He had relationships with people and he loved his parents and sisters. But he has never really known someone, like really know a person, to be able to understand what someone was feeling just by looking into their eyes even if they are hiding it. But when he found her that night crying her eyes out in the hall, and saw the look on her face and how exposed and vulnerable she was at that moment something changed. As he looked into her eyes he understood just how alone and broken she felt. It hurt him to see her like that, even though he didn’t know who she was or why she was crying all alone in the hallway during homecoming. But in that moment all he wanted to do was take her pain away. Suddenly she started to close up, wiping her eyes, trying to get herself together, and starting to stand up. She had been caught weak and now was putting her walls back up, being strong.
“No, don’t,” I hurriedly exclaimed, “You have to let it out, if you keep holding it all in you’ll explode.” The conflict was evident on her face. “Please, I’ll leave if you want just don’t shut it all up again.” I tried again, pleading with her. That's when I saw all her strength and willpower loose the fight. She burst into tears falling to her knees, sobbing. As I slowly turned to leave and let her have privacy when I heard from behind me a whimpered,”don’t leave me alone”. I turned to her and she looked so scared of being alone, that I just couldn’t leave her. So I walked back over to her, got down on my knees and pulled her into a tight hug. She stiffened at first, but then sank into my embrace letting out a little sigh. I smiled and helder her as she cried onto my shoulder. After about three minutes of uncontrollable sobbing she lifted her head and looked at me. Her tear streaked cheeks and wide eyes looking up at me as if not understanding why I was still here. So I looked back at her and smiled,”I’m not going anywhere.”
She responded with a weak smile as she laid her head back onto my shoulder as silent tears started to fall. I just held on to her as we sat there in the silence of the moment. Until the moment was interrupted by a hiccup. I looked down at her as she covered her mouth in embarrassment. Then she hiccuped again and it shock her hole body. After the second hiccup I saw her wince as if the hiccup hurt. She must of seen the worried and confused look on my face because she whispered to me, ”I’m fine my hiccups are just kind of strong, an…” she was interrupted by yet another hiccup, and just like the last one it make her whole body shake. “and sometimes they are so strong that it hurts,” she finished.
“Do you want to get a drink?” I asked nodding my head towards the drinking fountain only a few feet away.
“No, water doesn’t really helps, I just have to calm down.” she responded.
“Is there anything I can do to help? Rub your back maybe?” As I looked down at her, her cheeks looked a bit pinker than they had been a minute ago, but I just figured it was from crying so much.
“Um...that m..hiccup..t..that might help, just don’t mess with my shoulders. Ok?”
“Ok, but just out of curiosity why no touching the shoulders?”             
She mumbled something that I couldn’t understand,”what was that?” I asked smiling now. As it was clear that she was embarrassed and didn’t want to tell me. She tried again and this time I heard something that sounded like ‘I’m ticklish’. But just to be sure I repeated it,”Your ticklish, is that what you said?” the grin now stuck on my face. In response I got an angry pouty face from her, which made me want to laugh. I wouldn’t try tickling her now because of what she was going through, but I filed the information away for future reference.
“Ok, no tickling” I said as I started rubbing her back,”but tell what's bad enough that you are crying in the hall at a homecoming dance.” She let out an exhausted sigh as she began to tell me about her life, how she felt so helpless not just at home but at school too now, how she felt like she has no one to talk to, how it feels like no one's there to support her, how she was afraid that she couldn’t enjoy fantasy without losing herself in them, that how she worried about her friend cutting again, how she was losing faith in God and in herself, how she felt like she didn’t even know who she was anymore, how she was losing hope of finding true love and having a happily ever after, and how she, for one of the first times, wasn’t sure about what she wanted to do with her life. And feeling like she was being torn apart. I sat with her sitting in my lap as I continued to rub her back, she told me all about it sometime breaking down having to stop and regain her composure before she could continue. I just sat and listened, knowing that she needed to get this all out of her, that it was good for her to talk to someone. We sat like that for over an hour before she finally finished. I didn’t know what to say so I just stayed silent. But after about a minute of comfortable silence she crawled out of my lap and stood up.