Run, run, run ! I don't want to be caught again, I don't want to have my head drowned in the toilets ! Run, run, run ! Always running, never stopping... I wished I could walk and not run, I wish I could have those people chasing me walking next to me, chattering kindly. I wished I had friends...
Run, run, run ! They are behind me, getting closer and closer .
"Caught you, you jerk." Yelled Roger as he caught my hood, making me hang into the air. "Did you truly thought you could escape ?"
I shook my head, utterly terrified, not wanting to know what him and his friends were going to do to me.
Instead, I just wished I was as lucky a Roger Ranger. He was nine, one year older than me, and his parents were rich, he had a dog and a cat and a maid. But he also had friends. Friends who followed him everywhere he went.
I wished I could be like Roger Ranger...
"Hey you ! Leave him alone or I'm calling an adult." Suddenly called out a loud voice and the four of them, Roger and his three friends, ran away, I falling on the floor and hurting my bum. " Are you okay ? The same voice asked, quitter and more gentle.
I looked up and saw the most beautiful human I have ever met. Not human, it was impossible, but creature. She was splendide. Her black locks cut neatly above her fragile shoulders, her green eyes who shined with intelligence and her smile was the most beautiful I ever saw. She was so pretty... Why would someone like her who surely had many friends stopped for me ? Did she want to harm me like Roger did ?
No, creatures like her couldn't hurt anyone. It wasn't possible. Not logical.
"Hey, did this boy hurt you ?" She asked in a kind voice and I wanted to trust her. I wanted to believe in her kindness.
"They chase me around the school everyday... They one tried to make me go inside the kitchen... But they didn't have the time to do anything today." I said honestly, my words flooding out of my mouth without being able to stop them. I wondered why I was trusting her...
"Oh my !" She exclaimed herself, pure shock on her face. " Why won't you go and see someone ?" She asked.
"I can't." I simply said, not bold enough to say the entire truth.
The girl seemed to think for a few moments before forcing me to stand up by lifting me by my armpits. After moving some hair off my eyes, she explained : " I don't want such a small boy to be bullied. But I respect your choice of saying nothing to no one." For this, my respect for her just increased. " I'm Via by the way."
" Ethan."
And without knowing, this was the start of a strong friendship between us, a friendship so strong that no one could make me run away anymore. But this was also the start of some unforgivable pain, the one that stuck to your heart until you managed to forget what caused it.
The next few weeks, we became as close as two siblings. Via would come get me after my last lesson before lunch and we would eat together under the willow tree. I loved her and she loved me, I could see it in her eyes. Everyday who passed, I trusted even more and a month later, she knew all of my story.
I told her how my mind was different from the other, how I never asked for the same things as my peers, how everyone was afraid of me because of my difference. And she, instead of trying to comfort me, said that I simply didn't deserve the others. That they didn't see how special I was.
And what she said that day, when she said that I was the most perceptive kid she ever met, stayed in my mind for a long time. Actually, everything she told me, I kept it precious in a part of my mind, the one no one could every touch.
Via was my most precious thing I ever had in my small life.
I remember, when I was eight, I had a crush on her. She was thirteen, our age gap wasn't so different, and she was beautiful. Who wouldn't fall for her ?
But with time, my love for her changed into a deep affection. She was my best friend and I thought that we would stay forever together. How wrong was I... How naïf and stupid was I to think that... How could anyone think that anyway ? Like if it was even possible ...
"Via, why are you so kind ?" I've asked her once, incredulous in front of so much gentleness.
"Because I don't want to be mean Ethan." She respond so easily that I couldn't even think that she was lying. Or hiding something from me...
Because her answer that day was vague, very vague. She haven't gave a clear answer but she gave away enough to not be questioned. Via always were intelligent. She would always find a way to pass through the drops without getting wet. This was how she worked.
But when I was eleven, she started missing school more often and when she would come back, she would excuse herself by saying that she'd been sick over the night. I haven't believed her, otherwise she would have been sick more than three day a week, and today again, the guilt of not trusting her words still stung. Via was sick. I should have believed that. But I didn't because I was stupid and young. After all she have done for me, after all the love she had given away, I stopped seeing her as my best friend. Because for me, best friends didn't lied. They should always tell the truth. I didn't realise at the time that she was always saying the truth, that she hadn't lied once. Via was sixteen, I was eleven. She was more intelligent than me, she knew how things worked. But she never managed to understand how my brain worked. I was a kid who's mind had been tortured by years of bullyism. Before my thirteen years old, I would still flinch and get in a running stance, where I heard someone run behind me. I would always be scared when I would see the disappointment in the eyes of my peers. But I was so self centerd that I never saw how Via was doing. I always thought she was an indestructible creature, invincible. How wrong was I...
I could see she was getting paler each day, that she would shake and stutter on simple words. Via was sick but I never saw it because I still thought that everything turned around me.
But then, my world collapsed under my feet when she fell unconscious on the floor. It was only at this instant that I realised something that I should have known long ago.
Via was dying.