~Blind\\With Eyes Wide Open//: [Hayley]

Perhaps I don't need this pointless little rock anyways. Well, no.. not pointless. Perhaps someone else needs its guidance more than I do. I don't even need this small stone, even if it is special and different. It's a heart and a butterfly, and something so wonderful can definitely help someone who needs it.

I toss the minuscule stone up into the air a few inches and it falls lightly back into my fingertips slowly. I throw it once more, and then raise my head up to see who I spoke to just a moment ago.

I narrow my eyes slightly and glance down at the poor girl sitting on the bench, and I can't help but wonder why she isn't inside where it's warm and cozy. Why am I not inside? My mother didn't like it much that I was leaving the house, but she let me go after I promised to bring along a jacket. I don't really like this jacket because the insides make me itch, but at least I'm warm. I can't say the same thing for this girl in front of me; her coat looks paper-thin, and something about her face doesn't seem right. Why isn't she smiling?

"You're pretty! Here, have this rock," is the first thing that pops out of my mouth, handing over the stone to her.

When the stone leaves my possession, there is a moment when I feel that I have lost something completely important. Maybe I shouldn't have given it away, at least not to this girl that I don't know. Well, I do know her, though this is the first time that I've talked to her. Such a small communication shouldn't count, but soon I'm sure that we're going to be good friends. Friends aren't really that difficult to come by, but having a lot of them is nice all the same. Most all of my friends are absolutely hilarious, and I bet that this girl is just the same way. Funny jokes, pointless teasing, pretending to think that I'm weird. Everyone is a riot, though it might be nice if they would come up with some new punch lines to their jokes. "Antimony is stupid!" and other false teases are far too repetitive, but it's all good fun. I love my friends, and they all love me.

Everything is perfect.

It's just now that something about Sin's voice sounds odd to me. Whether it's the tone or what she's saying or her slight stumble over a few words, I'm not sure. She doesn't seem as sure and confident as some of my other friends often are, and her tone is hardly amusing. Perhaps it's a mixture of the three, but something is definitely off that doesn't make sense. There is no happiness, no slight hint of joy hidden beneath her words, no breath of laughter that I often hear emerging from the lips of my friends. Why does she not sound this way?

I tilt my head to the side slightly and the ratty hair falling down my back slides to the right just a bit, and I raise my eyebrows at her involuntarily. It bothers me that I can't figure this out, but I suppose the best way to find an answer is to just come out and ask.

"Your voice sounds kind of funny. Are you alright? Are you not happy?" I ask in a worried tone, taking a moment to step in front of her and then to the side as I plop down on the bench very closely next to her.

I don't understand why some people are like this; why they don't seem happy. Everything about the world is wonderful, so why can they not see that? How do they not enjoy the simple things in life, the things that they were blessed with? I know that some people don't have family, but isn't that enough? I feel sometimes that I could live forever and be happy for all eternity with my family by my side. It's nice to have more complex things, but I haven't ever really wanted much more than I already have. What else could I want? I have a family, I have pets, I have friends. There is nothing else in the world that I could possibly need, and nothing will ever go wrong to ruin this for me.

Shaking my head, I lift my head a tad and meet my blue-eyed gaze to her dark one, and I can't stop myself when I open my mouth to speak again. Whether it's out of extreme habit or I just like to talk, I cannot keep myself from saying something else.

"I'm really happy, you know. My family is really wonderful, and you should see some of my friends too. Oh, they're all the best. Hey! Will you be my friend? I always like having new friends. You can't have too many, I say. Always having someone to talk to is nice, but I think that I just love to talk a lot. There's always someone around to listen to me, and I love that. So what do you say? Will you be my friend?" I don't realize that I'm laughing and incoherently mumbling through my teeth until halfway through my speech, but I can't stop. The laughter is like the flu, but more pleasant. Once you catch it, it takes a long time to get rid of it.

I wonder if I could laugh for the same amount of time that it takes me to rid myself of the flu. That would be fun, though I'm usually laughing all of the time as it is. I probably wouldn't even notice a difference if I issued myself that sort of challenge, and it would be fun! Yes, I think that I'll try to do that. But not today- it's very difficult to laugh and talk at the same time, and Sin might not have even heard me through my wild moment of laughter.

Did she hear my questions? Maybe she didn't..

Repeat.

"DO YOU WANT TO BE MY FRIEND?!" I half screech at her, loud enough so that she'll be sure to understand me.

It strikes me for a moment that my question is silly. Why wouldn't she want to be my friend?

It sometimes astonishes me how so very popular I am around the District. I have made friends with many people my own age, along with others older than myself. They're peculiar people, always joking around with me and laughing. I love how much my friends laugh- it's like a contagious disease when they come within a small radius of where I am. I don't even need to say anything and someone will usually burst out laughing. Perhaps I just have that effect on people, though; perhaps I'm just special. I've thought of myself as a pretty okay person up until now, but when I really think about it, I am truly important. People laugh when they walk by me, they burst into hysterical fits of giggling when I say something, they smile and start talking about me when they think I'm not looking. I'm a riot, and everybody truly loves me.

The idea sends a shiver of happiness through me, but maybe the wind can take credit for that. The temperature bites like my little puppy used to - he always enjoyed nibbling at my sleeve, but sometimes he would bite through the fabric and tear into my skin. I kind of miss that dog; he was small and spotted and energetic, kind of like I am, except filthier. Neither of us were ever that accomplished at staying clean, but he would run around in the mud day in and day out, making any bath pointless only hours after the attempt.

But I guess that's not the point, is it? Or maybe it does have something to do with the point. That dog was one of my only companions as a kid, up until he died. I never really had a lot of friends by my side when I was young, but he always made that better. All of the animals made that better, actually. They can't talk and laugh as my friends do now, but they kept me company. Or rather, I kept them company. The cows, the dogs, the chickens, the occasional horse. I wonder what they would have said about me if they could talk. Surely they would be just as wonderful as my friends nowadays, always so willing to joke and to be with me. I love my life.

Nothing is the same as it once was. I like visiting the animals, but I usually do my best to avoid them because my parents usually ask for some sort of favor whenever I go anywhere near the fields or barn. I don't need them for companionship anymore, so instead I go out and do just as I am doing now; I go out and talk to people. Tall and short, girl and boy, young and old; I'll talk to all of them. Sometimes people try to walk away from me in a hurry and completely ignore me, but I've learned not to bother these people. Bothering people that are in a hurry to work or to buy a Giraffe for their farm is a horrible thing to do, or so my dad says. I don't understand how I still can't talk with them, as long as I can keep up with them. It's bothersome and annoying, but I guess that's life.

Even so, there are always people around to talk to. Sin obviously needs someone, so it's all the better that I'm here for her. She truly doesn't look happy, but I suppose that I shouldn't say anything else about it. I realize that I forgot about what my dad told me about staying out of other peoples' business, but that's the rule that I most often forget. It's just so difficult not to.

Oh well, she probably didn't hear me through my incoherent babble, anyways. Everything is fine.

"Yes, I'll be your friend, Antimony." The sudden change in Sin's tone makes it plainly obvious - she truly wants to be my friend. One moment she was shaky and afraid, and saying those words gave her strength? It's too early to tell, but she may just be my best friend soon.

I don't realize that I have begun to jump up and down until a millisecond before I trip over my messily tied shoelaces, but I somehow manage to awkwardly keep my footing. I turn around wildly and open my arms to give Sin a large bear hug for emphasis, and the widest smile of all rests on my face as I say to her, "Okay! What do you want to do first?"

Best. Friends. Forever.