Leone Frasier was living the aftermath of a tragic car crash that took his mother's life and left him barely able to walk on his feeble legs. He has had to endure the loss of his mother, the wrath of an abusive father, and all the added weight that...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The arrival of the countless buses had interrupted my mindless distraction of watching the cold air change my breath into a puff of vapor.
After a short while of my usual search for Leone's face, my heart eventually drops at the sight of him slowly hobbling towards me with a familiarly drained and numb expression, his eyes and face devoid from it's usually intoxicating light and love.
I rushed to meet him halfway as he immediately crashed right onto my arms and chest in a fit of silenced cries. "What happened, are you hurt?" My chest heaved as I tightly held onto him, hoping that he knew that I'd never let go. "Talk to me, Leone. What happened?"
We walked further down the street, letting him tightly hold onto my arm and cry as I had to fight the urge to press who or what had wronged him and made him feel so sad. All I could do now was be there for him in silence, let him know that I was here, that everything was okay, and that I was never going to let him go.
I just want him to be happy again.
After awhile of listening to his sobs eventually turn into a fit of tiny hiccups and weak sniffles, he eventually looks up at me with a tearful glisten in his reddened eyes. "Dydan."
"Leone?" His name escapes my breath like soft velvet silk, wrinkled by an undying tone of pure worry and heed. "What's wrong?"
"It's gone Dydan-all of it!" His voice cracked out as I immediately stopped walking to turn and face him.
"What!? What's gone?" I carefully studied his face, his broken expressions rendering me completely hopeless to the vast unknown of not being able to help him in anyway. "Speak to me, Leone."
He sniffed all the while trying his best to gather up his composure, speaking up to me with his tiny little voice. "All my work, it's gone." He shakily pulled out his familiar sketchbook from his backpack, handing it out to me to examine. "They ruined everything."
Several pages of Leone's sketchbook had now been torn off, wrinkled, and tainted by fragments of dirt and leaves. The entire thing was in complete disarray and no longer had any hope for further use.
My jaw and fists inexplicably clenched as it didn't take long for my fury to take over and emanate from within. "Who did this?" I questioned with my voice sounding a lot more gruff.
Leone looked away out of hesitation as he kept his quivering hands against his elevated heart. "It doesn't matter, they're just gonna keep messing with me like they always do-like they have done for years!"
"Leone, look at me." I slid a gentle pointer finger and thumb right under his chin in attempts to make him face me. "I want you to tell me exactly what happened."
He aimlessly looked around, batting his big eyes a few times while trying to gather up his thoughts. "M-My teacher paired me up with this boy from my class and-and then he pinned me up against a tree thinking I was something entirely different-"
