Sunshine | Farkle

12: farkle meets raina faith

"attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity"

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"Please stop looking at me like that."

"In what way am I looking at you?"

"Like...like you're only sitting here with me right now as a charity case," she mumbles.

Raina Faith sits on the couch beside me, the one place where my friends and I consider a safe haven. To bring her here feels like I'm doing something wrong, but in the moment it just feels so right to be with her.

In her small hands is a cup of green tea I bought against her wishes. As she waits for the drink to cool down, she sits with her legs to her chest, curled up and vulnerable. Her face is now clean of whatever black stuff girls like to put on their face, the one that goes everywhere when they cry. Raina's hair was a mess of brown waves that surround her face beautifully. Looking at her felt like I was in an art museum, and if I blink even once, I miss everything.

"You're not a charity case," I tell her.

In her big blue eyes, I could see she didn't believe me. Her gaze switches from her green tea to my own, staring deep into my soul as if she was trying to figure out the hardest puzzle in the world.

"Farkle..." she sighs. Raina Faith's voice was unbelievably quiet, like she was afraid to speak her mind. What a cruel way to perceive things. "You don't...you don't have to be nice to me just because you saw me cry." Her fingers fiddle with the handle of her mug. "I appreciate it, I do, but you really don't have to do this."

"Why do you think your feelings are so unimportant?" I blurt out unexpectedly. Even I knew it was the wrong time to say it, yet I couldn't help myself.

I know things between her and Stuart aren't in the best place right now. It's my fault because of it. I just thought that I knew what was best for her and I tried to force her to do something she wasn't ready for. If I just waited, I would have realized that the only way to help those who can't see their toxic friendship is slowly deteriorating them is to help them realize it in time. I once read that a frog sitting in water that suddenly boils will instantly hop out. If the water were to slowly increase in temperature, the frog would sit in here until it was dead. That's the metaphor I need to keep in mind when it comes to the girl sitting before me. I just need to help her before the water gets too hot.

"W-What?" she stutters.

"It isn't hard to see how awful Sarah treats you," I say gently, watching as her bottom lip begins to quiver. "Someone as great as you doesn't need to take that kind of garbage. Why do you stick around and let her make you feel that way?"

Raina's mouth opens and closes multiple times in shock. She looks around us in disbelief, probably wondering if anyone heard how prying I was in her life. Crap, I think. She doesn't know I'm Stuart so my eagerness to be apart of her life must seem stalker-like.

"Oh God," I whisper under my breath, quiet enough so Raina couldn't hear my regret.

"I told you that there's so much going on that I can't explain," Raina says. She takes a sip of her drink before smiling softly. "It's all very complicated."

"I have time," I say sincerely. The look on her face makes my heart twist in my chest. Her lips part like she couldn't believe someone would want to sit with her for hours and let her talk, but that's all I've been yearning for since I first saw her. "Raina Faith take all the time you need. I'll listen to every word."