Whatever Remains, T. Richardosn [brene brown rising strong TXT] 📗

was on the bus that arrived at your school today, got enrolled yesterday.”
“I have never seen you there, not even today.”
He nodded. “Yeah, but you’ll see me tomorrow; I was only here for the last couple of minutes of the day.”
I nodded. I was getting ready to throw away the other half of my sandwich until he stopped me.
“Just give it to me.” He said. “Sit down. You used my ten bucks for both of these, I’ve already cut this sandwich three times so you could eat it, now I'll cut them in pieces so you can eat the rest." He pulled a plastic knife from the bag. I felt like a child. He cut the pieces of the sandwich and put one on the fork. Was he going to feed me?

He handed me the fork now.
I guess not, that would be embarrassing, as if having your food cut up was embarrassing enough. I looked around. No one was actually looking, and if anyone had, they’d think I needed special treatment because I was dropped on my head when I was born, or I was born upside down, or something wrong happened at my birth. That’s how everything started.
“I can't believe someone you called your best friend looked straight at your imperfections to get me to be her partner. It’s terrible how some people treated you just because you couldn’t talk for a while. When you show off what you can do, they’re all going to run off to you. Girls asking you to come to their parties, guys asking you on dates,” he went on.
Now a familiarity went through me. I felt like I did

know him now. I felt like he knew me as well, as if we’d been friends for ten years at most. I cut him through his speech of losers and people’s imperfections.
“How long have I known you?” I asked. “I’m completely clueless of how I’ve come to know you. Especially of how you could memorize my face in Lindsay if we haven’t known each other for too long.”
He sat back in his seat. “Well,” he said. “I can’t forget you, I was in the same hospital as you, when you were born, and my mother was taking me home and she saw you there. After she saw you, she recognized a friend. She brought me in the same room as you and she set me next to you. Some things can never be forgotten. Especially seeing my mother being yelled at for taking me into a new born baby’s crib, I was a few days old at the most.” He stopped there and in a few moments, I realized he was done.
“Fascinating, do you know more?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing but that, and the fact that you were two and your mother was bringing you to a different dimension. My mom probably thought it was going to be somewhere not on earth, so she didn’t bother looking.” I nodded leaning forward listening. He laughed. “That’s all I got!”
I backed up now. “Perfect,” I said. “You have me waiting for more,” I ate the last bite of the subway and I eat a piece of tomato that was not even ordered. “Disgusting.” I said with my mouth full. “Can I spit it out or something?” he shook his head.
“Please.” I pleaded.
“No.”
“Please.”
“Nope.”
“Please.”
“Go, I’m not your mother.” I ran to the garbage, put my hair back, and spit it out. I remember the last time I’d ate a tomato. I’d been six and didn’t like them. I wonder why now, they didn’t taste that bad but… Now I remember. I was highly allergic and passed out in my mother’s family room. Who passes out because of a tomato?
I wasted my time walking back to the table. “It’s a good thing I didn’t eat it.” I said. He gave me a questioned look.
“Why?” he asked.
I answered now with my voice wavering a bit. “I’m allergic. I think I should go home.” He nodded and looked at something. I followed his gaze. The hand’s clock. It was 9:37. I’d been so caught up in talking, watching the hippy meatballs guy and taking time eating a sandwich that I hadn’t even cared for the time.
“Oh no,” I said. “Shane’s been waiting for me probably all night.” I announced.
His eyes double crossed. We got up from the seat and the shirt/dress was hardly giving me any protection from the winter air of the night.
“Who’s Shane?” Glytherin asked climbing out of his seat to follow me outside. We walked along the sidewalk. “My step-brother, why?” I said. He shook his head. “What time do you usually get back?” he asked.
“8:05.” I answered. “Why do you need to know?”
He shrugged. “I hate awkward silence; I always need convers……”


I drew a deep breath in and another out. “Are you ok Ophelia?” Shane said hovering over me feeding me something. Was it soup? I took a sip of it. It was hot water, no flavor at all. It was absolutely disgusting.
“WH-What are you doing?” I asked forging the soup away from me.
“Your sick Lea, you know this. I’m upset with you anyway, you forgot about me and went on a stupid date with some guy who probably only likes you because you’ve changed. Don’t fall for guys like that.” I shook my head not understanding. “And it’s ten something; the doctor said it should wear off in an hour more if you’d stay awake.” His voice was deep.
“What happened?” I asked. He laughed soundlessly. “You were on a date, forgot about me, ate a tomato, passed out, now you’re sick.” I shook my head. What was he talking about?
“I was never on a date, and I don’t remember eating a tomato, you know I hate those.” Shane kept trying to feed me hot water.
“Well, your friend over there told me otherwise that you accidentally ate a tomato, tried to spit it out, when you were walking back, you passed out and you were non stop talking about me.” Non stop talking about him? Now I remembered, and I’d only mentioned Shane once, Glytherin is the one who mentioned Shane and made me talk about him.
I heard Glytherin’s voice and then my step-mother. What was he doing out there? I sat up from bed and listened to the conversation. Shane laid me back down. One thing I hated about Shane was that, before our parents got married, Shane had his own little crush on me, and even though we weren’t related, he thought it was ok.
It wasn’t.

Now he wanted to spend all the time he could with me all day, everyday. It was disgusting.
“Get off of me, Shane!” I said pushing his hand away. I got up from the bed struggling. I opened the door silently where it cast off a screech. I stayed silent looking out of it. My step-mother was sitting on the couch and Glytherin was just leaving.
“Good bye, honey,” she said. Glytherin waved and walked on. I came out of the room now. She patted on the couch besides her telling me to sit. I sat there. “It’s late,” she said wearily. “Where were you? What that guy said was obviously a lie.”
“What did he say?” I asked.
“Well,” she began. “He said that the both of you had to go to ballet earlier than everyone else and you left earlier than everyone else and walked off somewhere and you ate a tomato. That’s the most stupid lie I’ve ever heard. He probably doesn’t know, but you knew that you were allergic.”
“It was incidental,” I said. “I was eating something, it had a tomato in it, and well, a minute later, I passed out. It wasn’t a lie.”
“Where you were for those couple of days, when Shane called and told me you arrived this morning, the police got upset that I called them for a problem that was easily solved.” I sighed. How long was I passed out for? Maybe an hour and a half? It was nearly eleven though. I looked in her eyes and saw nothing there.
“I don’t know what happened, the ballet teacher got frustrated with me and I don’t think I want to do ballet anymore.” My step-mother sighed.
“I was really hoping that you’d be able to do something that your step-mama did, so you could live up to something I do. That’s how it goes in movies anyways.” She stuttered something that I couldn’t comprehend and then sunk into my shoulder. “I’ve always wanted a daughter!” she cried.
She put her arms around me. “Daughters tell the truth! Daughters don’t lie, daughters are encouraged to do things that their own gender---their mother---do!” I backed up as her tears soaked my shirt/dress. I wanted to say something very badly now, something that I’ve always wanted to say, back then, I didn’t have the voice. Now I do, but would she feel offended if I said it?
“You’re not my mother though; I’ve always lived up to what my own mother did.” I said it, it was done. She got up from my shoulder now.
“Really?” she said. “There’s absolutely nothing in my life that you’d want to live up to that I did?” I thought about this now. She had a husband, a kid, and another kid. She worked and earned enough money for a rich life, she wore beautiful clothing, and she had nice hair I guess.
“No,” I said. “There isn’t much of anything, but you are a good person.”
She stood up. “Go to bed Orphelia, I’m glad we had this talk.” I nodded. She went over to her room.
Shane walked across the hall. “Great, my mother prefers you over me.” He angrily stomped so that the people down stairs could hear his rampage. No one seemed to like how I spoke to them. I was trying my best to be nice to everyone, I was the same as I was before, but all of a sudden, I’m partners with Glytherin, Amanda hates me. I speak out what I say about the murder, everyone else hates me for killing the hottest guy ever, and Shane’s mother prefers a daughter than her own son, which was harsh

. Now Shane hates me.
I curled up into a ball at the end of the long