Cheers

Part Two

I walked around through every street, park, and quaint café in Long Beach, then I trailed the beach itself. The whole walk totaled roughly five and a half hours and three cigarettes, and it stormed the whole time. It was a cold rain, which was abnormal for the end of spring, and abnormal for California at all, but either way, my hand went numb and I stopped noticing the pain after about forty-five minutes. I was walking up off the beach when I saw her. She was hiding under a tree, and she was crying. No, that's an understatement. She was bawling.

Her clothes were sticking to her skin and her white tank top was almost transparent, but it was too dark to tell for sure, seeing as it was past midnight by then. She was in denim shorts and a white tank with ruffles on the shoulders. The tips of her jet black hair stood, soaking, on her shoulders. She had a small white rose pinning her wet hair back, resting on her left ear. She was barefoot and very pale. I thought it was because of the rain but I figured out later that her skin was constantly as pale as it was that night.

I approached her, with only good intentions, I swear. I'm not even really sure why I did. Most days I was cold-hearted and isolated. I intentionally didn't make friends at school because I truly did hate people. It's not that I was socially challenged or anything - I was able to be charming and princely and confident whenever it suited me. It wasn't hard to get a favor if I needed it. I just never saw the need to make friends when I didn't care about the relationship at all. It was pointless to me if I didn't get anything out of it. Plus, as charming as I was, I could be a little insensitive. I voiced my opinion whenever I had one and not everyone would always like that, so anyone who tried to befriend me generally regretted it. To this day it's still a mystery to me why I approached her that night five years ago. I wouldn't say I regret it though. The only thing I truly regret is not telling her I loved her. Not romantically, I loved her as a sister, and she saw me as a brother, but I had never loved anyone as much as I did her. She was so precious to me, I just never got around to telling her that.

Anyway, when I approached her that day, she didn't react. Actually, I don't think she even noticed me until I was directly in front of her, or maybe even until I said something to her.

I asked her if she was alright. She was startled and told me she was fine as she wiped her eyes. I told her that she wasn't alright, hoping that confidence would pay off, and she said she knew. That she knew she wasn't alright. If I remember correctly, her exact words were, "Damn it! I know I'm not fine. Just leave me the hell alone!".

I knew immediately that I wouldn't be able to leave her alone. She said that she knew she wasn't fine, but expected me to leave her be. That tipped me off that she was used to putting up a front, and used to being on her own. For her parents, teachers, whoever. I didn't know for who at the time, but it wasn't hard to figure out once she told me why she was in the rain alone.

I held out my hand and asked if she wanted to talk about it. She said no. That she just needed to cry. She also reminded me that my hand looked broken, which I had forgotten about by then. I told her what had happened between me and my dad, and explained that that was why I was in the rain alone.

It did surprise me though, how mature she seemed, so I asked how old she was, and she told me that she had turned nine two hours prior.

I didn't want to just leave her there in the rain so I asked if she had a phone, and she said yes, so I offered her my phone number in case she wanted to talk later. She essentially said screw it and recited her phone number to me while I copied it to my phone since she had left hers at home, not caring about possible water damage.

Either way, once I had her phone number, I realized I didn't have her name. I asked her, and the one thing I can still clearly hear her saying, even now, is the word Raven, with a bitter smile. I added her name to the contact, and before I left to head home, she told me to go get my hand checked out, and I promised I would. It was 12:38 am right then. That's when our friendship began. At 12:38 am on the first day of summer vacation, even if it wasn't strong yet.