She's so Gone

Prologue

***

“Hello?”

“Del?”

“Oh, hey Kim, what’s up?”

“Well…uhm…I think there’s something you should know…”

***

My family was embarrassing sometimes, actually- make that all the time, but I still loved them. My mum was Chinese but my dad was Australian so I was a halfie, same as my baby brother Malcolm. Malcolm and I were really close since we were only born two years apart. Like everyone else, both of us had the same tanned skin from living on the Sunshine Coast. We both also had dark hair though Malcolm’s was a little bleached from the sun. The most distinct feature that put us together was, however, our bluish brown eyes. I loved to play instruments but my favourites were the piano and cello.

My best girlfriends were Tiffany and Kimberly. They were both awesome friends and many of my memories included both of them. But mybestest friend in the whole wide world was Ryan. I remembered the younger me thinking that train of thought far too many times throughout my childhood. We never kept any secrets from each other and he was the first to know when I lost my first tooth, he was the one who I shared my chickenpox with and he was the only friend I trusted entirely, I would trust him with me life. He was loyal, caring, thoughtful and considerate. He was an amazing bestie.

Ryan and I first met when we were seven, in year 2. I still clearly recall the scratchy uniform blouse and the itchy black stockings that were compulsory for all girls to wear. I also remembered the peanut butter and nutella sandwich my mum had packed for me. The sandwich was neatly cut into four triangles and had the crusts removed. My dark hair was tied up into twin pigtails and they bounced when I moved over to the other side of the bench, away from my friends, Tiffany and Kimberly and clambered clumsily towards the new boy, Ryan. Like me, Ryan was tall for his age but lanky and instead of my darkly tanned skin, his skin seemed a sickly pale as if he had never seen the sun. He had a smattering of little freckles on his nose and short spiky hair. He was shuffling his feet in the dirt, silent, alone and hungry. Without a word I offered him a triangle from my Dora the Explorer lunch box. The boy looked up curiously from his shoes, his hazel eyes looked up into my face.  

“Hi, my name’s Delilah. What’s yours?” I asked, but of course I knew his name, he was the new boy that moved into the cosy house on the other side of town.  

“It’s Ryan,” he mumbled softly, looking shyly at me.  

“Are you hungry?” I asked, without waiting for him to answer I held the triangular bread in front of his eyes. 

“...Are you sure?” he asked timidly, hesitantly.  

I nodded quickly, “Of course.”  

Gingerly, the quiet boy reached out for the triangle, taking a small nibble from the corner. That was the start of our friendship.  

From that day on we were never seen a part, well at school at least. Everything was so simple. We would share our toys, our lunches and sometimes we would be mistaken as brothers and sisters, even though we looked nothing like. He was still the same shy boy but with me he was more open and laughed, carefree. Sometimes my little brother, Malcolm would join in our little games of hide-and-seek or tip but usually, it was just the two of us.  

Our families weren’t too close, with my dad always on business trips, his parents always overseas and our families living so far apart we usually only saw each other at school.