TIFITY

Family friends

Turns out Evangeline and I lived so near to each other. I learned she lived in Liverpool, just one hour away from my house in Manchester. Nevertheless, that's not the only thing I got to know about her during the more than two hours we stayed on the train. Right after the machinist left to solve everything, we sat together and started talking as if it was nothing. I couldn't believe how comfortable I felt... no panic attacks, no anxiety. Nothing. Just the two of us getting to know each other instead of being looking down to our phones like everyone else. We thought of making questions to make it easier. "I'll start" she suggested.

"What's your name again?" was the first question, of course. I just went "try to guess it" in an attempt of being funny, but Evangeline's face expression left clear that she was also shy when it came to those things, so I introduced myself as Alexis Peterson. The question thing ended right after I answered the first question, as we just continued talking. We first talked about the train's incident only, but as time passed we started talking about us, what we liked to do, favourite books, the music we listened to... We went through so many topics and details in just a few hours.

From what Evangeline told me about her, I could guess that her family wasn't so rich, but nor was mine. She talked about her biggest dream, which was to become a professional dancer. But she was sadly aware there was no way for her parents to pay the dance classes. However, they would do anything to make space for her to dance at home. "I wish my family was like yours", I said. All of a sudden Evangeline's face became serious, and she asked me why I would say that, which made too many things come to my mind.

I'm not going to say my family was the worst, but it was very far from being the best. I lived with both my parents and my big brother Jake. When Jake and I were young, our parents were so happy, or that's what I thought. They seemed to be happily married, but I guess I wasn't aware of what was going on. When we were outside or walking down the street everything seemed fine, but when we got home the situation changed drastically.

My father would make my mum feel ashamed any time he could, apart from victimising himself all the time. I guess he did it to make us feel guilty when the only one to blame was him. He would also make Jake and I get on our knees in front of the door and stay there for hours as punishment; I can't even get to explain how much my knees hurt.

He was against me "wasting my life" learning to play the piano, and so was everybody else just because his opinion was the most important. Moreover, I have to admit that the relationship with my father has never been so great, unlike the one I had with my mother. She would always look after everyone and make us feel better whenever we were feeling down. She was so understanding and caring. She didn't deserve the treatment she was receiving from my father...no matter what she did, he would pay his anger with her, and she still did what he asked her to. The truth is that, although my mum tried her best, my father would always have something to complain about. And about my brother... he was drunk all the time. He would come home almost unconscious and start shouting all over the house. He also would beat my mother and me if he felt so angry, just as my father. Summarising, none of us was happy with the "family" we had become. Members from the same family are supposed to help and support each other, right?

After I told all of this to Evangeline, she felt pitiful on me, although that was the last thing I wanted. She kept listening to me until I decided to shut up because I thought I was talking too much. Right after I stopped, in an attempt to comfort me, she explained: "every family is different". Her family wasn't perfect either.

She told me that they usually had trouble to pay the bills, but apart from that, they didn't have too many problems at home. She explained the love they had for each other was so strong, and that she was sure her parent would support her no matter what. She had no siblings, but she told me she would have loved to have had a little sister to look after. Then she went "we always want what we don't have, don't we?". She was right. I realized she loved her parents endlessly in just a few hours, and how they meant the whole world to each other. After mentioning that, I told her that was the reason why I'd like to have a family like hers, but she just interrupted me saying "and what about us being a family?". That was the best idea I had ever heard, and I was so up to becoming family friends.