The Friendship Bench

After the funeral, both Will's parents and my parents let us to have the rest of the day off.
We both decided to go for a walk in the park.

We made our way over to the old, gray bench placed in the corner of a small garden fence, which was restraining a whole clump of evergreen shrubs and Bodi trees.

I held my breath and closed my eyes, and for once in my life, wished that I could go to school that day.

A few moments later, I opened my eyes again, and looked up to Will. He seemed to be hypnotized by something, as he was staring out into the distance, his usually-wide-eyes squinted and he was holding his fringe that usually dangled over his eyes off his face with one hand. The other hand was placed loosely around my shoulders, as if he wanted me to know that he knew I was still there.

I fidgeted a little under his grasp, just to get myself comfortable. Because neither Will nor I were gonna be going anywhere too soon.

"You okay?" he asked kindly, yet unexpectedly.

"Yeah," I nodded quickly, "Why do you ask?"

"I can tell you're not," he said, his eyes still attached to something in the distance.

"Not what?" I quizzed.

"Okay," Will finished.

I shrugged doubtfully, "It's hard to say. It's just that before now I've never known my pain."

"So you're feeling depressed," Will guessed.

"Well...not really depressed," I sighed.

A sly smirk wiped across his face, "Don't lie."

I giggled slightly, "Okay, fine then. Sort of."

Will chuckled in a masculine kind of way, "What d'ya think would happen if we started going out?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"As in like, boyfriend-girlfriend shit," He sighed, a notch quieter.

"Will, I told ya this before! You're not my type of guy!"

"I said 'what if'. What are you, PMSing?"

"I'm not due for 2 more weeks!"

"You can tell me when you're gonna have your next period, but you won't go out with me! Or kiss me for that matter!"

I rolled my eyes.

There were a couple of seconds of silence, before I broke in,

"Now I'm curious,"

"About what?" Will quizzed.

"About what would happen if we did end up together," I sighed.

"Well you wanna find out?" Will grinned playfully.

"There's no chance in Hell, Will," I said to him.

"Well at least let me hold your hand," Will begged, "Please?"

I sighed, before holding out my hand, "Hold my hand, Will."

Will grinned. He took my hand and squeezed it tight.

He reached into his pocket with his other hand, and fished out his I-Pod. He plugged in 2 pairs of headphones, one for me and one for himself (obviously). He flicked through his songs, as if he was searching for a particular one.

He stopped at the most depressing song I could think of at that moment.

'Yeah we say making changes starts in the little things you do
Revolution begins at home but for most of us it ends there too, and
Doing something we're making changes like changing the brand of crap we buy,
We say it makes a difference but that's just another lie.

It used to be us and them and you and me.
And now we can't reach our potential without a common enemy,
A real war to fight against, instead of our petty disagreements,
How can I rationalize my life during wartime lie.'

Suddenly thoughts of Anthea and Jaykob came to mind, and the emotions came.

I felt the tears stream down my face.

"We should start heading back," Will suggested in a tone that was slightly huskier than it usually was.

I shook my head,

"I'd rather stay here."

"Okay, suit yourself. I'm going back."

Will got up and made his way back down the path, the harsh crunching sound of the loose bitumen under his shoes outlined her ears with a very thin borderline.

The next two verses of the song echoed through my head,

'A call to action and a reaction,
Taking our lives in our own hands,
Instead of sitting around and talking about the same old shitty bands.

But war is going on right now,
And I'm not doing anything about it,
Without a crowd I'm not so loud,
I can't do anything by myself,
But that's just another lie.'

I tore the headphones off my head and placed them roughly in a pile on my lap.
I sighed deeply and closed my eyes, not sure of whether I wanted to dose off or just keep myself oblivious of my surroundings.

I opened my eyes about 10 minutes later, to find an unfamiliar face starting down at me.

"Greetings, my name is Mitchell, I am thirteen years of age. Please give me info either similar or the same," He greeted.

I scanned him up and down a few times.

He had dark-brownish hair with a somewhat natural luminous flow to it. His eyes looked a murky emerald green. His skin was just about as white as mine. His small body had small rays of a sunset streaming out from his sides, forming a silhouette around himself, similar to an eclipse. He looked like some sort of God-sent angel, come to think about it.

"I...am Michelle...what are y-you doing here?" I stammered nervously.

"I saw you in the distance; you looked as if you were dead. I was gonna leave you, but when that other guy left, I decided to come over and say hi, instead!" He grinned, waving his arm around, as if he was having a spasm.

I gave him a weird look. At first, I thought that that rhyming thing was just a coincidence, but now it was freaking me out.

"Uhmm...cool. So do you live around here?" I quizzed.

He nodded, "Most certainly yes; for this area only belongs to the best."

I nodded, "Right."

He grinned dumbly down at me.

"Okay, I must get going now...uh...nice meeting you...see ya round sometime. Uh...bye!" I said, almost springing off my chair and sprinting away.