My Everything. [SOUTHPAW]

Part 1: The Beginning

Prologue: October 1988. Billy is 8, Maureen is 7.

Billy's POV

It's cold outside again, reminding me that it's early Fall. I've officially been here for three years now, in this foster care system. I turned eight years old a couple months ago, but I still haven't made any friends. Most of the time I end up sitting alone, thinking about my parents and how much I miss them. Recently I've noticed a girl with ratty blonde hair, with holes in her clothes. She stares at me from across the cafeteria all the time, and she's kind of a loner, like me. She has a wide gap between her two front teeth and big marble-sized hazel eyes.

I admire her for weeks from afar, never quite gaining the courage to get up and talk to her. Every time I walk past her, my palms get sweaty and my heart beats faster.

Then one day, I look for her in the cafeteria, and she isn't there. I wonder what happened to her, and I ask the other kids and they say they don't know. I think maybe she got adopted or ran away. I spend the next couple of years wondering about her.

PART ONE: Summer of 1996. Billy is 16, Maureen is 15.

Billy's POV

Just another bull shit day in bull shit Brooklyn, New York in the foster care system. Whoever said it gets easier after time is full of shit. I've been in this god damn place for over ten years now, and just thinking about that makes me sick. A life wasted because my parents died young and left me behind with no one to take care of me. I still haven't made any friends in this place, besides Jon Jon but he's forced to share a room with me so he doesn't really have a choice. Apparently, I have "anger management issues" and the other kids don't like to hang around me because I have a temper. They started putting me through bull shit therapy sessions, talking to a therapist about all the ways I can "control my anger". I think it's all bull shit and I honestly don't think I have a problem. My life isn't exactly a fairy tale and I think I have the right to be pissed off at the world if I want to be.

I'm contemplating all the ways to kill myself (I've been doing that a lot lately) when I see her again. The girl with the ratty hair, sitting across the cafeteria once again. I blink a few times, not sure if I'm dreaming. Maybe this place really is making me lose my sanity. But after several minutes of staring, I realize it really is her. She's sitting in the same spot she used to, by the big window and picking at her food, the same way I am.

She no longer has ratty hair, but now it looks soft, and curly as it cascades around her shoulders. She looks up at me, and her hazel eyes tear right through me. Her face is pale and her lips are naturally pink, and I notice the same beauty mark on her lower chin. Her nails are painted black and her dirty blonde hair falls in her eyes as she looks away shyly.

I pick up my tray and walk over to her table, sitting across from her. She finally looks up at me. "Hi," I say, awkwardly.

"Hi," she replies, smiling a little.

"I'm Billy," I say.

"It took you long enough to come talk to me," she says, confidently.

I bite my lip, not expecting this from her. Up close, I take in her sheer beauty. This girl just radiates beauty and confidence and she's not the little girl I remember. She's fucking beautiful.

"I'm Maureen," she says, reaching her hand out to shake mine. I take her warm hand in mine, and it feels like being plugged into the solar system. The act of physically touching someone (not in a sexual way but just human contact) is something I haven't had much of in my life. I think she feels the same thing because she squeezes my hand back and smirks.