There was tension in the air and none of us knew what to say next. It was clear that his sentence had made me feel a certain way, but it wasn’t easy figuring out what that was. It was even harder trying to figure out what to say in response. I’m definitely not used to someone caring about me in anyway.
My grandparents never really cared about what was going on with me at school and they didn’t really care about my dreams. They only thought of me as an extra mouth to feed and that was all. As a matter of fact, they didn’t really want to take care of me, but that was the only choice they had. My mother passed away when I was young, and no one really knew where my dad was.
It all came crashing down during the start of my middle school years. Prior to this, I thought that they genuinely cared for me because they didn’t send me to an orphanage. I thought my life was better off living with my grandparents than living at an orphanage. The reality was that it was all just a dream on my part.
Throughout my entire life, my grandparents instilled doubts and self-hatred in me. It was clear to them that I could never amount to anything. They never believed in me. My grandparents constantly told me to find a job. It was more important for them to have another source of income than to have to raise a student that ate up their money.
School was expensive, but that never stopped me from going. I raised enough money to go by taking on odd jobs like babysitting, delivering newspapers in the morning and washing dishes at a smaller restaurant. It was difficult hiding all that money from my grandparents. Every time I earned just enough for school; they would take away the little money I had.
I made sure to hide every last penny. It became extremely difficult to hide my money at home because they would always dig through my belongings to find it whenever I wasn’t home. When I hid my money in my shoe or on my body, they would flip my pockets inside and out and search me every single day.
I found a way to hide it successfully by making a bank account and hiding the ledger in a locker/storage space near the subway. This plan was risky, because there were thieves that knew how to pick locks. The thieves could easily ransack the lockers. I hid the ledger and cards in an envelope and taped it to the bottom of a box. I then made sure to put my old worn-out clothing in the box to fool the thieves into thinking that there were only old clothes in the locker.
So far, I was lucky because no one was able to find out that there was money in my locker. I made sure to take the ledger and card with me every morning and put it back in the evening after school. I had to be careful of watchful eyes before putting my valuables into my locker.
It’s tough living like this every day. My plan is to move out of my grandparent’s home when I get the chance. I just don’t have enough money to get myself an apartment and it’s not ideal to live alone especially when I’m just a high school student. I guess the only way to move out is to wait till I graduate high school.
Akira shook me to get my attention, “Mika, are you okay? Did I say something to offend you?” I must’ve been lost in thought for too long. I replied, “I’m okay. I was just thinking about something. You don’t need to worry.” Despite my explanation, he still looked worried, “You don’t look too good. Why don’t we sit for a bit?”
He pointed at a bench nearby. Once I sat down, he informed me, “I’ll go get us something to drink. Just sit there and wait for me.” I nodded and sat there for a bit. As soon as Akira left, the bird from earlier swooped down and landed on the spot next to me. It then started pecking at my backpack. I noticed that the bird was probably indicating that it wanted to be fed. I pulled out the bird feed from the backpack and said, “Is this what you wanted?”
I was stupid, the bird didn’t have a clue of what I was saying. It just tilted its head to the side and stared at me. I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid. A bird can’t understand what I’m saying. I opened the bag and grabbed a handful of bird feed. I placed my palm up and waited for the bird to approach me.
The bird landed on my hand and began eating. I found it ridiculously cute, it began cooing like it was happy to eat the food. I wanted to pet it so badly, but I didn’t want to startle it. The bird finished eating the rest of the food in my hand quickly. After it was done, it didn’t fly away like last time. It moved up my arm and landed on my shoulder.
I had no clue what it was doing, but it rubbed its head on my head to show affection. It was so cute; I couldn’t stand it anymore. I began petting the bird. It didn’t fly away! The bird let me pet it and I knew it enjoyed the petting because it began chirping happily. Akira showed up at the worst moment. The bird noticed his presence and flew away in fright.
He laughed, “Looks like you made a friend while I was gone.” I sighed, “If only you came here a minute later…” Akira frowned at my response, “You’re very odd. Most girls would be happy to see me a minute sooner.” I rolled my eyes at his response, “I’m sorry, but I’m not most girls. I think you chose the wrong girl to hang out with.” He poked my cheek while pouting, “You’re not cute.”
I stuck my tongue out playfully, “I’m not trying to be cute.” He laughed and handed me a drink. I looked down and found out he gave me the strawberry flavored Calpico. I grinned with excitement when I noticed that he got me one of my favorite drinks. I quickly opened the lid and downed the entire drink.
He laughed at me, “Slow down. No one’s going to steal your drink.” I took a huge gulp and said, “I was thirsty. How did you know I like this?” He shrugged, “I just assumed you might like it because you liked the strawberry Frappuccino. Do you like strawberries?” I nodded, “Yes, they’re my favorite!”
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