Friday, 15th of September

Alma and I were sitting at the dining table, eating lunch, although eating might not be the right word for it. I didn't feel hungry nor could I motivate myself to eat the food in front of me. It was pizza made by Alma and tasted very good. Usually, I would eat and enjoy every last bit of it.

As I was just looking at the food, making small bites now and then, Alma watched me looking insecurely, probably thinking that I didn't like the pizza. I didn't want her to think that; it tasted delicious after all. I made a big bite and tried to cover up my listlessness but couldn't quite manage to do so. It was hard for me to swallow the food, which probably didn't make the situation any better.

"Y-You don't have t-to eat it if you don't like it..." said an obviously sad Alma.

"No, that's not it!" I interrupted her, "It's really good, I'm just not hungry... I'll eat it later, okay?"

Alma nodded and finished her last slice of pizza before cleaning the table. She brought my plate into the kitchen and put it into the fridge, before washing off the one she used herself. While she was doing that, there was a knock on the front door. When I opened it, I was surprised by a policeman standing in front of me.

"Good afternoon, may I speak with Miss Alma White? We were told she lives here," requested the man. I wasn't sure how to respond to this and was becoming nervous just from looking at him, as I had never spoken to a policeman before.

I was about to call Alma when she suddenly stepped beside me, shyly saying, "Y-Yes, I am Alma White..."

"I am very sorry, but I have to inform you that your stepmother was found dead in her apartment about one month ago. Your father has been arrested and admitted to beating her to death. I am sorry for not being able to tell you earlier, but I had no information about where you were living at that time," explained the officer. My mouth dropped open, and I became speechless; news like these aren't an everyday thing. Alma looked shocked and overwhelmed by the situation, which was understandable, so it took her some time to process this information.

"I have to ask you to come with me, I need you to answer a few questions," demanded the guy. After standing there frozen for a while, she swallowed and was getting ready to say something.

"C-Can Br-... um... M-Miss Faye come with me?" asked Alma while stuttering. The way she struggled to call me by my last name was cute but didn't make the situation any better. I felt terrible for her; even if she didn't like her father and stepmother, no one should experience something like this, especially in their own family.

"I guess that shouldn't be a problem," answered the man and led us to his car. I still had a strange feeling from being in the presence of a policeman, but I was getting a little bit excited for my very first ride in a police car. After Alma helped me get into the car and hopped in herself, the car took off and brought us to a police station near the airport in Tampa, Florida.

The drive took quite some time which gave both Alma and me the chance to calm down. I was wondering how Alma felt about all of this; I knew she didn't like her father nor her stepmother, but something like this was bound to have a massive impact on her.

When we got out of the car and went into the police building, we were led to a table where the man offered us coffee. One of the men working at the station went to get the coffee while the one who took us here sat down at the table and started talking with Alma, "Your father is in a bad and confused state of mind right now. He talked to himself and revealed some shocking details about you. But it's all fine now, he is in prison, so please answer the questions truthfully. He can't harm you anymore."

Alma nodded but was insecurely looking down at her lap. I placed my hand on hers, which made her look up into my eyes. I gripped her hand tightly, showing her that I was there with her. She had a small smile on her lips and turned her head back to the man, who started asking questions. The conversation was straightforward; the man asked a question, and Alma answered after a moment of thinking.

"When did you see your father and stepmother for the last time?" was the first question, to which Alma replied, "My eighteenth birthday, 22nd of July."

"How was your relationship with them?" continued the officer.

"Not good, t-they... they beat me a lot..." answered Alma hesitantly.

"When and why did you leave your home and where did you go then?" asked the man. Did he really have to ask why she left, after hearing the previous answer?

"Also on my eighteenth birthday, I left to escape t-them. I had nowhere to go, I just... wandered around until Bre-... Miss Faye found me on the street near her home."

This went on for quite a long time; he asked her about how her life had been until she left home and where she had been all this time since then. Alma answered most of those questions honestly, but left out a few parts, for example, her experiences from high school. That had obviously nothing to do with her father, but definitely had an impact on Alma's life.

"Okay, this is the last question, it's about your real mother. When you were young, your parents divorced, and your father filed a restraining order against your mother, restraining her from seeing you. As you are eighteen now, I want to ask you; do you want to revoke that restraining order and meet your mother?" asked the man. When I heard that, I was confused because Alma told me her real mother died many years ago.

I turned to Alma just to see the most shocked expression I had ever seen. Then Alma stuttered, "M...M-Mommy... is alive?"

The policeman looked perplexed for a moment, seemingly confused about why Alma would ask that, then said, "Sure, why wouldn't she be?"

"B-But f-father said... t-that she died when I was little," answered Alma tearing up.

"No, according to our files, your father reported your mother for child abuse and your parents divorced. As you had visible bruises, your father's statement wasn't questioned, and a restraining order was filed," explained the man.

I didn't know how to respond to all of this; the only thing I could do was embrace the crying Alma. I couldn't even imagine how it would feel to be told that your presumedly dead mother was still alive.

"B-But... Mommy never hurt me... o-only father did," replied Alma through her sobs.

"So, your father falsely accused your mother... that's what I thought," mumbled the officer. Then he once again asked, "So I take it you want to revoke that restraining order and meet your mother?"

Alma nodded while crying in my arms and the man got up to get some files. He placed some sheets of paper and a pen in front of Alma and instructed her to sign a few times. When she was done, and the man did some things on his pc, he said, "The restraining order will be dissolved, and your mother will be notified about it. We don't have any information about where your mother moved to, so please give us a few days to figure it out. We will contact you as soon as we know where she lives."

After giving them our phone number and saying our goodbyes to the men working at the police station, we went back to the car and were brought home. On the way home, Alma was very quiet and seemed deep in thought. It wasn't unusual for her to be silent when with others, but this time it felt somehow... distant.

As soon as we got out of the car at home, I tried my best to cheer Alma up, which proved to be quite the task. Whenever I tried talking to her, she answered in a monotone voice, her head obviously occupied with something else. I really couldn't blame her for that, it's natural to think about a situation like this a lot. But that didn't mean that I would give up that easily, I was a cheerleader after all.

After trying for a long time, we ended up on my sofa, with Alma resting her head on my lap. She was lying on her side, facing away into the distance. Although the TV was running, she wasn't looking at it but instead stared into nothingness. I was running out of ideas when a thought hit me.

I placed my hand on her waist and started tickling her. Alma twitched for a moment but then started laughing uncontrollably while trying to escape my grip. After tickling her for a while, she ended up freeing herself and pinning my arms down above my head. We were looking into each other's eyes when I said, "I don't like seeing my little Kitten sad like this. What can I do to make you smile again?"

"I don't know..." started Alma, "this is all just too much..."

Suddenly her stomach growled, and that gave me another idea. I said, "How about we make us some waffles with ice cream and eat them while watching a movie? Would you like that?"

Alma thought about it and then nodded, saying "Yes, please."

She got off me and helped me sit up to get into my wheelchair. We went down into the kitchen and started setting up everything we needed. As I couldn't really help Alma with the cooking because of my wheelchair, I just brought her the ingredients from the fridge and cleaned the mixing bowl afterward. When the waffles were done, I got strawberry ice cream from the fridge; I had Mom buy it because I knew how much Alma liked it. When she saw the ice cream, she seemed excited, and I could see happiness return to her eyes.

With a big plate of waffles and ice cream lying in my lap, I was being pushed back into my living room. I was getting sick of this wheelchair, I wished I could go there myself. Sitting in this thing made me feel really useless, everything took longer, and I couldn't do things the way I wanted to. When we finally arrived back at my room and got on the sofa, I told Alma to choose a movie she wanted to watch, which she gladly did.

To my surprise, she went over to the shelf with kids' movies that I still had from my childhood. I didn't have anything against watching most of those kids' films; I actually enjoyed some of them quite a lot. She looked through the movies as if looking for something particular and when she seemingly found it, I could tell that she became excited. She took out the blu-ray, and after unsurely looking at it for a brief moment, she went back to me while hiding the movie behind her back. Then she adorably stood in front of me, before showing me the disc while saying "I know this is for kids, but can we watch this? It was the first movie I ever watched with Mommy, I really like it..."

"Uhm..." I started after looking at the copy of "Ice Age" in her hand, "what's it about? I haven't seen it yet..."

Upon hearing that, Alma looked shocked and said, "You haven't seen it yet? I can't accept this, it's my favorite movie; we will watch it right now!"

I found it funny that of all things it was a movie that made Alma become demanding. I didn't mind it though, it was nice to see that she also had a will and wishes of her own. Although I wasn't really interested in the movie, I wanted to watch it just to make Alma happy. Without thinking about it more than I had already, I replied, "Sure, let's watch it."

Alma then happily skipped to the TV and put the blu-ray into the player. She started the movie and went back to the sofa, sitting down beside me. When the intro played, and the first scene of the movie started, I could see Alma wipe a tear from her eye, but she seemed really happy nonetheless.

While the movie was playing, we sat there eating waffles and ice cream. Although I still didn't feel hungry and had troubles swallowing the food, I did my best to cover that up. Alma had enough on her mind right now, so I didn't want her to worry about me.

Quite some time passed, and it was getting late, so Alma and I were going to sleep. I enjoyed the movie a lot, we even ended up watching two of the sequels to it. After that, we just brushed our teeth and started to get ready for bed. Alma helped me get out of my clothes before taking off her own, and we laid down cuddling as always; Alma was lying on top of me with her face resting close to my neck.

A while passed, and usually, Alma would have been long asleep by now. The last few nights were the time when I stopped holding back my tears and let my frustration out, but today was different. I felt that Alma was also still awake, so I was trying to keep myself from crying at all cost.

After making sure that I wouldn't suddenly start to sob, I swallowed and said, "Kitten, I know a lot happened today, but you should sleep. Everything ends well anyway, right? You don't have to fear your father anymore, and you will meet your mother again. Isn't that great?"

"It is, but..." Alma sounded very sad while tightly embracing my body, "but I don't want to leave here."

I was confused by what she said and asked, "Why would you leave from here?"

"W-Well if Mommy is still alive, then... I will have to move back to her, right? I don't want that, I... I want to live with you... forever," said a sobbing Alma. Upon hearing this, I was shocked.

"Is this why you have been sad all day?" I asked surprised. If Alma had been sad because she thought she would be leaving me, not because of her family, then that would actually make me happy.

I could feel Alma nod against my neck which made me hug her very tightly. I reassured, "Alma, you are eighteen years old, you can live wherever you want. Besides, I wouldn't let anyone take you away from me, you are mine forever, my little Kitten."

"So... I-I can stay?" questioned Alma, the sound of her voice giving a hint of happiness.

"Of course," I answered, and I could feel Alma's body relax on mine. I could hear Alma cry for a moment until I could feel her body relax even more while her breathing slowed down. She finally fell asleep.

With Alma's mental support gone, the doubts about myself came back and pushed all happy thoughts away. My friends still hadn't contacted me, and my legs weren't getting any better.

I had both the best and the worst time of my life, but sadly, the bad side was slowly winning me over.