wont let you get me down (ems)

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ryan
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over the moon, where all the wild things are

wont let you get me down (ems) Oct 19, 2017 12:15:07 GMT -5

Post by ryan on Oct 19, 2017 12:15:07 GMT -5

Sagittarius Cristol

you let me think

I hated leaving work with oil on my face. Something about the feeling on my face made me cringe. I felt black liquid seep from my head and onto the ground with a light drip noise. It had been one of those days at the metal mill. Usually I didn’t have messy days, but there were some days where it wasn’t avoidable. Honestly, I hated those days, but I never let that show on my face. I was grateful to have a job after all, as many people in my district didn’t. It pained me almost to think about the many people that went without work. Most of them had to get creative in order to make a living here in nine, and while most people were able to fend for themselves, I felt there were a lot of people that weren’t. The harder days were when I noticed that someone didn’t show up for a couple days in a row. Those were the days when I knew that that person had gone missing. Those were the days when it got the messiest at the factory. Those were the days were someone would come in to receive a chance for a better life, while someone might have lost their chance.

It wasn’t always the case. Sometimes people just got tired of working all the time. Sometimes people just found something that made them a little bit more money, or gave them a little more resource. After all, that’s how I felt when I found my hobby. It provided my family with a little bit more income. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make sure that everyone got fed enough. People loved the tokens that I would create from weird metal scraps that they might have found around the district. There were some days where I didn’t know how some of these people got the material for it, but I didn’t question it. It kept us all busy in a sense. They waited patiently as they watched me work. Usually I wouldn’t ask for an audience, but I never stopped anyone if they just wanted to watch. Of course, I would ask them not to speak, because that usually caused me to mess up in some way. I was a perfectionist in every meaning of the word. I worked closely with the material to make sure I was making the best possible trinket I could. I knew I couldn’t make anyone a sign necklace, but I figured that I could at least try to make some sort of emblem that represented them. It was a way to break me from the monotony of life after all.

Sometimes I would make them for free. Sometimes all I required were people to find some metal scraps around the district in order to create something for them. Sometimes people gave me something for my time, but I didn’t really care about that. Sometimes I was just happy to do it because it meant something to have a trinket that was your very own. If I was in someone else’s shoes, I would long for the same thing. Something made just for me. That was what my necklace symbolized anyway. I know too many people, they wouldn’t understand it. They wouldn’t understand that my necklace was the very representation of me as a person. I was my star sign through and through. My mother would tell me all the time that I exuded every trait that a Sagittarius had. Sometimes I questioned how accurate she was, but I didn’t argue with her about it. I just smiled and took the compliment in stride. That’s what she would have wanted anyway.

I exited out of the building and began to rush to my house. I had a commission that I needed to work on, but I also needed to wash this oil out of my hair. I needed to cleanse my body before I could settle down and work. Of course, I was tired, but that didn’t stop me from making the art that I was proud of. If you couldn’t find time, you had to make time. That was what I was told by my father. He too was proud of the work I did, and didn’t care how or what I did with it. As long as I was trying to find a way to bring it to other people in the district, he supported it. It took a weight off my shoulders at the end of the day. I had parents that supported me, and while they were fine that I didn’t do it for a gift in return, they just wanted me to be happy. Maybe it was because of the games. They knew that one of their children would be reaped someday. They just wanted us to be happy with how long we had left. Which would always be indeterminate. A scary thought really.

When I got close to my house, I noticed the small pond that was behind it. We got lucky. We were close to a small bed of water. Of course, we shared with a couple other people that neighbored the area, but still, it was nice to have something that we could call our own. I stripped down to my underwear and jumped in the water, scrubbing the oil from my head and taking a moment to let the sunlight hit my skin. Sometimes, it was hard working all the time, but as long as I got to go home and indulge in something as sinful as a dip in a pond, that was enough for me. I needed to get to work anyway.

Not too far away from the pond, my workstation sat. Of course, most of it was makeshift and subject to break, but from what I had, it was enough to keep me going until I needed to figure out a way to make something new. It happened a little too often, but there was usually enough scraps thrown away at the factory to fix whatever problem I might have been having. Currently the torch I was using was starting to fizzle at the nozzle, so I had to keep my eyes out for something similar, otherwise I would be out of a hobby.

I ran inside and grabbed a towel to dry off. I looked at myself in the mirror for a second to make sure the black liquid was clear from my face. I was happy to see a shiny clean face in the dirty mirror that no one ever bothered to clean. I put on some dry clothes and the rubber apron that I found from the factory tossed out because one of the strings was ripped off by a machine. It was still usable otherwise. I walked outside, back to the pond and began to prepare for something that was going to take my mind off of the world just for a moment.

When I went to start the blow torch, I heard it fitz with a sound like a raspberry. “Shit.” I said out loud, I didn’t know what to do in this situation, but I had to think of something fast. I took a deep breath. The last thing I needed to do was freak out.

that you were so so true

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Last Edit: Oct 19, 2017 12:16:18 GMT -5 by ryan

Knuckles
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wont let you get me down (ems) Oct 19, 2017 14:00:12 GMT -5

Post by Knuckles on Oct 19, 2017 14:00:12 GMT -5

Alfonso Parks
Eighteen | Male | District Nine

take me down to the river bend
take me down to the fighting end
wash the poison from off my skin
show me how to be whole again

Frail hands wrap around a broken necklace dangling loosely from my neck. The fragile chain holding it together snapped under the weight of the world. My hand got caught, and I tugged just a little too hard. Some may judge me for carrying the tiny cross so close to my heart, but it's all that I have left. Rolf handed it to me in the justice building before vanishing forever. Many won't understand. Benny yearns for stories because he doesn't care about anything else in the world. Pherick runs around tormenting lost souls in the district. My own parents are too busy to even care for me anymore. Not that it matters as I've learned to care for myself.

A single tear swims down the side of my face as I hold the cross close.

Yelling comes from behind me as I carefully shut the door. Mom and dad will never understand. They never cared for Rolf or Chaske. They never cared for me, and yet I still call them parents because they raised me.

Sometimes it's best to simply get out and move on.

Perhaps today is that day I make my own life. It isn't hard. I hold a job. I work. I provide for myself anyway, but I stop and think of Benny and what he would do without me. So many times I sit beside him telling him stories of the world. Most of them are fictional, but he doesn't know any different and it means the world to me. Just seeing his smiling face in a world filled with hate makes it better. Sometimes, in the back of my mind, I wonder how he sees the world.

But it doesn't matter right now because I have a crisis on hand.

A heavy sigh leaves my chest as I turn away from the house. It's not easy trying to please people. Trying to make everyone happy. I've done it for so long, and it's time I care for myself. I have to do what makes me happy, and if my parents have a problem with it, it's their own fault. They can deal with it since I've dealt with it for so long.

The sun heats my pale skin, and it feels so good outside, but winter is just around the corner. I can tell by the changing of the leaves. Not many leaves remain on the trees anyway. It's not because of the weather though. So much pollution from the factories fill the air ruining everything. Sometimes they make it so foggy, I can't see, but today is different. It's clear compared to normal.

It kind of makes me feel uneasy.

But I clutch the broken necklace as I journey through the streets of the district wondering if anyone could fix it. Nothing else matters in this current moment. How can I look at my dead cousins telling them I'm sorry for ruining everything they worked for?

I don't deserve the name Parks.

I'm nothing like them. Just a kid trying to live, and yet I feel like I'm a parent of a sixteen year old brother. Sometimes working isn't enough. The last thing I need in life is to sell everything I own, but it's happening piece by piece.

Why?

Mom and dad should provide more than I do.

Another tear streams down the side of my face as I turn a corner. Sometimes I wonder if anyone can help me. If they can mend the broken heart along side the broken chain.

It's just another day. Another chance to prove how strong I actually am. The weight of my parents have held me down.

I take a deep breath before carrying myself forward one step at a time. It's just another day. Another walk through the park. Anything to get me away from home. I have nothing to do. Nothing to keep me going when the world comes crashing down. Nothing mattered in this world anyway. We're all slaves to the higher powers.

But I'm alive, and for that I'm forever grateful.

Turning another corner, I see something. A little work area. Someone's personal place. A place away from the rest of the world. Something I wish I had. Anything to give me a little peace away from the rest of the storm.

My eyes lock on the necklace before turning back to the station. A man is working inside, and whatever he's holding isn't working if I had to take a guess.

"Got anymore of that stuff?" I ask pointing towards whatever he's holding. "I'm sure it ain't cheap." I've never been good at making conversations, but I just want to do something. I need something to do. A little bit of help.

"Seems like you got yourself a good little set up going." I take a breath before lowering my gaze. I'm intruding on this man's business, and perhaps it's best if I simply walk away. "I wish I could do things like this."

I'm trying to be genuine, but sometimes I stick a foot in my mouth before I realize what I'm doing. Perhaps I can apologize and move on without any problems or issues;

"Sorry, I'll just be going."

[googlefont="Julee:400"]

868 words

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ryan
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over the moon, where all the wild things are

wont let you get me down (ems) Oct 19, 2017 15:35:15 GMT -5

Post by ryan on Oct 19, 2017 15:35:15 GMT -5

Sagittarius Cristol

you let me think

Times would always be hard here and nine, and of course, I accepted that a long time ago. I remember my first real memory here in nine. I was alone in the town square because my mother ran in to grab a little something for us to eat. She gave me something to hold onto because we needed to get it to my father. It wasn’t anything too special, to me, it looked like a pale box with the words Rx scribbled in awful hand writing. My mom told me to protect it though because Daddy needed the medication for something that he was trying to get over. I stood there on the hot summer day and thought about what a good boy I was being for protecting something that meant a lot to my dad. That was when a boy that looked twice my size pulled on the box out of nowhere. Of course, I was not here for it, and tried to hold onto it for my life, but then I was pushed to the ground and it was ripped from my hands subsequently. The kid ran off with the goods, and I couldn’t help but cry about it.

I got up from where I stood and ran. I ran with my tiny legs, knowing that I would probably be yelled at for not being able to protect what I was given. I didn’t even know why the boy had grabbed it from me. All I knew was that I feared the outcome. I ran to the very pond I sit before now, crying because I was afraid my mother was going to come out of nowhere and punish me for something that was out of my control. I hated the way I was feeling right now, because I felt like I let my mother down.

She found me eventually, and hugged me, telling me that she was worried that I was kidnapped. When I told her that I lost the item, she told me that it was fine, and that she only cared about me being safe. She told me that when she didn’t find me, she was worried that I might never come back to her. She told me to never leave her side again like that. That anything I did would never upset her because she loved me. All I did was cry and hug her. I ended up falling asleep in her arms. She said I slept so soundly that when she put me in the bed and I didn’t even fuss around. Maybe it was the fact that she told me that she would love me no matter what that kept me from waking up. It was the first time I had felt safe after all.

I snapped back into reality, realizing that there was now a boy that was standing in front of him. I was caught off guard, almost to the point of falling out of the seat I was currently in. I knew that this was something I was going to have to get used to because I decided to do this in public, but the shock was still there. Of course, there probably wasn’t anything malicious behind it. Most people liked to come up and ask him what he was doing out of nowhere anyway. It kind of just came with the territory because of the fire that he was usually wielding in his hands to make his trinkets. He liked to take his time with each one that he made, and even though a lot of people asked him for something, he didn’t want to feel pressured into doing it. However, people were persistent in nine, well, sometimes.

When he heard the click of his torch he sighed, thinking of anyway he could try to get it ignited again without having to travel around the district to find the part. Maybe he just needed to tap it slightly to get it to trigger. When he did so, it didn’t work, and that was when the boy had showed up anyway, amazed by the set-up he had. “It’s pretty basic actually.” I said, knowing well that this was nothing like what professionals used. I could only work with what I had, and I imagined one day that maybe I would be fortunate enough to acquire something that would seem more professional. For now however, I was going to have to work with what I have, which worked fine when it wanted too. It was days like this though that I hated because I had to think on my feet. “Was able to restore most of it from the scraps that the factories put out as garbage. Most of it still worked, it was just dinged up a little bit.” I said, holding up the blowtorch and trying to get a closer look at it. “Just needed to rough out the edges a little bit, but otherwise…” I paused as he tapped the igniter again and watched as the flame soared out of the nozzle. “… They work just fine!” I was pretty excited that I was able to get it up and running fast. Now I had to work quick, less I wanted it to crap out on me again.

“If you put your mind to it, you could do anything.” I said, bleeding with the idealism that my mother gave to me when she had me. I knew well that not everyone could do what I was doing. Some of it had to do with resources, and some of it had to do with talent. It was easy to burn and meld metal, but it was hard to turn it into shapes. You had to have a vision before you went into it, and even when you thought it turned out just how you wanted, it probably didn’t. “I could probably use a sander or a buffer, but I know that I would never get one of those unless I got extremely lucky.” I said, setting the flame off because I was talking a little too much to focus on what I wanted to do. That’s when I looked up and noticed the necklace that was loosely hanging from the boys neck. It looked like the chain had or was about to snap off. But as I was about to say something, I watched him walk away from me.

“Wait.” I said, confused. “You don’t have to go. You can stay and watch. I don’t mind.” I said, knowing that attracting an audience was something that I had to expect while doing this outside. “I see that chain is pretty weak around your neck.” I said with a small smile, holding out my hand, hoping he would take my generosity in good nature. “I can meld that chain for you a bit, make it a little sturdier, or even make you a new chain?” I said, knowing exactly what materials I could use to create something that would last a lot longer than the chain that he currently had. “Free of charge.” I added, seeing as I made most of my things free of charge. It was what I was used too here. No one should have to pay to have something of their very own. Not even a stranger.

that you were so so true

Made by ♛ scandal

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Last Edit: Oct 19, 2017 15:35:38 GMT -5 by ryan

Knuckles
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probably flailing over something

wont let you get me down (ems) Oct 20, 2017 13:46:47 GMT -5

Post by Knuckles on Oct 20, 2017 13:46:47 GMT -5

Alfonso Parks
Eighteen | Male | District Nine

take me down to the river bend
take me down to the fighting end
wash the poison from off my skin
show me how to be whole again

Turning away, one foot after another, I carry on moving away from the guy. I don't know him, and he doesn't know me. Yet I bothered him. I intruded upon his turf, but his words reach my ears. It's true. For most my life I always believed I could do whatever I wanted to as long as I tried; however, none of that feels true. My parents laugh at me, they taunt me. My brother gets all the attention, and I can't blame my parents for wanting to care for someone who's special. Benny means the world to me, and yet it still hurts knowing they care more for him than they do for me. His words doesn't stop me though.

Sometimes it's fun just messing with people, but today isn't one of those days. Joking around, doing anything to make someone laugh, trying to not let myself cry. He's obviously a hard worker. Someone who's put so much time into everything he does. I was once like that, yet everything has slowly fell apart. The fragile necklace I'm clutching is the only part of my old life that I'm holding onto.

"Wait."

Everything freezes, and my heart leaps into the back of my throat. He tells me I don't have to go, that I can stay and watch, and for a moment it just seems unreal. Nobody is never nice to me. It's always get out of here! or Get lost kid!

What makes this man different?

He mentions the chain of my necklace, and my heart sinks into the pits of my stomach, and I can feel tears pooling in the corner of my eyes;

I cannot cry here.

Blinking them away, I slowly turn around until my eyes are locked on him again. The necklace means the world to me, and he's willing to make me a new chain. He's willing to do something for me, someone he's never met before. To top it all off, he's willing to fix it free of charge. My heart melts inside my chest, and all I want to do is run away. I try to open my mouth to speak, but no words fall from my lips. Everything is stuck. My eyes are wide.

Every fiber of my being quivers for just a moment as I try to wrap my mind around everything that's happening. I'm at a complete loss of words. Nothing makes sense.

Why would a stranger help me?

"You'd do that for me?"

Scratching my head, I carefully walk towards him once more clutching the necklace even closer. "I broke it earlier." My voice is quiet, very quiet. "But I'd have to pay you for it. I can't let you just use your materials for nothing."

I don't know what I'm doing anymore, but I remove the necklace from around my neck, and I can see exactly where the chain broke. It hurts seeing the damage I caused, yet this man says he can fix it. Carefully handing it to him, I look at the ground before shifting my gaze back to him.

"I'm Alfonso, by the way." Introducing myself is an important part of getting to know people, however, nobody needs to know I share the last name of two deceased tributes. "It's nice to meet you."

[googlefont="Julee:400"]

550 words

Last Edit: Oct 20, 2017 13:47:43 GMT -5 by Knuckles

lest we forget [the characters]

credit to Zoe

ryan
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over the moon, where all the wild things are

wont let you get me down (ems) Oct 22, 2017 1:15:44 GMT -5

Post by ryan on Oct 22, 2017 1:15:44 GMT -5

Sagittarius Cristol

you let me think

I watched him as he turned around and made his way from me. I thought about how he must be lost. Not only physically, but also mentally. I remember when I sued to be like him, until I found the hobby that helped me discovered myself. When I started metal working, I realized that this was something that I always had in me, I just never really went for it. I always saw shapes and colors in a weird way, and when I decided that I wanted to do something like this, I got excited. Of course, getting all the necessary materials to do this was hard, but with a little perseverance and luck. I obtained everything without too much hassle. It took a bit to get to where I was now, but I was the type to persevere through the toughest tribulations. It was the hallmark of my personality after all. Or at least that is what I was told multiple times. Most of the time I was able to do my own excavation, but there were times when I people I knew had handed me stuff because they wanted me to keep working on the art that I loved so much. Usually I would try not to take it, but with pressure, I would take it. As self-sufficient as I was, I knew that taking handouts could be useful as they came in. Rarely did I have someone that didn’t force something into my hands anyway. I would never tell them, but I was eternally grateful for it.

I hoped that he would turn back around and try to give me a chance to fix what must have been important to him. I knew that if the chain to my necklace broke, I would want someone to fix it as well. This sign necklace meant the world to me after all. I knew that you were allowed to bring something from home with you should you get reaped, and it was the only thing that I would have wanted to take with me. Even though I am sure that my family would have been heartbroken to see me go, I would tell them to keep holding onto the necklaces that I made for them and remind them that I was always with them no matter what. I knew they would appreciate that sentiment in such a hard time after all. I didn’t want them to give up on me, or write me off to my grave. I appreciated them so much for believing in me, so much that I believed in them to believe in me some more. I knew I probably wouldn’t make it out of the games alive, but holding onto to hope was a powerful thing in the weirdest situations.

And so when I snapped back into reality, I noticed that he was still pondering my offer. I didn’t see what was too complicated about it, but I knew that people usually didn’t like to take handouts here in nine. The district was full of people who exuded an extreme amount of pride when it came to their way of life. However, something seemed different about the boy that was standing not too far from me. He seemed like he was lost here in a district that seemed way too easy to get lost in. There were days where I would take a wrong path and get lost for hours because by the time I realized it, I was way out of my way. I did take those opportunities to see what I can find lying around the district. Sometimes I could find things that I could repair the beauty in. Sometimes I could find things that would help me get ahead in my art. And sometimes, I would get lucky and find something that I could sell to make a little extra income. It didn’t happen as often as I wanted it too, but it was good enough to at least get some extra food when we needed it. It was the little things that I appreciated in the world after all. We lived in a place that seemed like it would never get better, but that didn’t mean that we had to treat it like our own personal hell. There was always a heaven to a hell anyway.

And sometimes we had to hide ourselves in order to protect what we cared about. That was the feeling I got from the boy that looked at me like I had just answered all of his prayers. It seemed like I was one of the first people in his life to offer him kindness, which was eerie in thought. Everyone deserved some sort of compassion. No one deserved to be treated like they were a burden. There have been many times where I was treated like that, and after a while, I had to learn that it wasn’t worth trying in a relationship if I was going to be treated like I was getting in someones way. After my last real relationship, I decided that if I had to choose how to be to a person, it was going to be kind. We all had different stories that we wrote as we did things, and sometimes we couldn’t control what we were writing, but when I could, I would. I knew that would mean something to the person that didn’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t.

My mother would always tell me that she was proud of the person that I was becoming.

And I had to agree with her, because I could tell that I was becoming a better person everyday.

Or something like that.

“Yeah? It looks like it means a lot to you.” I said, smiling at him as he turned back around. “After all, you wouldn’t be holding onto it if it didn’t mean anything to you.” I was honest in my words because I had a feel like I was hitting the nail on the head here. I knew that it would mean a lot to him to fix something that he thought he could never fix. It didn’t look like it needed a lot of patching up anyway. Maybe a quick couple seconds under a torch and maybe a little mending once the chain became malleable enough to be pressed together.

I examined it as he carefully placed it into my hands. I felt the cool metal through my fingers and let the chain slink in and out of my fingertips, trying to gauge what it might have needed. “It looks like you hold onto it a lot. The chain could have snapped because of it being tugged too roughly.” I pulled the two ends of the chain together and gave him a small smile as he sat down to watch me work. “No. No need to pay me.” I said, waving my hand in disapproval. I didn’t want money for this. I just wanted the chance to make someone’s day. I wanted the chance show someone that there are people who care in the world. While I didn’t think that this boy didn’t have someone that cared about him, he looked like he didn’t trust people, and I always had a hard time with that concept. Sometimes I trusted people too much, and that was where I usually got caught up in some sort of drama. “Just promise me to be gentle with the things you cherish yeah?” I said with a wide smile.

And then he told me his name.

And I smiled at him.

“I am Sagittarius.” I spoke with a light tone in my voice, placing the chain flat on the mat carefully. I could tell that this was something that I couldn’t be rough with. I put each end of the necklace into the clasp and tightened it as I let the broken ends hang. “Nice to meet you.” I smiled, looked at the metal and noticing that this might be an easier fix then I thought. “Well Alfonso…” I said, pausing in order to prepare myself to not ruin something that had meant the world to the person that was sitting below me now. “…Are you ready for this?” I said with a smile of sincerity. I thought about how I could make this a unique chain for him as I patched it together. Ideas were escaping me, but I knew that I would come up with something..

that you were so so true

Made by ♛ scandal

PAT: 1412

Last Edit: Oct 22, 2017 17:58:29 GMT -5 by ryan

Knuckles
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probably flailing over something

wont let you get me down (ems) Oct 22, 2017 18:03:58 GMT -5

Post by Knuckles on Oct 22, 2017 18:03:58 GMT -5

Alfonso Parks
Eighteen | Male | District Nine

take me down to the river bend
take me down to the fighting end
wash the poison from off my skin
show me how to be whole again

It's in moments like these I learn kind people exist in the world. Sometimes it isn't as easy as it feels, but right now someone cares. Someone is willing to do something for me. Just hours ago, my parents would've been laughing because holding onto a necklace is stupid when the rest of the world matters. A necklace won't mean anything when I'm gone, but right now it's the most important thing in the world to me. I promised to take care of it, and handing it over to this man is hard. At least he seems to know exactly what he's doing. Does it make it any easier?

No, not at all.

But I'm standing here frozen in place listening to him as he tells me what I already know. I've been holding onto it closely because it absolutely means the world to me, and I guess he can tell. A small grin twists across my face, and yet I still can't move. The only reason I was holding onto it when I arrived here was to completely prevent the cross from falling off. To keep it all together so I didn't lose any part of it since I'm not the most organized person in the world. And sometimes I swear if my head wasn't attached to my body, it would disappear.

"I was afraid of losing the cross if I didn't hold onto it today, and that's the most important part." Maybe it'll give him a clue as to why I'm holding onto it. Maybe he'll understand that it's not just another stupid necklace. A lot of people think it's stupid, yet it's not.

It's all I have left.

What catches me off guard even more is he doesn't want me to pay him. It's rare to see someone like that. Someone who does things to just help people out, but I've been told to never accept anything for free. Everyone deserves the money for the work they put in.

Why's this man different?

It's beyond my wildest dreams, but I'm so thankful. Yet I can't say a word. They're all stuck on the tip of my tongue. How can I thank a guy for fixing something so important?

Maybe one day I can find a way to repay him, but for now I only smile and nod my head.

"I didn't mean to break it. It just happened. Sometimes things happen even when I try not to make it happen." I shrug my shoulders before lowering my gaze. He tells me his name, and I'm trying to repeat it over and over in my head, but it's hard to pronounce.

And then he asks if I'm ready for him to fix the necklace.

"Yeah."

It takes every ounce of strength to prevent myself from jumping with joy. I'm ready for a new chain to hold the cross in place, but it's something so stupid. I'm nodding my head with pure excitement, yet I still can't bring myself to say a word.

I'm like a little kid that's been thrown into a candy store after being told to go wild.

My hands are shaking, heck, my entire body is jittery. It's been so long since anyone has done anything for me, and Sagittarius doesn't want anything in return.

"And I will try to be more gentle and not break it this time."