Rose
The world has slowed, stopped, turned around, and come speeding back at me. Somewhere during all that Robert appeared and stopped my face from hurting, my ankle gives a dull throb as if to remind me to feel the pain. E got here too but I can't see her I only know because Robert left.
I cracked open my eyes without realising it maybe a minute ago, hours? I moaned in pain sometime around then too.
Robert quickly comes back into my field of vision around where my feet would be if I had the energy to lift my head.
Its E who comes and sits by my shoulders. She crosses her legs and takes a moment to control her features. She puts a small smile on her face but I can still see the pain and understanding in her eyes. I don't think she realises that in the eleven years that I did not talk I learned how to read faces very well. I can tell she is saddened by whatever Robert said to her. But, I'm in no place to judge her and what she is doing.
She takes on the cool but joking voice she has reserved for only me;
'I always seem to find you on your back, is the view good from there?'
I smile slightly but don't answer.
She glances at Robert, who has cushioned my ankle in his magic, before moving behind my head and hoisting me up into a sitting position.
Robert gives her a disapproving glare but says nothing.
E comes and sits beside me again.
I can tell she did it because I reminded her of herself. She saw herself in me, unable to do anything and utterly relying on others. E has a story that I don't think even Robert knows. You can see it in the way she looks at me, the way she almost reaches out to take my hand. The way she just wants to be there and offer the support ad knowledge she had to give.
She has a story that not even Robert knows and she is scared from the experience, she doesn't want another girl to go through the same thing.
And for that I am grateful,
She has given me hope.