother," she stated, cutting me short. Judging by the glum look in her eyes, she seemed to be holding back the hint of pain threatening to coat her words. "My mother... well ...she died. She overdosed on sleeping pills."

I couldn't help but shoot her a look of melancholy as I turned my head to face her head-on. She didn't seem to return my gaze, gluing her hazel eyes to the sidewalk below us instead.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I murmured rather gloomily. 

Again, Wren managed to muster up the strength to pull her lips into a painful smile.

"It's fine."

Again, we began walking in silence as a sorrowful atmosphere surrounded us. With every single step we took, I watched as Wren's face faded from emotionless to pure dismal. Her eyes suddenly glazed over as she fought off the tears threatening to roll down her cheeks.

I stopped in my tracks, causing Wren to come to a halt as well.

"Wren?"

Calmly, she tilted her head up, showcasing the mobs of tears gathered at the edge of her eyelids. And I'd be lying if I said seeing her like that didn't sting. 

"Yeah?" she asked, plastering a fragile smile over her face.

"Your eyes are red," I stated playfully, hoping to get a smile out of her, to which I didn't.

"I know," she stated in a delicate whisper, turning her head to the side as she bit the bottom of her lip, still trying her absolute best to keep her tears from falling.

Without thinking, I slipped my hand into hers in an attempt at being some source of comfort to her just like she had been for me.

"Maybe I'm just a little broken... that's all," she muttered, fixing her gaze back on to mine. "But that's okay." 

As if she had given up, tiny droplets began making their way down her cheeks and towards the tip of her chin, landing onto her jet black dress in small specks. Her eyes, glazed over in a layer of liquid, were tinged in red.

"I don't know if you know," I started, my head tipping to the side ever so slightly, "but you're the only one trapping everything inside of you. And stuff like that doesn't disappear that easily. The only way of getting rid of it is by letting it go, which is something only you can do."

And at that moment, through her tears, that's exactly what she did.

She told me all about her life at home. From her mother's post-partum depression, to the symptoms that came hand-in-hand with her mother's declining mental health, to the heavy blame of her mother's death hovering over her head by her father. Every little detail stringing together the years of pain that was pushed down inside of her.

And through it all, all I could do was listen. 

In the end, she took a deep breath, tears still streaming down her cheeks as she let one of her beautifully genuine smiles creep over her lips.

"You know, somehow, I feel lighter than before," she declared, closing her eyes for a brief moment before catching my gaze. "This feeling is even better than the ones I get in the Land of Trouvaille...and that's saying a lot."

I couldn't help but smile in return as an oddly fuzzy and warm feeling began building up in my chest.

"Glad to hear."

Again, she took a deep breath, throwing her head back as she unleashed one of her beautifully genuine smiles.

"Thanks wish-buddy," she said, giving my hand a quick squeeze. "You're sweeter than you think, and I hope that everyone else in the world could come to realize that too."