We Fight! (On Hold)

Chapter 6

"Can I help you get it out now?" Afon asked, his eyes not once leaving my face.

"I think I can manage" I replied slowly, wondering if my response was giving an ironic impression with the speech I just gave.

"Of course" he mocked me with a roll of his eyes and I squeezed my face, already preparing to ask him what he meant by that.

"Just let me see it...I don't bite"

The way he looked at me, like he wanted me to believe that a black person like him wouldn't hurt me, and the vulnerability I could hear underneath his words softened my resolve and I couldn't find it in me to continue to be stubborn.

"Fine, here..."

I showed him my foot with the little glass piece still sticking out of it and he held my foot gently and positioned himself on the ground in a more comfortable position, obviously deciding I was no threat. Placing my right foot on his thighs, he studied it, turning it around in the streaks of sunlight that was starting to warm the earth.

"Do you know the meaning of my name?"

I could feel his small but rough fingers graze over where the glass piece had lodged itself and I held back a hiss, instead, settled for just chewing the insides of my cheek.

He was trying to get me distracted from the sting, that was why he was asking me if I knew the meaning of his name.

It wasn't working.

But I chose to allow him to try to converse with me, I couldn't remember the last time I had talked to a child my age...or even close to my age.

"No...what does it mean?"

"Afon means good, Afonabasi means God is good" he gave me a boyish smile and I couldn't stop myself from smiling back.

"So...Abasi means God then" I asked, the gears in my head feeling the need to work themselves.

"Yes..." He finally grinned at me.

"You're smart" he concluded, leaving my eyes and focusing back on my foot.

I picked up one of the stones he had thrown and turned it around between my fingers.

"Do you know the meaning of my name?"
I asked, just for the sake of asking because I obviously already knew that he would know.

"Uyai means beauty... I've never said this to anyone, but it suits you"

I laughed and snorted at the same time.

"What? You've never complimented someone before, is that it?" I laughed again.

"Ah ah now, it's not that funny. It's just that many people in my life would rather insult me and make me insult them back than want a compliment" the boy grumbled in my ears and cut my laughter short.

"Wanna talk about it?"

I really didn't know what to say. I haven't always been a sappy, sentimental kind. When I was still in the foster care system, I used to leave that for the other older kids to take care of whenever a kid started to cry and scream "I miss my mommy". I never really liked the sight. I have never even been that kind of kid. I can't really remember ever crying for my mommy and daddy, it was a waste of time to me. An abnormal thought for a five year old but I never actually claimed to be normal.

I didn't want to be in a position of comforting him and talking to him about things like this but I wasn't particularly cruel either and remembering what Carla_one of the older kids in one of the foster homes I was in_used to say, "Wanna talk about it?" was the next best punch line.  

"Nope" Afon answered with a smile, popping the p in the nope, surprising me but it was still to my betterment.

"And...all done"

He placed the trouble in the form of a non-living thing in front of my eyes with a proud grin on his face.

"Thanks" I simply said, grateful but wondering why he had helped me in the first place.

He put the piece of glass in his front shirt pocket and I couldn't help the quirk of one of my brows in question.

"If I flick it back on the road, another unsuspecting person like you would step on it again, so I think it's better we take it. I know these grounds are not the safest but one little effort at a time right?" He said, turning to sit beside me again.

"Yeah, I guess" I answered.

Lame response, I know. But I had a lot of other things on my mind at this point in time, that I really couldn't be bothered about another person suffering the same fate as I just did.

We fell into a comfortable silence, playing with the sands in between our feet. The reason why I was even sitting down here in the first place was becoming a fleeting memory.

"My sister's name is Kunsua, she's about your age actually" he suddenly said and I turned to look at him.

"Kunsua means don't hate me in our language" he continued, avoiding eye contact with me.

"No offence to your mum, but why would she name your sister that?" I asked, curiousity getting the better of me than the need to be careful with my words.

"My sister isn't like normal children, she...she was born without ears...she can't hear what other people are saying" He said, finally meeting my eyes which must have held a mixture of the thoughts in my head.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this. It's not like you would meet her or you would want to meet her. To be honest, my sister may not hear what people say but she's very smart and somehow she can understand what people say from just looking at their mouth but people don't know that and they say a lot of things about her, thinking she can't hear a word. I'm sure you also consider me and my sister weird now like everyone else does" he rambled on and I was trying to be patient with him at first, but he still didn't listen after I tried to say something to calm his rambling.

"Afon!!" I shouted, hitting his arm lightly.

He finally turned to look at me.

"The way you pronounce my name is funny" I could see the slight humour in his eyes light up his once dull features and if making a fool of the intonation of my tongue made him happier then I chose not to care...yet.

"I would actually like to meet your sister if I could one day. I'm sure she's just as nice as you speak of her"

"Yes...she is" he gifted me with another one of his contaminating boyish smiles and I couldn't stop myself from smiling back at him.

"Wanna meet her now?" He asked me with as much amusement and seriousness he could pull off together.

He couldn't possibly be serious.

He was.

A/n
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