~~ NINE
For the next few months, I wished I was kid again. I wished that with the sound of Nick's laughter and the look in his bright, blue eyes, I could feel whole again, complete, like nothing bad could happen.
I wished for my swing in the park where I was safe because Dad would be there, and he never let me get hurt.
But that wasn't going to happen. Instead of sitting on the swings with the boy who stole my heart, I spent the next few months by his bedside as his health deteriorated until he was barely able to do anything for himself.
I know he hated me seeing him like that. Gone was the little boy who held my hand and wiped my tears; it was my turn to do that for him. I held his hand as he suffered through hours of treatments; wiped his tears and sweat every time he emptied his already-empty stomach into the basin beside him.
It hurt that he didn't want me there, that he refused to even look at me some days; and the long, empty silences we'd find ourselves in more often than not broke me.
Every night, I'd kiss his forehead and tuck him up before leaving for home, where my mother would sometimes be passed out on the sofa. Other times, she wasn't there at all.
The rest of the night would be spent with me holed up in my room, sobbing my heart out and feeling just like the little seven-year-old who didn't know where her dad had gone. Except, this time, I knew exactly what was happening, and that made it even worse.
Time didn't heal my broken heart, nor will it ever.
I spent the sleepless, restless nights wishing for that 'poke in the eye' rather than the pain I felt every time I looked at the boy I loved, so miserable and frail.
I wished my heart could've been enough for him.
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Piece by Piece
Romance"I cried for the boy beside me, whose blue eyes had lost their spark because of the dark blue bruise on his cheek." Meeting in a playground one night, two children develop a bond that spans many years and slowly turns into something more than eithe...
