Compassion

Date: August 7, 2022

Prompt # 7 of @JonicaBradley : Compassion

COMPASSION.

"Do you reckon the first day we met?" I asked looking at the starry night, tracing my fingers on the twinkling light to trace my name.

"Uhm...that day when you almost fall the stairs of the elementary library?" my best friend Mandy asked.

I nodded though I wasn't sure if she had seen it, "Yeah. That day."

"Why? What's that day about?"

I felt her weight lay beside me. "Do you know Mr. Scott's sleeping pills?"

"The science teacher? Yeah, it was stolen that day."

I pulled myself up and took a swig of the beer in my hand. "Yeah, it was. Do you know who did it?" Mandy shook her head, her brows furrowed. "Any wild guesses?"

"You?"

"Yeah," I said gulping another mouthful of the beer.

"Why?" She sat up taking the beer in my hand.

"Dad left us that year. Mom won't stop drinking. I was alone raising my two-year-old brother. Life was shit." I took the beer from her hand, I took a swig. "I was supposed to end everything that day but--"

"I found you," she finished the sentence for me.

I sighed nodding, "I was this close." I motioned with my thumb and pointer. "You don't know how that laugh of yours saved me that day. You've always been this uplifting person for me..."

"Hey, we are just graduating college, right? What is this drama? And you know I'll always be there with you." She hugged me tightly. "I actually saw you that day. You sneaked out of the lab hiding the pills in your pocket. I don't know what it was till now but you looked scared and I need to do something..."

I opened and closed my mouth, "Thank you."

She shrugged her shoulders, "You know how moms gossip, right? Besides my dad isn't someone to be proud of too. We got to stick together, right?"

I shook my head gulping the remainder of the beer. "Our lives are messy," I said laughing, having the time of our life.

This one is so hard. I don't know if I made justice of the prompt. Anyway I tried.