The Girl With the Dandelion Ring

Chapter 4: Lies With A Side of Tears

Chapter 4: Lies With A Side of Tears

"So, where do I begin?" I think aloud. Ben sits across from me, straddling a stool and waiting patiently with a cooling cup of tea between his hands.

"Maybe at the start," he offers. I take a deep breath and nod.

"When I was younger, I met a girl named Rachel," his eyes widen slightly, but I continue on. "We were best friends for years. She was always bullied so I tried to stick up for her as much as I could. No matter how much they harassed her she was still able to meet it with a smile on her face. That was just how she was," My thumb rubs the handle of my teacup. "She was a pacifist through and through, trying to help people no matter how it affected her. She was... She was a saint." I stare into my tea as my words drift off. If my eyes weren't dry from my breakdown earlier, then I would have been crying again. "Three weeks ago she drove me to her house after school, like always. We were chatting in her backyard and suddenly things got really tense and serious..." I hesitate as Ben's intense stare freezes me. Gone is the playful, comforting Mr. Cinnamon that I have come to know. In his place is a serious stranger of a man. He licks his lips.

"Rachel," He starts off, "I knew her, too." My eyes widen at the news, he hadn't mentioned it last time I had talked about her. "She tried to help me through some things a year or two ago, but then she bailed on me. I came all this way looking for her... And now she's dead." He stares at his hands, seemingly in defeat.

Should I reach out to him? I ask myself, He held me for all that time when I was crying, it's the least I could do, right?

Just as I lift up my hand, his rough voice cracks out a sentence. "How did she die?"

I close my eyes as I remember everything about that day. The wind in the trees, the animals running amok, the flowers reaching up towards the sky. Her crazy powers, her last words, the blinding white light. The ring that I now carry upon my finger.

I hesitate, debating what to tell him. "She died in my arms... a heart attack is what the doctors said." The last part was a lie, she hadn't had a body to take to the doctors. She had simply stopped existing. One minute she was here, in the next one, the white light had traveled through her body eating away at her and leaving only air behind.

As the news of her death sets it we sit in silence. I'm left wondering if he can see through my lies. Will he figure it out? Confront me? What would I do then? Lie to him more? I grow nervous as the time stretches. Heat builds in my chest and I feel like confessing the truth. But something this important should be kept a secret. At least until I know more about it. Maybe you should just wish to know what Rachel did. I might, it would answer a lot of questions, but even Rachel didn't know how to destroy the ring. That's why she left it in my useless hands.

I can't sit still any longer, so I gather our teacups and the empty plate from the table. I take them to the sink and quickly wash them, enjoying the cold water running over my hands. His words start to bother me. Why had Rachel's past life never occurred to me? I don't remember anything about her arrival either. I had never met her parents even though I had been going to her house every week at least once. I have many memories with her, but none of her past, her family, her dreams. Why don't I remember the day we met? Maybe she had used a wish to enter my life. But if so, why? What was she trying to escape from?

"Why did she Rachel leave so suddenly?" I ask him.

He looks up from his hands finally, straight into my eyes with such a sorrowful look that I can't help but melt inside. "Maybe another day, Sunshine...I...I just need a minute alright?" He slowly stands and works his way to the couch, falling onto it and pulling out a phone from his pocket-. "Hey," He calls to me, picking up a black tank top and a pair of skinny jeans from the pile of clothes on the table. "Here are your clothes back." He wiggles his eyebrows at my blush as I snatch them from his hands and dash madly out of his sight. I feel his eyes following as I slam the door to his room behind me.