Visuals | ✓

09 | something dead

VISUALS © 2015

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

[ix]

SOMETHING DEAD

"Cameron? What on earth took you so long- who's this?"

He froze while helping Kira with her jacket, suddenly remembering very important things he should have remembered earlier.

"Umm, this is Kira. I met her outside just now and thought she could come in?"

There was a silence, and suddenly poor Cameron felt the lack of his disability. He couldn't see what type of face his mother was making and embarrassing it must have been.

"Of course! That's absolutely brilliant, love. Come in, come in!"

They obeyed, his mother trailing behind them with her hands on their shoulders as if they were both sightless.

"Micheal, my love? Cameron's brought Kira in!"

Under his breath, he groaned and beside him, Kira snuffled in a laugh, patting his side in comfort.

"Micheal is dinner ready? I think Kira's coming to join us!"

So they sat down, a family plus own, enjoying a warm plate of pasta each.

It was strange, he had to admit. Kira seemed far too content with his mother's antics and apart from a few restrained chuckles of laughter. He leant over, while his parents talked to themselves.

"Sorry about my mum, she's a bit strange, I know."

"It's okay, my grandmother is exactly same. I'm used to it at this point."

"You're grandmother lives with you?"

There was a brush of air as she nodded, "Yes and she makes life very difficult."

"Kira, love?" It was his mother, but at that point, Cameron suddenly felt a little better about everything.

After 'dinner' Cameron and Kira stood outside, wrapped tightly in cloaks and hats of different kinds.

"You're really cool, Cameron." she suddenly spoke, and something long dead revived in Cameron's chest with a sudden thump.

"What do mean?"

She sighed, but it was light rather than in regret, "You may not know, but there are a lot of awful people out there, and you always think at first that nobody could truly be that terrible- no human could. But sometimes they are."

He blinked, suddenly feeling guilty as he listened to the sad tone of her voice. It had seemed that she had gone through all too much for a young teen, when the boy, himself had gone through literally nothing at all.

Fifteen years- fifteen years, trapped in the normal comfort of his brick layered home, he had barely experienced anything, and that fact of that made him feel dreadfully exposed, like a naked baby.

"I think you're cool too, Kira. I must have been lucky or something, to have found two people in one day that didn't dismiss me because of my sight. I thought it would be harder, that I would meet bullies and demons and-"

"I think you have to go further into the world for that." She laughed

"My point is, though I don't know what you've been through and though I may not always understand if you tell me, I want to learn. I want to learn how to battle all those bullies and demons and awful people just like you did, and I know you did because you wouldn't be standing here if you didn't. I want to be exposed to life and everything that comes along with it- good or bad because that's how life works and what's the point of living if you don't experience life?"

He sighed, slightly out of breath and even more so when Kira held his hand. "Okay, I can help, but first let me ask one thing."

He nodded.

"You said you met two friends?"

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

rewritten