Perfectly Imperfect

~40~

"She's a friend from my former school."

I replied quietly, surprisingly myself that I actually replied. He said nothing and he just waited patiently for me to go on.

"She wasn't only a friend though. She was the only friend I had then."

Tara would probably be the best friend I'd ever have. I don't think it'd be possible for me to completely be myself with another person other than her. She could have easily joined the other girls, especially Debby Atafo and her gang in making me an outcast and whatever other girls they choose to ignore and make their lives a living hell.

"We were both similar in lot of ways. We both did not find ourselves in any cliques that my classmates were quick to form just weeks into resumption so it was very easy for us to become really close."

Royals High fed on that. There were thousands of cliques in my set that I lost count of them. In Royals', it's either you belong somewhere or nowhere. While most girls scrambled to belong somewhere, even kissing up to bullies like Debby right then from JSS1, I just belonged nowhere. I just wanted to attend my classes and return back to the solitude of my room. I couldn't even belong anywhere if I tried, I was the fat girl and it's always easier for girls like me to become an outcast. I was just the lone girl who had no friends. That wasn't my choice but for Tara, it was her choice, she could easily belong to anywhere she wanted. Her parents were influential politicians who funded most of the school's activities so everybody wanted to be her friend. I forced myself to stop thinking so I'd start talking.

"We became really close. My friendship with her was one of the best thing then and then the other thing I really enjoyed back then was the music classes, especially the piano lessons. I really enjoyed playing back then."

I smiled subconsciously, remembering the many piano lessons I had with Tara, how we bonded and how she became so close to me. She became the sister I never had but everything ended up becoming a nightmare.

"You play the piano?"

Adam asked, something like incredulousness in his voice. I was doing more thinking than talking that I had forgotten that I was even talking to him.

I shook my head. Then nodded, then shook my head again.

"Played actually. It was just an hobby to me. My favorite hobby though."

"So why did you stop playing?"

He asked again, repositioning himself on the bench so his whole body was now facing me.

Why exactly did I stop playing?

Because playing reminded me of Tara. She was the major reason why I became that good at playing in the first place and then, things went south and I discovered her in the recording studio, her parents did not allow anybody from school to visit her and the school did not say anything about the whole issue because of their public image and I was just forced to bear it all.

He was still watching me, watching my every expressions, then he shook his head.

"I'm always here. You can tell me all about it any time."

I nodded and I looked away from his probing gaze. The night was still very dark and quiet and it stayed like that for a while until I felt something cold on my feet. I looked down, only to see a very small animal picking at something on the ground beside my feet.

It looked like a cat.

Yes, it was a cat until I looked closely and I discovered that it was Dog.

A dog!

A dog was busy picking at something on the floor beside my feet. I yelped and the dangerous animal yelped too before running off.