Alone

A brown leaf fell from the tree, she picked it up and examined it. The tree was full of fresh green leaves, the brown leaf didn’t belong up there. Just like how she didn’t belong here, in this world, with these people.

She then passed a rose bush, there was a gorgeous set of intense red roses and one wilting pale rose. She glanced up at the sky, she knew what it was telling her. She was the brown leaf of the beautiful green tree, she was the wilting pale rose from the rose bush. She didn’t belong and no matter how much she tried, there will always be the same feeling of which she didn’t have a place in the world.

She strode on her way to the market, her mother had told her that she ought to go out more and make new friends. But how could Steph make new friends when everyone had already labelled her without truly knowing her. She heard all the rumours of her living in a forest or that she was mental. They were all false of course, she lived in a two-bedroom house with her Mum and the last time she went to the doctors there was nothing wrong with her.

Although she wished she lived in a forest, maybe then people would leave her alone and in peace. People would be scared of her and wouldn’t approach her. They would give her these looks as though she was a freak. But she wasn’t, she was just a teenager trying to find her place in this big world.

She passed 12 shops before she saw something that caught her eye, it was a t-shirt that had the words ‘Different is special I’m one of a kind’ it was quirky and it was just the message she wanted to show. She bought it and skipped along the other stalls.

Up until she bumped into a tall man.

“Watch where your going you freak!” He shouted.

Steph just looked up and stared at him blankly.

“Can’t you talk or something?” He laughed mockingly at her.

She gulped and spoke “I can talk, I just don’t know what your problem is. You bumped into me and for your information I am not a freak I’m just special.” She smiled remembering the t-shirt she just bought.

“Whatever, the hospitals that way.” He said still making fun of her.

She just smiled back, she was called mental all the time. So she just learned not to get offended anymore.

“I don’t need a hospital, thank you very much. But I assume you need glasses as you couldn’t obviously see that I was coming this way.” She said holding her head up high and walking away.

If only everything was just that simple, except she had to deal with the whole school calling her names and she couldn’t very well just walk out of school.

As she got home she ran upstairs to her room, she heard her mother calling but thought best not to answer. Her mother would usually just complain about her, it was the same every single day. Why can’t you be more like the other girls in your school? You should wear dresses to make you look pretty. Why wont you talk to me? You should dye your hair, it doesn’t suit you. You should get a makeover the girls next door are doing so. She didn’t want to hear it. So she went outside, to clear her head.

She kept on walking, not aware of where she was going until she tripped on something. It was a huge bag dumped in the street.

She screamed and then she looked up, “Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She apologised.

“No it was me,” The girl with long dark hair said. She was much more kinder than the man who bumped into her. The dark-haired girl had warm brown eyes and a gentle smile.

“I’m Steph.”

“And I’m Naomi.” The dark-haired girl introduced.

“Nice to meet you,” They both then looked at the sky, “It’s going to rain, do you know anywhere we could go” Steph asked.

“Well there’s a café on the right, maybe we can go in there.” Naomi suggested.

“So tell me, what were you doing when I first saw you?” Steph asked.

“Oh well, I was umm…” Naomi forced her tears back, she didn’t want to cry in front of her new friend.

“Don’t worry its okay, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” Steph reassured. She shouldn’t have said that, she slapped her hand on her head. She couldn’t believe she made her new friend uncomfortable on the first day, as well.

Naomi nodded, so Steph changed the subject.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“No thanks, I’m not hungry.” Naomi politely declined. But at that moment her tummy rumbled.

“Come on, I’ll pay!” Steph offered with a big smile on her face.

“Um okay then.” Naomi gave up, realising Steph wasn’t going to take no for an answer.