A Dream, A Destiny 2

No Attention

Ash POV

"Nothing. I-I'm okay now," she assured me in a high resonance. Even her voice sounded miserable than her usual tone. I swallowed, squeezing her small shoulders anxiously as she avoided my gaze. S***, Alain better not have touched her again.

"Sere. What happened? Why were you crying?" I asked persistently, all the while making a mental note to call Mark as soon as I got home. Although Sere's father had told her to contact him if she had any problems, I knew for a fact that Sere wouldn't do that. If Alain had resumed beating up on Sere, I wasn't just going to be a quiet spectator. Sure, I couldn't tell Sere's mom, but I would definitely let Mark know. Maybe I was sticking my nose into something that didn't concern me, but at this point, I didn't care. Looking into Sere's shining eyes and seeing the hurt and pain- that made me not care whether I was meddling or not.

She shook her head making her hair sliding across her face covering slightly at her cheeks. "It's nothing. I just- stop looking at me like that."

Yup, I gave her a straight up 'yeah right' look which made her lips twitch slightly. My heart rose at the faint smile on her stark face. Something had happened, she didn't want to tell me but I was going to find out one way or another.

"What happened?" I questioned, my eyebrows crossed a little and creasing my forehead.

"Can we sit down somewhere, please? I feel kinda- woozy." She blinked a few times as I stared down at her, perplexed. "I still can't wrap my mind around this."

Wrapping my right arm around her waist and holding her close to me, I led her to the nearest park bench near the big lakes where ducks were paddling with the young ones, and tall trees with green leaves were waving side by side from the warm breeze. We sat down and I looked into her beautiful eyes.

"Okay, now are you going to tell me what's wrong or do I have to wring it out of you?" I asked, squeezing her shoulder once more as she bit her lip, deep in thought.

Then looking up at me, she spoke, "Remember when I told you that one of the boys at the daycare has a brother with cancer?"

I nodded, vaguely recalling her telling me something like that. "Yeah, I think so."

She wiped her teary eyes again as she continued, her voice breaking with each word she spoke out. "He slipped into a coma last night. His doctor says he doesn't have too long to- too long to live." She sniffed. "I went to see him today and his little brother- he was reading him a story, Ash. When I came in he said it was Kevin's favourite story and when he hears it he'll wake up."

"Oh- I'm so sorry."

I held Sere closer, my words of comfort sounding inadequate to my ears. She was clearly very attached to these kids and the prospect of losing Kevin was hurting her. My heart sank all the way down to my sneakers.

If Sere was acting this way over, how would she react if something happened to me? Not that I was trying to say that I was more important, but I was her boyfriend. If this was any indication as to how she would react if I did have complications during surgery, then maybe I had some thinking to do...

Laughing sheepishly, Sere said, "You must think I'm stupid for crying like this."

I shook my head immediately, clasping her cold hands in mine, my fingers grazing over her skin on the palm. "Not even. If something like this happened to me, I would be bawling my eyes out." Smiling at her, I caressed her soft cheek which it soon changed into crimson. I always knew that everytime I touch Sere it would always make her blush, but this was my careness and custody for her. "You're really brave." I breathed my own words, sounding more than just a whisper.