Was I about to kill myself? Was I really thinking?
I lived in an eternal fear of my father. The bruises on my arms, the broken wrist and rib, that was all his fault. I swigged the vodka, feeling it slide down my throat. It burned. I put the bottle beside me, letting a tear roll down my cheek.
Worthless. I was worthless.
Nobody wanted me, so why should I live?
I ran a hand through my lank, dirty, brown hair, and tilted my head back. What would I do? Just sit until I died of a frozen heart? I hoped that would be possible.
“Emma?” I looked up, slowly looked around. A few feet away, I could see Austin Chalmers. His glasses sat on his nose, making his green eyes seem bigger, more innocent. He walked over to the bench, his worn Chuck Taylors sinking into the snow. He sat next to me, eyeing the bottle of vodka.
“Hey.” I said, trying to keep my voice non-mournful. I noticed he was holding some cardboard, just a large square.
“What's that?” I asked, before he could ask me how I was doing, or what I was doing today. Austin looked down at it.
“Nothing,” he mumbled, “I need it for a project. What are you doing today?”
“Living a crappy life.” I said, “what about you?” He narrowed his eyes for a minute, staring at me.
“Do you want to talk?” he asked awkwardly. I shrugged. Austin Chalmers was the weird boy at school, preferring the company of his robots to other people.
“Not really.” I said, “I don’t wanna burden you.” Austin nodded slowly, looking around. He checked the time on his wristwatch and I looked to the ground.
“I have to go.” He said, standing up, “maybe I’ll talk to you later.” Then he left, leaving me alone in the cold.
Alone. I was an alone magnet. I sipped from the plastic bottle again. Soon, I’d have to go home and start the cycle all over again. I looked to my left, where Austin had been sitting. The brown square of cardboard sat there. I picked it up, quickly skimming it.
In his thin writing, with a badly drawn sunshine on top, the piece of cardboard read-You are absolutely gorgeous to me and you know that. In the right corner there were was a heart and a couple of x’s.
I smiled to myself. I hadn’t known that, but it had made my day that much brighter.
Spoiler
Contest entry, for Yurriko's postcard contest.
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