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Chapter 2
I felt the cool wind blowing through my hair uncovering my face and revealing a shocked expression. I restudied his face and it had a faint pink shade to it. His eyes were avoiding contact with my eyes and the unbearable silence broke once I struggled to reply, “Excuse me…Can you repeat that because I don’t think I heard you correctly”.
His eyes finally made contact with mine and he appeared sincere. He tried to hold my hand, but I kept moving it away. He finally gave up and restated slowly, “I want you to be mine”.
I felt my vision begin to fail me and I began to feel lightheaded. I looked at him and stated, “Uhha, really?”
“Yes… really”, he smiled.
What was he trying to do? Why is he telling me this? There is only one explanation. This made me angry. Rage gradually rose to my face causing my hatred to burn ablaze. “What kind of sick joke are you trying to pull cause no one here is going to laugh!” I yelled at him.
His expression drastically changed from calm, to confused, and then to heartbroken as I continued, “You should tell your pathetic friends, who are hiding somewhere, that messing with beggars and their feelings is WRONG!” I felt sick to my stomach after I had finished my sentence. I began to turn around to head back to where Lilly was when his hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to him.
I hated this. “LET GO!” I shouted, but all he did was discontinue his pull on me. I was breathing heavily now.
We were still centimeters apart and he began with a sad tone, “Dominique, please listen to me”.
I was surprised that he knew my name even though I had never introduced myself to him. “How do you know my name?” I questioned furrowing an eyebrow.
He seemed to fidget a little before answering, but he replied, “I have been watching you for some time now and I have noticed that you are in need of someone’s affection”.
“You were stalking me!” I spat disgustedly, “Who stalks beggars, you freak?” Right then, I stepped on his foot forcing him to release me from his grasp. I began to run toward Lilly’s direction when he quickly ran in front of me stopping me.
“Let me finish”, he pleaded, “You are ugly-” And just at that moment, I pushed him to the ground after a displeased ‘ugh’ exited my lips. I started, again, toward Lilly, but this time clutching my fists and stomping my feet.
“You didn’t let me finish”, he beseeched and without turning or stopping to face him, he continued, “You’re ugly just like me”. I stopped in my tracks shocked to what I have just heard. “The people around me question my style of clothing and hair”, he began with a miserable pitch, “The person I have a huge crush on since I was young can’t look at my face without saying ‘Look at how bushy his brows are!’”. His eyes began to water and his expression was desperate. “I noticed how people treated you and I know that they hurt you with their words and reactions just as much as they hurt me”.
I felt guilty. I took him the wrong way from the start. This was never another joke some insensitive group of teenagers was going to pull. He just wanted a friend. I walked closer to him and asked, “So what do you want from me? I have suffered more than you could imagine”. I looked straight into his black eyes as I saw my reflection mirroring off of them. “I can’t walk around town yelling ‘Uglies are Humans too!’”.
He giggled a little at my idiotic idea and said, “Since we are both ugly and nobody dares to look into our faces without vomiting, then why not help each other cope with our hideous appearance”.
Examining him up and down I realized that he was in need of help. He was bleeding mildly on the inside and he needed someone to suture that bleeding hole in his heart. I wanted to help him, yet I knew I couldn’t. I looked him over and assessed his appearance. “I don’t know what people are saying about you, but I think that your hair, clothes, and your bushy brows are what make you… you. You’re handsome and strong and confident. What else could you need?” I told him internally reflecting on my own sad appearance. At least when people look at him they know he is a boy, but when they see me they are typically confused whether I’m a girl, boy, or monster. He didn’t seem convinced by my words of advice. “How old are you Lee?” I questioned.
“I’m sixteen”, he answered confused.
“Well, I’m seventeen. I am older than you”, I clarified.
“So?” he stated while taking a sudden interest in his shoes.
“So, we can’t be together; we can’t go out. But I’ll tell you what, if you’re in need, then you could come to me and I could be the friend who comforts and supports you”, I smiled at him. ‘Looking at me would be enough to make anyone accept their appearance’, I thought dejectedly, but hid my pain with a fake smile.
He lifted his head up with such cheer and happiness it made me burst with joy. He ran toward me, hugged me, and said, “Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!”
Did he just hug me? I couldn’t wrap my mine around it, but I was so thrilled to be friended. “You are very so welcome”, I beamed.
He released me after a couple of spins. “Here”, he gave me a piece of paper with letters and numbers written on it.
“What is it?” I asked.
He smiled, rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, and replied, “I sort of came prepared…it’s my address. If you need anything then you know where to find me. Also, my number is there in case of an emergency”
I giggled, how nice is this guy? “Thank you”, I said walking back to Lilly. I placed the piece of paper in a fold in my torn clothes for safe keeping and said to Lilly once I reached her, “Let’s go find an alley to sleep in”. Silence. I didn’t get a reply so I stared at her. I noticed that she was fast asleep on the moss covered bench. She must have been tired after what we had gone through. I smiled at her and wished her sweet dreams. I looked around, but there were no extra seats. I got up and went and slept on the color faded slide since there were no extra benches. This night, I slept quickly and quietly knowing that I had a friend now.
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The next morning, I woke to the screams of little children and the curses of adults and teens.
“How disgusting”, one said.
“She’s going to scare off all the children!” said a woman in a concerned tone.
“She’s allowed to roam around freely in our streets, alleys, and trash! And now she’s lying about in our playgrounds!” another stated harshly.
At this moment, I was debating whether to get up or to pretend to be asleep and hope that the crowd would eventually scatter. The decision was set when I felt something hard hit my stomach and land on my lap. I opened my eyes to see what it was and found that it was a stone. I looked up to try and find out who threw it, but, to my shock, almost every child in front of me was either holding a stone or a stick preparing to throw at me. I tried to cover my face as best as I could from their throws, but much to my amusement almost every throw hit me remorselessly. Once the stones and sticks made contact with my body, I felt piercing pains, cuts, and blood running down every inch of my being.
“Stop!” I began to yell desperately, but not many of the adults seemed concerned about their children’s actions. They appeared to support their cruel inhuman act. I began to yell, but I was unable to stand and dismount off the slide to make my escape from my heavy weight and large hipbones. I was stuck! As I yelled for help, only one came to my rescue…it was Lilly. Brave as she was, she was still unable to stop their attacks. She got herself caught in the ongoing fire.
Lilly seemed desperate to end this charade. She yelled, “Stop and I’ll give you anything you want?” At that moment, I felt no pain being added to my body by more sticks and stones. I uncovered my face cautiously and noticed that everyone look as if they were confused and unsure of what to do next.
A kid stepped forward. “What are you going to give us beggar… All the money you have?!” he stated bitterly with a smug grin spreading across his face. Many of the children chuckled, while others laughed silently.
“How much money do you have? 50 cents? What is that going to buy me, huh? A piece of gum?” another snickered.
Another kid stepped forward. “Or are you going to give us your torn clothes or your shoe with the hole in it?”
Lilly flinched. She was unsure of how to reply to them. What could she give them? What did we have to offer? The answer was so simply that even all of the kids in the park knew it.
“I…”, she stuttered, “I… will give you…” she bit her lip.
The first kid laughed. He seemed taller than all of the other kids and much much meaner. He might have been ten or so, if I wasn’t mistaken. He was wearing a red plain bandana wrapping his coppery hair with and a dark leather jacket with black boots. He took another step forward, “What’s wrong, cat got your tongue?”
I couldn’t handle this anymore. I struggled off the slide as I squirmed and wriggled. I could hear more snickering and mockery arise, but I didn’t care right then. This kid needs to learn when enough was enough. I stepped forward and hissed, “You better back off kid before I come over there and make you back off!”
“Oh, I guess the hippopotamus wants to teach me a lesson”. My face was reddened with humiliation. “Are you that hungry for a knuckle sandwich?!” His lips twisted with pleasure.
“You’re the one who’s hungry for… a bar of soap!” I blurted out. The laughter had gotten louder. Nobody hide their joy of watching us get tormented like this. Do they not have a conscious?
Some of the people weren’t laughing, but they weren’t doing anything either. Many of those quiet groups decided to grab their kids and leave. I was quite irritated by this. Do we have to beg for their help as well?
Lilly stepped forward, “Hey kid, stop pretending that you’re slick”, she finished with a confident grin.
“Who said that I was pretending”. With that answer, the grin on her face faded away.
“Well, you’re not funny”, I added trying to strengthen Lilly’s argument.
He shook his head disappointedly, “You guys are weak. You have no skills when it comes to arguing”. I wanted to defend ourselves from his offensive comment, but it was true, we were terrible at insulting him.
An idea came flat to me and I burst out without thinking completely, “You’re mom is ugly and your dad is an ogre”, I smiled evilly hoping to win this battle. The look on his face was priceless. He was utterly shocked and he didn’t even have another name to call us. ‘We won’, I thought until I noticed a large guy heading toward me with his fists clenched tightly at his sides. He became notably angry from my unwise comment.
He reached the group of kids that surrounded the slide. “What did she say about our mother, little bro? And what was it about our father that she has said about him?” he asked while he cracked his knuckles making me shiver on what he planned to do next.
I could see the resemblance between those two. The little kid had his brows furrowed and was glaring straight at me. “She called our mom ugly and our dad an ogre”.
The big guy breathed heavily, “Did she now”, he looked furiously at me. I wanted to run when he was inches away from pummeling me into the ground, but I was unmoved. You could say that I was being brave, but the truth was that I was too afraid to move. He stood right in front of me now. I had to raise my head all the way up just to be able to make eye contact. He was so tall he could have been mistaken for a skyscraper.
He lifted me up from my collar with one hand to allow me to confront him face to face. “You say something bad about my ma and pa!” his voice slammed into my ears.
I must have been shaking and quite white as he glared into my eyes, “N…No”, I stammered.
“Don’t lie in my face! You go over there and kiss Ma’s feet and beg her for forgiveness”.
More begging? Isn’t it enough to see us toiling to exist and rummaging through trash? “I won’t”, I found my courage to say.
“What did you say?” he shoved a fist threateningly into my face.
“Aguri! Put her down”, an old woman’s voice commanded, “Leave the poor girl alone”.
“But ma she called you ugly!” he protested with a disappointed tone.
“Well I’m not young and beautiful now am I?” She began. She had head full of gray hair and wrinkles all over. She walked around with a cane for support and continued wisely, “She was just sick of you guys badmouthing her and her sister. Now let her go and let’s go home”, she turned her back to us and added demandingly, “The both of you”.
He slowly lowered me to the ground. “Yes ma”, he drawled and left behind his aging mother.
I was glad that was over, but the little boy in front of me was unmoved. Did he not want to go home with his family? He was still glaring at me. “I’m not going to forgive you for speaking ill of my Ma”, he boiled in anger and hate, “I’m going to punish you for your bad manners”.
My jaw dropped open. Who was the one with the bad manners here? It’s obviously not me! I looked over at Lilly and she seemed just as shocked as I was, but I guess I understand where he was coming from. He cared for his parents, compared to us. But he seemed quite angry of me insulting his mother, not much his father…But why? We returned our attention to the little boy.
I thought about what I said to him and I guess I was harsh to make unkind remarks about his parents. “Listen kid”, I began with a defeated and guilty tone, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things about your parents. I was just… annoyed by your comments about us…you have no idea what we have gone through”. I dropped my head unable to look the little kid in the eye. How could I be so stupid and easily moved? He was just a kid…was I blinded to see that?
“And you have no idea what I have gone through”, he bit his lip hard trying to prevent himself from breaking down and crying. At that moment, he made me feel guilt-ridden. “My mother had to take care of me and three of my siblings on her own. My father is an ogre for all I care. He left us when before I was born and he considered all of his kids ‘accidents’. How could he get three kids by the same woman and consider them an accident is beyond me, but I guess I might have been the only accident here. I was born with a disorder, but that doesn’t change my opinion of him because my mother suffered to keep me living”, he began to cry.
Torment. That was something that was currently tearing my insides. “We’re sorry”, Lilly jumped in in shame. We received many dirty looks from the people around us. Defiant stares, frowns, and scowls were seen and heard. Some people left out of disgust, while others just wanted to watch what happens to the poor beggar girls in the end.
‘They will never change their mind about us after this’, I thought sadly.
“Stop apologizing!” the kid burst dryly, “I already said I won’t forgive you!”
“You know we didn’t mean it!” I pleaded.
“Stop it!” he put his hands on his ears like a little child, “I don’t want to hear your excuses anymore!” He began to sob. “My mother was a hardworking woman and my father was a drug addict and a gang member. He beat her up every morning and cut her every night. She bled everyday she was with him, but she did it to keep our family together… and she failed”, he yelled falling to the ground.
I stood there contemplating on what to do next. I was unsure of how I should approach this situation. “Our parents left us since we were kids”, I began, “Your mother was brave to do that for her family. My mother wasn’t there all our life”. I caught his attention. He sobbed a little less now, but he was still angry with me. I could see it in his dark green eyes. “I take back what I said about your parents… but on the other hand… my parents were really the ugly ogres”.
“…”. The kid stopped his sobs now. He was quiet and his cheeks were pink from crying. “You’re right. You’re parents are ugly ogres for doing that to you”, he replied with a smug smile on his face.
“I guess we’re even now”, I smirked.
“Yeah, I guess”, he evaded eye contact with me. He lowered his upper body to the ground and grabbed a stone and a stick. “What happened today reminded me of how the kids used to treat me in school. When I got home, my mother used to embrace me and tell me that ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me’, but I didn’t believe her. Have you heard of this statement before?”
“I heard something of it…Why do you ask?”
“I just wanted to know your opinion, if it were true… that words can never hurt you”, he said sheepishly hitting the dirt with his shoe.
‘You asked the right people’, I thought. “Well you guys obviously showed that sticks and stones could break my bones when you threw them at me while I was on the slide” I put my hands on my hips, while staring at the kids in front of me”, I heard snickering and embarrassed looks on many. “For the words you have used against us, I would have to say that they didn’t hurt in a way that you could see it… but they did hurt core”, I pointed to my heart. “Words like those only make you bleed deeply under your skin where no one could see it gushing out of you. They think it doesn’t hurt, that we don’t hear what is said about us, or that we don’t care, but it’s all an act. We bleed, but we don’t show it”.
I confronted the people watching us with a head held high and confidence beyond compare. I cringed a little when I noticed a man, around my age, awkwardly inspecting me. He seemed to notice my sudden fear of him and a wide grin proudly spread across his face. He wore a black hat with, what seemed to be, ears popping out of its top and he had purple markings across his face that distorted his true appearance. He had a girl around Lilly’s age beside him tugging on his shirt and whispering words into his hidden ears. His attention was focused on me that he didn’t seem to notice what she was saying to him. His stare got so intimidating that I decided to glance over at the girl next to him who was also gawking at me. The woman wrapped her arm around the man’s and intertwined her fingers into his. Was she jealous of me? She had hip length smooth black hair, black eyes, and a nice body figure. Once my eyes met hers, I averted my gaze coyly and finished my glance at the rest of the people as if nothing had happened. I glanced at the people who had judged Lilly and I as unworthy beggars.
“Looks like I learned something new from you beggars”, he snickered. I gave him a dirty glance. Why is he still calling us beggars? To my surprise, he began to chuckle. “You’re soft. You need to be a little less touchy”.
I raised an eyebrow at him expecting an apology. It took a while, but he apologized sincerely.
“I never got your name”, I told him, “What is it?”
“My name is Nagaharu. You didn’t introduce yourself or your sister either”, he pointed out.
“I’m Dominique and this is my sister Lilly. It was nice to meet you”
“It was nice meeting you as well and to show my full gratitude I want you to have this”, he handed me some money. “It’s not much, but I think it could help you out after what you guys have been through”.
I smiled knowingly at him, “Looks like you have a giant soft spot too mister”.
He blushed. “What! I was just trying to be nice”.
I giggled and Lilly chuckled, “Sure. Whatever makes you happy”.
He looked happy then he looked sad. “Can I see you tomorrow?”
Was he concerned about us? “Let me check my schedule… I guess I’m free tomorrow”, I sang, “Same time same place?”
He lit up, “Yeah, same time same place”. He waved his goodbyes to us and ran after his mother and brother.
The crowd around us was a weird bunch. They were silent and observant. Some gave us approving grins and nods for this unexpected performance, while others just left the playground and tried their best to avoid contact with us. All in all, it was a day.
As the sun set, it sent dazzling rays of reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks across the playground. The children reunited with their parents, packed their things, and began to leave. We waved goodbye to the children who made an effort to get to know us better as they left the park. It began to feel lonesome again.
Lilly walked by me. “Maybe one day all of the kids will treat us better”, she sighed in hope.
“That would be nice”, I said while shifting my gaze at the bright moon. Its rays shone so brightly on my filthy skin.
Ever since I remember, the moon has always comforted me. I enjoyed its rays of light in the streets that illuminate and guide our way. But for some reason, I was always soothed by its dark shades. The phases of the moon enlightened me. It is mysterious how it changes each night and how, at times, it combines both light and dark on its surface. It is like good and bad are contrasted in the moon and its shades.
I giggled at my idiotic thoughts and heard the rustling of the bushes and trees. What caught my attention was that there was no wind present. I guess it’s an animal hiding.
Lilly headed toward the trees, “I bet it’s a squirrel gathering nuts”, Lilly stated while walking closer to the bush and trees.
“Don’t get too close, I don’t want anything to attack you”, I stated a little concerned.
Her pace slowed and placed her attention on me. “Right, like a squirrel is a match for me”, Lilly stated sarcastically while flexing her muscles. She turned her attention back to the bushes and said, “Come out, come out chubby cheeks. I won’t hurt you”.
The bushes began to rustle wildly now and a dark figure appeared from behind those bushes. We were both shocked at what we saw. It was a man with a familiar expression of a bloodthirsty homicidal maniac, with a wicked smile, and a dirty face.
“I’ve been watching you, and this time I’m going to waste you”, said the figure maniacally, “Don’t be naughty and try to run away from daddy!”
As the figure moved closer, the moonlight shone sacredly across his face. It was a man with bloodshot eyes and a familiar cutting tool. Soon we realized that the man who was advancing toward us was the man we had encountered in the alley the day before. We fell to our knees in tears helpless and desperate.
Chapter end. Anyway, this is my chapter 2. Hope y'all enjoyed. As I said last week, I will try to update weekly. This is chapter 2 and hopefully the story continues to advance :D. If you liked this story, I do encourage you to comment, review, or vote. Tell me how good or bad I'm doing and I will try to do better. Have a great week and try new things... See you later.