remember when I knew

CHEN AZALEA

"WHAT ARE you drawing?" Azalea asked Eric, watching him in his focused state. The pens around him were still open and messily parted. She couldn't help an amused smile at his concentration.

"I'm drawing my feelings," the boy explained.

"Oooh," she smiled. "That I have to see."

"When I'm done," he promised with a nod, still looking at his sheet.

"Do you want me to tidy those for you?" She asked him, pointing at the pens. She remembered reading that people with ADHD used to prefer tidied places since it helped concentrating.

"Yeah. I get a little carried away when I draw," he admitted sheepishly.

"That's alright. I'm kinda messy too."

She took the pen and aligned them with a colour theme, not having anything better to do. Beside her, Heather was talking to Sasha with a very serious face.

"Are they friends?" She asked Eric.

He moved a little on the floor and nodded. "I don't know... They are often together. Maybe."

She hummed and looked at the girls as they grimaced. "And do you know what they're doing?"

"They have... Some kind of deal going on," the boy answered. "Sasha helps Heather with school work and Heather helps her understand things. Like yesterday, she taught her to smile." He leaned towards her. "But I don't think she's very good at it," he added in a whisper.

Azalea didn't answer first, thinking about what to say. "And... why do you think so?"

Eric shrugged. "It's kinda scary when she does it. And I'm not scared very often."

Azalea bit the inside of her cheek. "Do you think she should stop doing it then?" She asked, genuinely curious about what he was going to say.

Eric changed position again. "No. I think she should try and try again. Until she can show the mean people that she can do it."

"The mean people?" Azalea repeated.

"The other kids. They were laughing at her yesterday because she got scared of the ball, at sports."

"Oh."

Was beating up kids considered really bad? Probably not... right? The boy'd said it: they were mean. You could punch mean kids... right?

"They make fun of all of us."

"And... What do they say?"

He wrinkled his nose. "They usually say I'm weird. And they laugh at Heather because she needs to jump three times before she enters a room. And they told Andy he was a girl because he was a crying the other day."

"And what do you think of that?"

Eric rolled his eyes. "I think they're stupid. And they don't know anything. They said we were lucky because we don't have to go to all the classes."

"But you go to school. Simply a different one."

"I know. And I don't think we're lucky. He doesn't want to live what we live. No one wants. Sometimes, Heather feels so anxious she bangs he head on the wall. She says she's afraid of hurting someone else if she doesn't."

"If someone proposed to make your ADHD disappear, would you say yes?"

He seemed thoughtful. "I... I don't know? I never thought of it?" He shrugged. "Normal people never see the cool stuff, they're always so boring and working."

"Cool stuff like what?"

He seemed to struggle a bit. "Uh... Things like- Well... Once, daddy was talking to me about my grades and I saw a very pretty butterfly. It had so amazing colours, and I loved how they went together. Daddy didn't see how the different shades of blue mixed. He was angry at me because I couldn't remember what he said. But I'm happy I saw the butterfly."

Azalea chuckled. "It seemed to be a very stunning butterfly."

"But sometimes, I wish others could see the butterfly," Eric admitted. "So they can understand how pretty it is. If they see it, they'll understand why I look at it."

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A/N: I'm so tired I can't stop my brain and now it's like over-working. Like, two minutes ago, I was thinking about socks, and I still don't know why???

Yeah... Who's your favourite character in my book?

Question: Who's your favourite character of every book you've read?

I'm in love with Lila Bard (A Darker Shad Of Magic).