He carefully pushes away a strand of hair from my face and smiles warmly. I nod, “Okay.”
He gets up and strides back to the kitchen to finish up what he started. In the meantime, he tells me all about the way some woman kept arguing with the cashier at the store. Apparently, she wanted to buy four onions, but the package contained three and she couldn’t accept it and simply buy it.
People sure are weird.
He then proceeds to tell me that the snow is a true pain in the ass whenever he needs to drive and that despite liking winter, he can’t wait for spring to bloom.
At first, I thought he was more of a reserved person and that he likes being alone and quiet, but he’s rather talkative. He’s been rambling about his morning without end, and I can only sit at the table and listen to him as I shove a spoonful of cereal into my mouth. I like hearing him talk because he seems to enjoy having someone who listens.
After finishing packing out the groceries, he walks up to me and sits down on the opposite end of the table. Smiling, he intertwines his fingers on the wooden surface.
“Listen, you don’t have to tell me everything but you’re going to have to tell me more about your situation so I can help you,” he explains tenderly and tilts his head to the side, nudging me to speak.
I nod and rest my spoon in the now empty bowl. I have no idea where to start. There’s a lot to uncover honestly, and I’m notcomfortable telling him everything. I mean, he’s still a stranger, but he welcomed me in without hesitation.
I suck in a sharp breath and droop down on my hands resting in my lap.
“I might have lied to you,” I start, breathing hard.
I part my lips to continue but the lump in my throat won’t allow me. I force myself to inhale another sharp breath and spit the words out.
“Uhm, so I live in a foster home since my parents died in a car crash when I was nine.” I swallow, blinking at him then looking away. “After their death, I- I was sent to foster homes until last year when I ended up with the Keytons.”
Aoi’s expression darkens for a second though his eyes soften as he attentively listens to my story. “I see.”
“But it’s true that I don’t have anywhere to go! My foster family…well they…they aren’t as good as I wish they were. They…I’m sorry it’s hard to say.”
I feel my heart clench in my ribcage, and my insides constrict like an empty can of soda. I don’t want to remember what they did to me. I don’t want to think about it and even less speak about it.
Aoi reaches over the table and grabs my hands. An ocean floods me, his gaze pulls me in and shouts something, but I can’t grasp what. I look up at him, eyes burning with unshed tears, unable to stop chewing the inside of my cheek to keep myself from breaking.
The stinging sensation behind my eyes is too familiar to ignore. Tears will flow and I don’t want to cry in front of him. I hate being pitied.
“It’s okay. Visha, it’s okay,” he soothes.
Suddenly it’s as though the dam refraining my emotions from spilling cracks. What’s okay? I don’t understand but I believe him. Somehow no matter what he says, I believe him.I want to.
So, I let the dam break, and my tears spill out of me like a tidal wave, crashing down the stone into millions of debris. He caresses the back of my hand with his thumb, soothing me.
No one has ever comforted me like that. But this man in front of me holds my hands and at the same time years’ worth of sorrow.
He stands up and in two strides he appears in front of me. He gets on his knees and without hesitation surrounds me with his arms, tightly holding me in an embrace. Instead of comforting me, it makes me sob louder.
The pain, the loneliness, the fear of being alone in the world, surrounded by devils disguised as people. I let it all out, let myself feel it all, instead of burying it inside.
He strokes my head gently as I wail on his shoulder, repeating time and time again that it’s okay, and I take in his words. I gobble them up and bury them deep in my heart because now I sense that it will in fact be okay.
Hemakes it bearable.
I’ve known him for a day and yet he’s given me more than anyone else in twelve years.
10
Aoi
That’s it. I’m definitely going to hold on to this little boy and give him everything I own.
Visha didn’t explicitly tell mewhathis foster family inflicted on him, but I can imagine just how deeply they abused him for a child to desperately flee.
