Call Me Hurt

Chapter 4 - Hope

Hope

I was everything EJ wanted out of life. I was an elderly woman who lived a long, fulfilled life with the happiest memories of adventures and love. That's how she wanted to grow up.
But I hadn't been around for a while. That future she wanted was turning into a blank sheet. However, on the day she quit her job, her future slowly began forming into a polaroid picture. Even though it still needed time to fully develop, it was a future. It was better than nothing.

EJ decided not to go home yet. Despite barely having any money in her pocket, she chose to give herself a break from another pointless fight with her mother and stayed in the city to window-shop.
Despite my advanced age, it was easy to keep up with her as she jumped from store to store. There was a moment when she was browsing necklaces at a jewellery shop that she looked right at me. Just like everyone else, she knew who I was.

"I was afraid you were gone," she said.

"I'm always here, sweetheart." I replied. "I'm just not as loud as the others."

"I wish you were though. It's scary when you're not here."

"I'll try sticking around a while longer this time."

"Forever?"

I held my arms out to her and she accepted my embrace immediately. "That's up to you, my love. I'm staying as long as you need me."

"I do. Now more than ever."

"Then you look for things to fight for, okay? Start with the smallest thing you can think of."

"Baby steps, like Hurt says."

"Exactly. So, what's the smallest thing you can think of right now that you want to fight for?"

EJ pulled back, scanning her brain for an answer. "At this very moment? Food."

I chuckled. "Food is a great start."

I didn't need help to the door (it's a great perk of being old and non-existent in the physical world), but EJ linked her arm with mine.

Just as we were walking out, EJ's eyes caught a familiar figure.

"Rikki?" she asked the acquaintance.

"Oh hey! EJ, right?" they replied.

"Yeah. What are you doing here? There's no way Jordy let you take your lunchbreak this early."

"Ah, screw that place. If any of those things you said is true, I don't want anything to do with it. So, I quit."

"Wow. You made that decision way easier than I did."

As EJ and Rikki searched for things to talk about, Anxiety suddenly appeared beside me, biting their lip ring and tapping their fingers against their jeans.
I had never been a fan of Anxiety's appearance. Their hair always looked like it had been clumsily cut without the assistance of a hairdresser (even their beanie couldn't hide what a mess it was), and they had chosen to dye it an unflattering green, there was at least one piercing on every section of their face, and their clothes were always too big. EJ almost went through a phase like this as a teenager, but when she brought the hair dye out, her mother chased her around the house with scissors. So, Anxiety's style didn't bother me anymore. It just made me sad that EJ didn't get the chance to explore who she was. It lived through Anxiety now.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"They could hurt her," Anxiety replied as I barely finished the question. "That Rikki person; she doesn't know them. They could hurt her."