You Hold My Pieces [completed]

Memories

Listen to : US by Clara Mae

The sun hovered over us on a cloudless sky. These were one of the days our mothers would smear so much sunscreen all over our bodies afraid we would come home with bad cases of heat rash. The boys had come to our neighborhood showing off their new mountain bikes. Everything was going great until the ice cream truck drove past our street. We flagged it down and I rushed into our house to grab the bill my mother always left on the kitchen counter for moments like these. Whoever's neighborhood we were in that weekend their parents would be bestowed the burden on having to buy us ice cream. Jen lived closer to me than the boys so we saw each other more frequently.

After giving the ice cream man our bill and getting change we shouted our orders. I prayed to be the first to receive my ice cream so that I could flee but I like most weekends my bad luck came knocking on my door.

There was so much I wanted to say but I could not utter a single word. I stood there with my two pigtails hanging from my head, a stream of tears running down my dirty cheeks and an ice cream cone with no ice cream on it. I looked at Jen and she looked at me hesitantly before licking her cherry ripple ice cream in a flash to avoid offending me. She looked at the ground and remained silent as always . He was the clear definition of a childhood bully, my personal nightmare . Every time we bought ice cream together he would do the same thing he had done. He used his dirty hands to grab my chocolate ice cream off my cone and place it on top of his mint scoop. As always I retreated to my little hideout behind the huge baobab tree to cry.

Kyle, Jen and I were really close when we were in primary school except in times like those when he would bully me and they would just stand there without making an attempt to protect or comfort me . Both Kyle and him were the talk of the town at that time, two boys too stunning for their age, same charm but their hearts were so different. Kyle of course was the angel and the other was the devil's spawn. He was always a little bit taller than Kyle, more masculine and was always in trouble. In seventh grade when Liam moved to the neighborhood he had been sent off to a military school by his parents to try and make him more civil and if you ask me, I bet that they had zero chance at transforming him. Everyone in our town suspected he had done something extreme for his parents to finally take that initiative. I could not help but laugh at how much I feared him as a child. Every time my parents got me a toy that was better than his or one he did not have amongst his possessions I would try my best to hide it because I knew the moment he saw it, it became his.

Despite his memory annoying me I could not help but laugh at myself for remembering  him the moment my father brought out the mint and the chocolate ice creams from the refrigerator. He scooped one of each then mounted them on his cone. I laughed before taking the chocolate ice cream jar, a spoon and leading the way to the living room to go and watch a movie with my dad. We ate our ice cream and and laughed our hearts out at scenes that weren't necessarily funny. I kissed my dad on the cheek before retreating to my bedroom to get a good night's sleep. Deep down I knew my father was hoping I would gather the courage to face the school tomorrow but I was not ready and I was not going to fake it because I knew very well I would not make it past the day in one piece .

I took my earphones and plugged them in my ears and played Bluestone Alley to calm down. As I was falling asleep I heard a loud knock on my door. At first I tried to ignore it but it kept getting louder and louder. I wondered what exactly my dad wanted at such an odd hour and why he was making so much noise but  forced myself to wake up. I put on my bedroom slippers and my night gown before proceeding to unlock the door. I opened the door with so much force because I was annoyed but the moment my eyes met Liam's I became agitated. He had the guts to come and knock on my door, late in the night and come in without asking for my permission first. I screamed and yelled almost instantly