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His name is called from the house directly across the street, and I whip my head around to find the other two boys that always seem to grab my attention.
Alexi and Talon.
Talon ruffles his messy blond hair as he stares down the street at Malik marching his way. I’m familiar with the concerned look in his eyes that matches my own as Alexi stands with his arms folded over his chest, feet shoulder-width apart as he continues to watch his friend moving toward him.
Alexi looks far more angry than Talon, each of them reacting differently to the sound of the shouting, which is what seemingly pulled them out of the house.
I’m frozen in place, daisies poised in my hand to continue, but my attention is fixed on the three of them like it always is. At that exact moment, Malik’s eyes shift to me and his feet falter for just a moment as he slows his pace. He doesn’t look away from me, not even when Talon and Alexi come to a stop in front of him.
They’re so tall…
I hope I’ll be as tall as them some day, but they’re six years older than me. Teenagers, whatever that means. I want to be one too.
Malik pulls his hand from his pocket, swiping at his blotchy face before looking up to the sky for a moment. In the blink of an eye I watch the angry, tightly wound boy relax his shoulders back, acting like nothing has happened.
“Hey, Malik, man, let’s go inside,” Alexi murmurs, placing his hand on Malik’s shoulder, but the boy in question keeps his gaze fixed on me.
“He needs to take his mind off it all,” Talon states, eyes flicking to mine with a weird glint as I continue to openly gape at the three of them.
“Exactly. Let’s go inside and chill, forget about their bullshit and have some fun,” Alexi restates, not bothering to glance in my direction, but Malik is already moving, forcing Alexi’s eyes my way as his friend cuts across the road toward me.
Without a word, the sad quiet boy sits cross-legged beside me, silently reaching for the loose daisy in my hand. He uses his blunt nail to pierce a hole in the stem before reaching for another. It’s not until he finally looks up at me that I move too. The slight tilt to the corner of his mouth makes me smile in response as I get comfortable in my spot again. “Mona,” he finally acknowledges me properly with the nickname he seems to have made up for me. I don’t know why he seems to have settled on it, but I kind of like it. No one else calls me that, so it makes me feel special.
“Are we really doing this again?” Alexi grumbles, his shadow hovering above me, but I don’t look up. My eyes remain trained on the daisies I continue to hand to Malik one at a time.
“You know entertaining her soothes him.” Talon’s words twist my chest, even though I’m unsure of the full meaning behind them, but I choose to ignore the pair of them, even as they sit down with us too.
After a few moments pass, my gaze lifts to Malik again, who is focused on the daisies in his hand. “Are you okay?” I whisper, my heart racing with fear of what the answer may be. But when his green eyes meet mine, he mutters three words that make me smile from ear to ear.
“I am now.”
