I didn't want to talk about it. Any other time, I would have exploded and said something hurtful to her, like I did last time. I would have ended all communication with her, and she wouldn't forgive me.
I couldn't find the bull inside me to do it once I turned to see her face. I thought about what Liam said, and I couldn't find the heart to shut her out.
“In case you haven't noticed, I look like a monster,” I replied.
Julie punched me, and she held nothing back in her swing. I grabbed my arm and stared at her as if she were mad, and she could have been. She could have been clinically insane.
“Ow!” I said, staring at her with wide eyes. “That sort of hurt.”
“Good,” she came back, crossing her arms. She was glaring at me, her green eyes narrowed in on me. “I hope it hurt and I hope you feel it.”
“Trust me, I do,” I informed her, rubbing my arm.
She poked my chest with her finger. “I have noticed what you look like, Falon, and it's not a monster I see when I look at you,” she replied.
I don't know where my boldness came from, but I suddenly found myself asking, “What do you see then?”
Julie relaxed, staring at me with that same desperation I had seen before. “I see hurt, and pain, and scars, but all of that is just covering the beauty and the lovely person that I know is in there,” she told me.
Goosebumps ran along my arms, because I knew she wasn't lying, and it scared me because I knew with a certainty. She could see something in me, something that was suppose to be hidden.
I didn't know how.
“So, I'm a lovely monster?”
Julie smiled, nodding slowly. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“And you're Sketch?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “No, I'm Julie,” she replied.
“Liam said that everyone calls you Sketch,” I told her, and she nodded.
“Everyone does, but not you. You're my lovely monster, and I'm your Julie,” she replied.
I wasn't sure if she realized the significance of her words, but it didn't pass me. I understood, and I felt it. I felt all of the meaning in that simple statement.
I was hers.
She was mine.
♥
At four o'clock, the nurses came into the room and started claiming kids. The number had diminished long before that, because most of the kids couldn't stay up long without getting sick. The ones left were the children that were determined to keep pushing forward.
They would play even if it killed them, and there was a good possibility that it could happen.
Liam, Julie, and me cleaned up the room. Julie took the coloring books and crayons away as Liam and I swept up. I was surprised that there was a floor when we were done. The room was neat and tidy, and I hadn't thought that possible when I first had walked in.
Liam threw the small basketball through the hoop and then smiled as he watched it ring. “Tonight will be good, my sister,” he exclaimed, giving her a high five.
Julie eagerly claimed her right and retrieved the ball. She made the basket and squealed. She turned and high fived Liam with a wide smile.
They both looked at me. I must have been staring at them like they were crazy (I was certainly thinking it) because they both started to laugh. They could have passed as twins with their laugh.
“It's just a little foolishness. If you make the basket, whatever you planned to do will work out, if not, you'll fail miserably,” Julie replied.
Liam grabbed the ball and tossed it to me. “Try it, my man. Just one throw, you miss, whatever you were thinking about will fail, you make it, you shall succeed,” he said, his voice booming with superiority.
I stared at the plush, orange and black ball and then looked to Julie. She was smiling at me, and that made me feel pretty good. Like I was invincible.
I looked at the net, and then tossed. I squeezed my eyes closed, and then waited for the sound of the net falling over, or something break, but all I heard was the swoosh of the net.
“And it's good!” Liam announced.
“Whoop! Whoop!” Julie chimed in, and I opened my eyes.
You would have thought we had all won the lottery with the way we were smiling and laughing, and dancing and cheering. You would have thought we might be crazy, and that would have been okay too.
Because we didn't care what anyone thought. We were alive, and that was all that mattered.
♥
I walked with Liam and Julie to their car after we locked up. They argued over who was going to drive all the way down in the elevator. Julie argued that Liam couldn't drive because he couldn't hear all the people honking at his recklessness. Liam claimed that Julie could hear them, and still didn't do anything.
I felt sorry for everyone on the highway.
They eventually came to the conclusion that Liam would drive home, and Julie would drive them both to the hospital tomorrow.
When we got outside, my car was closer than theirs, and I stopped at the trunk. They both stopped with me to say goodbyes.
“You will come tomorrow, right? It was kind of nice having a guy around,” Liam said, and Julie nudged his arm.
“I'm not boy enough for you? We basically have the same haircut,” she pointed out.
“But you have boobs. That makes you a chick,” he countered.
“Not true. I've seen guys with way bigger boobs than mine.”
“That is true,” I piped in.
Liam turned to me. “Have you been staring at my sister's chest?” he
