It had been two weeks since our movie night with Shiloh. Shiloh had invited me over nearly everyday. We would constantly hang out after school and just have a grand old time. One particular afternoon my mom wasn't at home because she was at work. Shiloh had invited me over after football practice and so I did that. It had recently become a thing. Me and Shiloh would just hang out after school.
It was pretty great because we didn't even have to do anything, just be in the company of each other. On this particular afternoon I didn't want to do anything so me and Shiloh ended up laying on her bed. She was just relaxing and so was I until my curiosity got the better of me.
"Shiloh?" I asked.
Shiloh turned up to face me. She was wearing the beanie I had given her and I smiled at that.
"Yes." She answered.
"Remember the day I asked you to be friends?"
"Yes." She brushed the hair out of my face.
"You never did tell me why you only where long sleeves."
Shiloh bit her lip.
We sat there in silence for a minute as I waited for her to continue.
"Do you get cold easily?" I continued playfully.
I tried to get as playful with her as possible so she could see that I wasn't trying to be rude.
Shiloh didn't answer me.
"Do you not like your arms?" I asked as I held them in my hands.
Shiloh looked down and bit her lip.
"Is that it?"
She didn't respond to me.
"Oh come on Shi, I'm sure your arms are pretty sexy."
Shiloh shook her head.
I tried to roll up sleeves and she playfully answered "stop".
I continued to roll her sleeves up and she began trying to pull away. I pulled her closer thinking we were still messing around and she started trying desperately to pull away.
"STOP!" She yelled at me.
I immediately dropped her arms.
"I'm sorry Shiloh I thought we were still messing around." I scooted away from her to give her more room.
She turned away from me and I lightly touched her shoulder and she flinched. I pulled away and turned the opposite direction.
"Are you okay Shiloh?" I asked softly and in response I got silent tears.
"Shiloh, I'd like to consider us best friends. I need to know what's wrong so I can fix it. I hate to see you hurting."
Shiloh turned back to face me and she wasn't sobbing or anything. Just slow silent tears fell down her face. I looked up into her eyes and she was sad. Somehow in someway this was still better than her being numb.
She looked away from my eyes and down at her arms. She started tugging up her sleeves and I softly gasped. Upon the pristine white skin that hadn't seen the California sun since she had moved here were even more white scars and on top of the white scars were red cuts.
I cupped her wrists in her hands and stared at the broken skin on her arms and sighed. Shiloh looked up at me expectantly. I don't know what she was expecting me to do or say. I don't know what I was expecting me to do or say. I just stayed there staring at the imperfections on her skin.
YOU ARE READING
The Grace in the Fall
Romance"Shiloh." I held her chin in my hand so she would have to look at me. Shiloh flinched and it reminded me of the first time I had talked to her. Slowly rain began to fall but I could hardly feel their cold bites. She was looking up at me and I was f...
