When I woke up, she wasn’t next to me. I was alone. I looked around for my friend, but she was gone. The paintings and colorful wall was hanging down around me. The Christmas lights were off and I could tell it was actually daylight outside.
I got up, slowly, and painfully. My back had sharp pains going in and out. I was hurting really badly, but I felt so happy at the same time. I walked down the stairs slowly, dragging all blankets on me, and looked at the time in the kitchen.
It was ten in the morning, which was the oddest thing since I haven’t slept pass eight since I’ve been here.
The house looked like it had before my friend came along. It was as if she were a ghost, like she was gone and turned to dust to join the stars.
I felt no one. I felt cold. Hope was meowing and I fed him. I watched him as I wondered about everything.
William walked into the house, seeing me wrapping myself in blankets and a confused look dripping on my face. He smiled and laughed. “Good morning, Tavi.”
“Where is Mihaela?”
“The Prieten family, oh, they left already,” he said, making my stomach drop.
“Already?” I repeated the last word. She would have said goodbye to me, right? She would have. Why would they have left without seeing me?
“Yeah, very lovely people, very funny, and very warm. Did you tell the girl anything?” he asked frowning.
“You mean Mihaela? No, I didn’t.”
He stared at me for the longest time, like he knew I was lying and was debating on how to handle it, but he just smiled and nodded.
“Are they safe?” I asked him. He gave me a funny look, “I mean, are they going home?”
“Yeah, they’re going home,” he said. “What did you and Mihaela do last night? I heard a lot of giggling.”
I felt ten times nervous. I felt guilty for some reason. I tried to hide my feelings from him, try to hide the happiness that she had brought. He couldn’t take that away from me. He just couldn’t. It was mind, and mind alone. “Just stuff.”
He seemed to tighten his jaw, but just nodded and walked away.
I started to remember her soft pink lips on mine. It made me smile. I didn’t like girls, not that way, but I did like Mihaela. I liked her spirit and her soul.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to date her, but if I did go that way, I think I would.
Not because she liked everything that I had like. But because she was kind, and her soul was warm and she was a fighter and I felt safer with her as though everything bad in the world would go away if she was next to me.
I remember what William said earlier about snow and people. I thought about the way he called some of them acid snowflakes. She wasn’t an acid snowflake; she was a breath of fresh air. She was the sunshine, melting it all away.
A few weeks passed. William told me I moped around way too much, and I needed to pick up a hobby, or clean, or do something.
“Hey, how about we get out of this house. I can teach you how to shoot some arrows. Would you like that? I have a bow and I don’t know, we should just try something different.”
“Um, I’m not good at that type of stuff.”
“Well, I’ll teach you,” he said. He gave me that same smile that he had, before he had drugged me. The trustable one. “Go get your shoes on, okay?”
I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to pass the time waiting for help to come, so I went and got my shoes from my room.
William had cleaned up my room a bit. When I put on my shoes, I looked outside the window. I saw the doe standing out there, and I suddenly felt sick. I tried to think about positive things and push her away from my thoughts.
After putting on all the warm clothes that helped me stay alive, I met him outside. He already had a target sat up, a big target that must have been hiding away in the shed. He already shot a few arrows as far as I could see.
He stopped when he saw me. I walked up next to him, wondering what he was doing.
“So, you want to hunt animals one day? I feel like going hunting right now, I just have this energy going in and out of me. I get like this sometimes.” I shook my head and he laughed. My wide eyes gave it all away. “No?”
“No.”
He just laughed that lonely laugh he always had. “I thought that would be your answer.”
“If you knew what it was, then why did you ask?”
He shrugged. “I hoped you would say yes. Anyways, here,” he said handing me the bow. It was heavier than I thought. I went down with the bow and almost hit the ground. William laughed. I slowly raised it and held it to my chest. William gave me an arrow.
He showed me where to place it and how to pull it back. I kind of had an idea from movies and books. Raise my chest up and keep an eye on the target. There was so much more to it than that. Books don’t teach you everything in life, sadly.
“Now let it go and aim it at the target.” I pulled it back and then let go. The arrow didn’t even make it to the target. It went backward. I puffed really loudly and dropped the bow down to my side. “That’s okay,” William said getting the arrow.
I did the same thing again and again and again. After ten minutes, William still kept his cool. It was a surprise considering how easy it was for him to lose him temper.
Why? Why couldn’t I be like other girls in books? They are all so naturally good at something when it was their first time even looking at a weapon.
Girls in books and movies nowadays were too perfect, too unrealistically smart. I’m just Tavi, and I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. I was smart, but so stupid at the same time.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
