A Ride Going Nowhere

"Why do you help me? Why do you help us? You have nothing to gain. Last time you almost lost everything. Especially with her! Why is she so impotant to you? She wasn't even here until a week ago. Just leave me alone. Someone like you could never understand."

"I wasn't always like this. Before living together, I was more like you. Disillusioned by life. I thought nothing in this life will ever make a difference. In fact, it would've been better if many people would just die."

"You used to think like that, " Mara scoffed,"when everyday is a series of helping this and that person. Please, don't lie to me. I don't need your pity."

A wistful smile adorned Rosas face,"It's not a lie. I still have the scars to prove it. I changed over something you might consider insignificant."

"What? Someone believed in you? You can do it. I'm sure there is something only you can do in this world. I don't need to keep hearing the same nonsense."

"No. It happened when my mother took everything from me."

Maras shock silenced her for a moment, "How does that make soemone better? What?"

"I haven't told you yet, but my mother is an alcoholic. I've always had to take care of myself. My sisters have their father. But I don't have anyone. I've always known this so i tried to make a business from anything I could. Then one day my mother found my stash and invited her friends to enjoy the night. Turns out a friend also brought some drugs. When I got home my sister told me my mother was in the hospital. I just had to look around the room to know why."

Rosa shakes her head.

"So, I go to my room knwoing I'm the one that has to take care of her, as usual. When i go into my room I notice my hiding spot is completely uncovered. There wasn't anything left. She wasted years of my hard work. Not hers. Mine. On her addiction. That was the last straw for me. I got my headphones and left the house. I got on a train to anywhere. I didn't care where I went. I was done with her. I tried to calm down with some music, but even that irritated me."

"Then, a mother and daughter got on. The kid had some drink. She dropped it on her clothes and some of it got on her mother. I thought her mother was going to hit her. I tensed up, wishing for a fight."

"She surprised me. She said, "It's okay. We all make a mess. Let me see if i have soemthing to clean it with." She didn't find anything. The little girl was about to start crying. The mother calmed her sown by saying, "It's okay. Even if it stains we can just add more colors." The little girls eyes just shined, "Like your coat?" she said. The mother chuckled a bit, "Yeah, you can even pick the colors for me."The girl then recommended some colors. The mother didn't seem to agree with the colors but went along with it. When she offered her daughter some suggestions her kid didn't even bother pretending to like it. She said,"Ew. How about blue , and green, and purple, and pink. But no brown.Just orange."The mother laughed and agreed with her."Sure we'll just make a mess of a rainbow. Why don't we do that with your other clothes as well?" The girls face looked like she had just discovered somehting revolutionary.They continued talking about different projects they could do. The mother even offered to make her a digital avatar in her animation program."

Rosa chuckled, "That was the first time I had ever seen someone react like that. Parents usually get frustrated with their kids and lash out at them. That mother didn't just stop worrrying about the dress. She made an opporutnity of it. If that's what most artist's are like, then I think the world needs more of them."

Through tears Mara said, "You're such a loser."