Early December 2002, at the end of our school final term before we started junior high school, you stood at the back of your class' row inside that stadium with blue cast still wrapped around your left arm.
In the past month, there had been no police, no social services, no reports on your parents. I didn't know it yet, but it would have been useless anyway.
You walked forward when the teachers called your name. Small, independent, courageous, you received the best student award all on your own. You stayed there for a moment, microphone in front of your mouth. That should've been a moment for your absent parents. That should've been one of the greatest moments of your life.
You said your curt thank you and walked down the steps, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter how short it was, how awkward, how fast. What mattered most was that it had been genuine. What mattered most was that seeing you there had filled me with pride.
What mattered most was that, on top of that stage, you had been looking at me the whole time.
YOU ARE READING
Wearing My Smile | ✔
Teen Fiction"I wondered if you'd ever thought that the name your parents had given you felt like sharp knife twisting through your heart in its prayer. I'd never asked you that before, now I'd never get to." Having been together since forever, Roo struggles in...
