“Tavi, what do you believe in?”
“Um, I’m not sure. At this point, I think I am just confused.”
“I suppose I am confused too. I mean, I’m not sure. I believe there is something, but something different than God. Or maybe it is God . . . Um, can I tell you something?” I nodded, waiting. “Well, when I was little, and I first moved, my family had driven us around. We were driving around, and I saw the mountains and the blue sky, and all that warm sand.
“Well, we stopped at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, and I was only seven at the time. There was this girl. She was gorgeous and had bright blonde hair, almost orange, and triangles on her right cheek, and two lines on the other. She looked like something in a theater you would see, but she was just so beautiful. I had wandered from my family.
“I was too busy looking at her, that I didn’t notice that there was this snake. She saw it, and she saved me. My family rushed over because I screamed. They saw the snake, but it was leaving, and it was hissing at the girl. Well, she saved me, and then she disappeared. I see her off and on again. I call her the Dessert Spirit. I guess, kind of like an angel in a way. Is that weird?”
I shook my head. “I think you should believe in whatever you want. She sounds like a guardian angel. Sometimes I see this doe.”
I paused, not wanting to say anymore. I couldn’t put her life in danger. She needed to live her perfect life far away from me as possible.
“Your dad, can I say something about him?” I nodded and didn’t look up. “I know that we just met and stuff, but I feel like you are truly my cel mai bun prieten.” She pointed to the wall where she had written. I smiled, remembering what she told it to me what it meant. “But, I do have to ask you something. Does your dad, you now, abuse you?”
How could she have known? I shook my head too quickly, and my eyes betrayed me. “No.”
“I’m not going to tell anyone if you don’t want me to.”
“I, um, well, it’s just complicated.”
“Does he hit you?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I don’t meet to sound rude, but I don’t get a good feeling from your dad.”
I nodded. William hasn’t been around other people, so I couldn’t tell how he would act around them. If she wasn’t getting a good feeling, would that mean a lot of individuals wouldn’t? I wonder what people think when they saw him. Maybe they didn’t notice.
All those people had been watching him at the café; they should have known he wasn’t up to any good. They should have seen the danger, but they were too busy with their own lives.
I just looked down and started crying. It was the first time I got to cry with someone that I didn’t fear. She ended up hugging me and telling me shhhh. “It’s okay, Tavi. You’re old enough to live where you want. You can live with your mom.”
She didn’t know. She had no idea how wrong she was. I wish everything that she told me were true. That it would have been all okay.
“I can’t, that’s the thing,” I whispered. “I’m here against my will.”
She blinked. Confusion was lit in her soft brown eyes. “I don’t follow.”
I told her about the coffee shop, about him bringing me here, about him abusing me. I even ended up telling her about the time I almost got raped, and how William had saved me and killed the guy.
I told her that he wasn’t my dad, and that he had been stalking me for so many years. I was trying not to let my voice crack. She just kept hugging me and telling me it was okay, but I could see fear growing in her as I told her everything.
By the time I was finished, all she could say was, “Tavi, I’m sorry about all this.”
“I’m sorry too,” I said wiping away the last of the tears. It felt so good just to get everything out. It was so nice to talk to a girl my age, someone who understood everything because they were at that stage in life too.
“Give me your parent’s phone number. When I get to town tomorrow after William drops us off, I’ll tell my parents, and we’ll call your parents-”
“No, I can’t put your life in danger.”
She shook her head like the brave girl she was. “Tavi, I want to do this. I want to help you.”
I thought about it for a second. I wrote down my mom’s phone number and my dad’s work number. I also wrote down 911 in case she didn’t know the emergency number in America. I folded the piece of paper and handed it to her. She tucked it away safely in her bra. “Don’t worry, Tavi; I’ll get you out of here.”
I smiled and ended up hugging her. “Thank you, Mihaela. Thank you.”
She hugged me back and said, “It’s getting late, don’t you think? We should get some sleep.”
I nodded, and we lay down in that tiny room. Hope laid on me and went to sleep fast. Mihaela and I held hands as we laid.
It felt right, to hold someone’s hand when you were scared. It felt right to feel someone else’s skin. It let me know that I wasn’t alone.
“Tavi, when you were almost raped, was that your first kiss?” she asked.
I nodded.
“And your only kiss?” she asked.
I nodded.
She leant in close to my face, and she put her lips on mine. I didn’t fight her like I fought my attacker. Her lips were so soft and so pure, and so beautiful. It was sweet. Like honey. I started to feel heavy in my stomach. Like I was going to throw up, but I knew I wasn’t.
My legs felt heavy. I got a sharp feeling in my bellybutton. It was the softest thing I had ever felt. The kiss lasted about ten seconds. I know, because I counted. When she pulled away, she smiled.
“Now, you have a real kiss, a kiss that you can now remember, instead of that ugly first one,” she told me.
“Um, I’m not . . . Gay,” I bashfully told her.
“Neither am I. It was just a kiss; don’t think too much about it. Goodnight Tavi,” she said.
“Goodnight Mihaela,” I said. She took my head, and we closed our eyes.
I smiled at the hope the future was going to bring us. For the first time, the acid snowflakes had all melted away. I looked over to her a few times during the night, and just couldn’t get myself to stop smiling.
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