The Right Embrace

A visitor

I wake up as usual for school today. I quickly put on some comfortable jeans and a black checked shirt and role my sleeves back. I tie my long brunette hair into a pony tail making sure it's decent for school. People here at the orphanage call me a tomboy. I wear simple clothes. I don't like wearing dresses or skirts , I prefer sneakers any day and I prefer only dark colours like black, blues , greys and reds. I would say my tastes are comfortable and less attention seeking and they describe me.

I have never been very comfortable with my body. I am definitely not on the fat side but I never understood what was wrong in being fat or thin. Isn't a person's personality supposed to tell you what kind of a person they are? I hate it when people comment on others about their bodies and hearing all those comments has my self confidence crashing down to nothing.

I pack my bag for school and head out of my room and I bump into my care taker Amy who looks after the kids here. "Good morning Andy darling" she says with her usual enthusiasm. "Morning Amy" I reply in my usual dull tone. I hate mornings. I am never a morning person.

"Have a great day darling" she says pulling me into a hug. I just hug her for the sake of it and pull away quickly nodding my head and giving a side smile. As I said before I keep to myself and such jestures of affection is not something i am used to. Especially in the mornings. I start walking away from her towards our dinning room when I hear her voice from behind " Andy be safe on the road and could you drop of little Mike to his play school on your way out please. Thank you sweetie "

It's not like she really asks me because I know I don't have a choice. Being above 10 in this orphanage , you start getting responsibilities like dropping "little Mike" off at his school which is on the campus by the way but I still have to do it.

I just yell "sure" not turning my head around to look at her and walk into the dinning room to grab something to eat. Even though I don't like eating in the morning it's a rule here that all of the kids should eat in the morning to be healthy. So I walk in and grab an apple and walk out to look for "little Mike ", we call him that because we have two Mikes at the orphanage.

I spot him in a couple of seconds with the other kids and walk towards him taking a bite of my apple. I love kids and I find them really cute but I don't show my feelings out a lot for many reasons.

I quickly call his name out and he comes running to me knowing that it's time for his school. He comes running to me and hugs my knees as that where he can reach. I sit down and smiling and fix his thick brunette hair just like mine and give him a kiss on the cheek.

I hold his had and start walking look down at him when I suddenly feel my body hit someone and I stop at my track. I can tell without looking that its a tall strong man and I trip a little before catching myself and take a step back because situations like these make me very uncomfortable because of my previous experiences.

I look up and the first thing I see are beautiful blue eyes. A moment later I understand the familiar face to be non other than Chris Evans the actor. I know it's him not because I watch movies but I have a lot of my classmates fangirling over him and also because I love to read the marvel comics and I know he plays Captain America. I quickly apologize for walking into him and look down because that's another problem I have. I can never keep a steady eye contact while talking to someone. Especially when they are smiling and being nice just like chris was doing. I know that's weird but that's how I am.

"I'm sorry too, I wasn't looking as well" I hear him say in his deep voice. Something about that voice makes me feel very comfortable and that scares me. I have never felt that before from anyone outside the orphanage.

I quickly look at Mary, another care taker at the orphanage standing next to him but She is much older than Amy. Mary would be in her 60s. She is loved by every single child at the orphanage because of her kindness and her gentle fun way with kids.

"Chris, this is Andrea but we call her Andy because that's what she prefers and this is mike. Andy this is Chris Evans, I am sure you know that" she says smiling and adds how much I love reading Marvel comics. This makes me uncomfortable and I look to the group playing with the sand with my shoes. "Oh wow really" Chris replies and I just glance at him and nod.

Knowing that I should get to school Mary gives me permission to leave and I nod again responding to her. Chris holds his hand out and says " it was really nice to meet you Andy", I look at his hand for a second and shake it quickly saying "same " and walk out of there as quickly as I can with Mike. I drop Mike off at his class and head to the main gate. I turn around one more time and I see Chris talking to the other kids. I turn away with just one thought in my head. Why did I feel so safe hearing his voice. Something that I had never felt before.