Heal All Her Wounds

Opening her eyes, she sees a face staring right at her; Matt’s face as a matter of fact. Ithil jumps out of bed and screams, not expecting him to be there.

Matt laughs hysterically while Ithil begins to curse him out, “What the fuck, Matt? I’m supposed to go to your house at eleven! What the fuck are you doing here?”

“S-sōrry,” Matt laughs, “but you’re two hours late.”

Ithil’s eyes grow wide as she looks at the clock and sees that it’s 1:06. She quickly apologizes, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to sleep in, goddamnit! I’m so so so sorry.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, Ithie, it’s fine. I forgive you. Now just get dressed and we can go on our terrible nature adventure.” Matt says while looking at her.

“Okay, well I’ll get dressed once you leave my room.” Ithil says with a smile while crossing her chest.

“Okay, I’m leaving. Come out when you’re done getting dressed.” Matt leaves the room once that is said and Ithil sighs in relief.

She quickly gets dressed in a pair of torn up grey skinny jeans, an old black Fall Out Boy shirt, and a pair of old red Converse hi-tops before grabbing a red plaid long sleeve shirt and brushing out her hair.

“Hurry up! You’re taking forever.” Matt whines from outside the door.

“Oh calm your tits; I just need to grab my phone.” Ithil says before grabbing her phone from her nightstand.

“Calm my tits?” Matt asks questioning a comeback he hasn’t heard as Ithil opens the door.

“Yeah, I made it up after I was at a concert and a girl was jumping, and I was like ‘You need to calm your tits’.” Ithil explains while she walks down the stairs.

“That’s actually funny.” Matt says while opening the door.

“Bye, Jane! I’ll be back before dark!” Ithil yells unsure where her guardian is.

“Okay, dear. Have fun.” Jane says from the living room.

Ithil blushes and walks outside with Matt as they begin their journey to the wilderness. The weather is perfect for Ithil: not too hot or too cold, a slight breeze with an overcast; and Matt was enjoying it as well.

“Why don’t you like nature?” Ithil asks Matt as they begin to walk towards a wooded area.

“Nature hurts me.” Matt says, pouting.

“Oh, well be happy that you’re not a girl. You don’t have to deal with her wrath every month.” Ithil laughs while they begin to venture towards the neatly rowed trees. “Well, this is definitely unnatural.”

“Yeah, that’s true. I’m glad I was born a boy, besides I’d be a really ugly girl.” Matt says before taking in her last comment about the trees, “Oh yeah. I love how unnatural nature can be.”

Ithil giggles at Matt’s sarcasm and begins to walk along the rows of trees, taking in the nature that she didn’t even get when she lived in Florida. Sure there were some national parks nearby that weren’t touched by industrialization, but it was swampy and humid and alligators were around.

“Ahh! Nature is attacking me!” Matt yells while spazzing and trying to fight a tree.

“What did you do to the tree, Matty?” Ithil asks in an oh-no-not-again tone.

Matt stands far away from the “attacking” tree and explains, “I was just going in to hug the tree and it just pokes my eye and scratches my face. Fuck you, nature!” He begins to flip off the tree and then spin in a circle to flip off the rest of the trees.

Ithil giggles, but can see the small scratch from the bark on his face as he comes to a stop. “Oh, dude. Your cheek is bleeding a little.”

“Huh?” Matt asks while putting his hand on his cheek and looking at his hand. “Oh, it’s not that bad.”

Ithil smiles at the boy and starts to wonder around the trees while hearing the sound of the birds chirp. Matt watches the girl and, as cheesy as it sounds, there was a type of beauty about Ithil as she walks through the trees. He smiles as Ithil begins to climb up a thin tree, and watches her as she breaks a branch.

“Oops, sorry tree! Don’t hate me like you hate Matt!” Ithil apologizes dramatically while hiding the branch behind her back.

Matt laughs and walks up to her saying, “Nature already hates you, remember?”

“Yeah, but the trees don’t.” Ithil says while tossing the branch aside.

“Well, if you wanna climb trees, follow me.” Matt says while walking the opposite direction of where they came from.

“Okay!” Ithil says before skipping happily like a child to Matt. He smiles at her, enjoying this childish version of Ithil more than the shy and timid one that he first met.

He began to wonder if she was like this before whatever had happened to her happened to her, or if she just grew up like this because she lost just about everything at a young age. He was no psychologist or psychiatrist, but he had his ideas that she was afraid to get attached to people just to be taken away from them.

“So what are you gonna dress up as for Halloween?” Matt asks Ithil, remembering that Halloween is later in the month.

“Tifa Lockhart from that movie we watched Friday, you?” Matt wasn’t surprised by her answer, but he was trying to remember what she looked like. He just replies as if he knew who she was talking about and answers, “A zombie probably.”

“Oh, can I help with your makeup?” Ithil asks eagerly. Matt was surprised by her enthusiasm, but he just smiles and says, “Sure. It’ll be awesome.”

“Yes! I will make you look like the coolest undead person in Strathroy. You’ll scare all the little childrenz.” Ithil says with an evil smirk on her face.

“Yes! And then, we can go sacrifice babies and drink orphan tears while summoning the Dark Lord Satan!” Matt dramatically says in a villainous tone.

Ithil bursts out laughing, making Matt laugh as well and happy that they have found someone to make jokes about Satanism with. It’s not like Matt doesn’t have friends he can’t joke this way with, but he somehow knew that Ithil didn’t really have anyone she could completely be herself with.

“Well, it would definitely be nice to get out my Death Note and use it against people.” Ithil says jokingly, confusing his new-to-anime-and-notably-Japanese-games friend. Ithil can read his confusion and began to explain the anime and manga, doing a quick plot summary and trying not to bore Matt with details knowing that he doesn’t really have a long attention span.

“The next time you come over my house, I’ll show you.” Ithil says while they walk into a denser area of the “forest”. It was beautiful to Ithil, but ugly to Matt. The dying trees with multicolored leaves missing from the branches are on the cold ground, and bits of unnatural debris are hiding in the bushes and under the ground. She missed this, having been surrounded by the city for long periods of time when she was living in Florida; not being able to see the visible change of weather in the humid and warm-for-most-if-not-all-the-year state.

“Okay; here I’ll show you to an old tree house.” Matt says switching the subject back to tree climbing while walking in front of the girl and leading her.

Ithil follows close behind and they walk silently. They pass a small, muddy creek and the ground beings to feel softer and a bit muddier. Matt’s mind stayed on Ithil, as he looks behind to see her looking up and trying to find the chirping birds that are hiding in some of the trees; Ithil’s mind was on the nature and she was taking it all in. It was nice to be away from a city and she has always enjoyed just living outside of a city. Unlike her sister who lives in Monterey and loves the city atmosphere that’s nearby, Ithil enjoys the quiet of a small town and the ability to just have no limits to where she can go or what she can do.

Matt stops short, reaching their destination, and Ithil bumps into him obviously not paying attention. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Matt says with a smile as she stands next to him. He enjoyed how short Ithil was compared to him. Though his brother is a few inches shorter than him and he has met/seen people who are shorter than him, he was always known as the shortest guy in the group and having Ithil around made him feel better about being short—even though being short didn’t bother him that much.

Pulling the sleeves down to her hands, she walks to the tree with the extra wood that was supposed to be a tree house and begins to climb up the worn wooden ladder. Matt gets close to the tree, getting ready to catch her in case she falls, but she makes it to the branch and gingerly steps on the weathered wood to make sure it’s sturdy.

“It’s okay!” Matt yells from the ground. Ithil trusts him and begins to take a spot on the wooden floor on top of two thick branches while he climbs up to join her.

She takes a seat on the edge and looks over to see a clearing not too far away. Matt quickly joins her and they begin to talk more about each other’s interests, turn ons, turn offs, and favorite things. Ithil was really enjoying her time with him and was starting to, dare she think it, fall in love with him; Matt, however, was still unsure what he wanted currently, but he knew that he would like to keep this girl in his life.



The sun was starting to go down and the stars were starting to show in the sky. Ithil picked under her nails, not wanting to leave the nice location and not wanting to leave Matt’s side.

“Before we leave, I can show you the river over there.” Matt says while pointing to the clearing.

“Okay.” Ithil says with a smile as they get up and take their turns getting down from the tree.

Matt couldn’t believe what he was thinking, but he was thinking that he was enjoying his day with Ithil more than his day with Rachael yesterday. Even though he wasn’t one to hold anything back, he still did hold things back from his girlfriend because he didn’t want to seem too obnoxious and when he was acting what would seem “obnoxious” to others, Ithil found it humorous. He really enjoyed her laugh; it was a funny laugh that made him laugh more: another thing that he can tease her about besides her little belly from lack of exercise, her short height and her adorable hiccups that she randomly got during their talk.

Ithil smiles at him as they walk to the river that was awaiting them, wondering what’s going through the older boy’s mind. She had plans for his birthday even though it’s not until the next year, she had plans for what to make him for Christmas even though it’s more than two months away; Ithil was planning for the future of their friendship and that’s all that was in her mind.

“There’s the river.” Matt says as they stop to see a low bank of water slowly moving.

“Do you guys ever go swimming in it?” Ithil asks while looking at it.

“Nope,” Matt simply answers, “or at least I wouldn’t.”

“Oh, okay.” Ithil just looks at the moving water as the sun continues to descend from the sky.

“Did you ever go swimming in the rivers in Florida?” Matt asks as he turns around and walks away.

Ithil looks at him and quickly follows before answering, “Ha, no. I don’t wanna get eaten by crocodiles. I did go swimming in the ocean and the brackish water we lived near.”

“Aren’t you afraid of sharks?” Matt asks remembering how she said that she was afraid of sharks.

“Yeah, but when there are no signs that sharks are around it’s completely fine to swim in the ocean.” She replies as the sky gets darker.

“Oh, okay. Well, if I ever go to Florida I may possibly go swim in the ocean.” Matt says while he grabs her hand and starts to run towards their houses. Ithil was slightly confused, but figured that he had to be home before dark since it’s a school night so she ran with him.

They make it to the rows of trees before the sun comes down and the moon rises, but there is only a bit of light from the stars and streets lights twenty feet away that light their way. Ithil was a little scared and clinged herself to Matt’s arm, which he didn’t mind at all. He was glad that he was able to be the main person she’d go to for protection because that means that she trusts him.

“It’ll be okay.” Matt says in a comforting tone as they begin to walk towards the street lights.

Ithil just smiles and begins to let go of the boy’s arm as they reach their suburbia. Cars are surprisingly driving through their usually quiet neighborhood, but it doesn’t bother them much. They were mostly enjoying each other’s company as they walk in silence and Ithil sees a familiar powder blue car drive towards them.

“Oops, Jane has probably been calling me since we were gone.” Ithil says while stopping and pulling out her phone from her pocket seeing that she has five missed calls. “Fuck.”

The car pulls up, allowing Ithil and Matt to be on the same side as the driver’s side with Jane looking very worried and angry at the fifteen year old girl. “I called you multiple times and you haven’t picked up! I was worried sick about you!” Jane yells in her parental tone.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t feel it vibrate like usual.” And Ithil was telling the truth. During her time with Matt, she didn’t feel her phone vibrate and didn’t hear the sound of her phone vibrating against her jeans. She just figured that she was enjoying her time with Matt so much that she was oblivious to any other distractions.

“It’s fine, get in the car.” Jane says before looking at Matt, “Matt, would you like a ride home?”

Matt looks at Ithil, watching her as she climbs to the other side of the car and gets in before he replies, “Um, yeah sure.” He gets in the car and scoots over so he can sit behind Ithil, feeling bad for making the girl get in trouble; he heard the sound of the phone vibrating against her jeans, but just thought that she was ignoring the calls.

“Sōrry for keeping Ithil out so late.” Matt apologizes as Jane starts to drive towards Matt’s house.

“Oh you don’t have to be sorry about that, dear,” Jane says assuringly while looking at him through the rear view mirror, “Ithil just didn’t answer her phone and that was very irresponsible as her.”

Ithil just looks at her hands before saying sorry quietly. She didn’t like being scolded in front of people, and she could feel Matt’s eyes on her from behind. The drive was completely silent, but wasn’t long and soon they were in front of Matt’s house.

“Bye, Ithie.” Matt says trying to cheer her silent friend up.

“Bye, Matty. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Ithil replies with a weak smile.

He gets out of the car and closes the door; Jane waits a few minutes before driving them home. The ride home was silent and Ithil just looks out her window. She knows that she’s going to get in trouble for not answering her phone.

“Ithil, you can’t hang out with any of your friends all month.” Jane says while they park in the driveway.

It was a little harsh, but Ithil didn’t complain even though she thought it was unfair. “A tad extreme for not answering your five calls?” Ithil thinks to herself as they get out of the car. She felt like she was going to miss Matt though.

“Can I go trick or treating with Matt?” Ithil asks as they walk to the door.

“Maybe. Get that D in geometry up to a C by Halloween and we will see.” Jane says, making Ithil groan. It wasn’t because she had to bring up her low D to at least a C that bothered her, but the fact that she’ll have to actually study with the guy that Abbey told her to stay away from.

“Okay, well if I got a good grade on our last test, I probably have a high D or a C already.” Ithil says as they enter the house and begin to go their own way.

“Well, we’ll see!” Jane yells as Ithil runs up the stairs to her room.

The girl just enters her room and looks at her phone, seeing that it’s 8:57. It’s then that she realizes that she hasn’t eaten anything all day and decides to get something to eat before getting ready for bed.

She places her phone on the nightstand before going back downstairs to eat some left over beef stroganoff. Ithil’s mind was filled with sadness for herself and her inability to hang out with the boy that she has grown so comfortable to be alone with out of school and having to study with Josh in order to get her grades high enough to spend Halloween with Matt and their friends if they aren’t already high enough.

“Ithil, dear,” Jane says while walking up to Ithil who is standing near the microwave, “You have a 68 in geometry.”

“Okay, well I’ll just have to get a high grade on the next test and I should be good.” Ithil says while the microwave beeps.

“Okay, well I know you’re a smart girl, Ithil. You just need to apply yourself.” Jane says while looking at the girl.

“I know.” Ithil says while walking to the dining table and taking a seat.

“Well, good-night, don’t stay up too late.” Jane says before walking out of the kitchen.

“I won’t.” Ithil says before eating her beef stroganoff.

She sits quietly and eats her food, thinking about her time with Matt and what it could possibly mean. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, especially since he has a girlfriend and they’ve only began dating according to Matt, but Ithil couldn’t help but be hopeful after this successful day and after spending Friday night with him.

“I don’t wanna ruin anything.” Ithil says to herself beginning to feel bad about her thoughts.

She just sighs as she finishes her dinner and cleans the dish before going upstairs and starting her bedtime routine: get dressed in her pajamas, brush her teeth, set her alarm, turn on her iPod, set the timer to turn the iPod off after a half hour and go to sleep; however, between setting the timer on her iPod and going to sleep, she receives a message from Matt saying:



Ithil smiles, thinking that it’s silly that he thinks it’s his fault and replies:



Ithil smiles and goes to sleep happy, realizing how important Matt is in her life…but then she began to be afraid and her smile disappears as a nightmare crawls into her dreaming mind where Matt isn’t there when she needs him the most, nor does he care about her after it happens.