Make a wish

                                    

                                          
Ash POV 
                          
When I said all my sentence. She turned her head and blinked up at me for a moment as we stare at each other's eyes in silence and finally she found her words to spill out. "You want the complete story or the condensed version?" she asked, a joking tone in her voice. But the look in her glisten eyes was pensive and it made me want to hold her close. Really close so our bodies could touch each other. 
                          
"I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me," I replied truthfully, wrapping my arm tighter around her slim waist until her slender body was close to mine. 
                          
"Well, My dad. He got whatever he wanted and with good reason- he was really trustworthy. But when he started middle school he fell through the cracks. It started with smoking and before you know it, he was drinking, staying out all night- all this at the age of 13." Her voice hitched. "He met my mom in around the time he started smoking weed. She was 14, he was 16, but he told her he was 14. "She paused for a quick second and continued. "When he found out that my mom was pregnant, my dad had already left to go back to his home. Of course, she had no way of contacting him." Sere shook her head and gave me a faint gentle smile around her innocent face. "He was such a ditz. Didn't even get his address. Just knew his name, but they didn't have Facebook back then. His parents- my grandparents- they were furious. Kicked him out of the house because he didn't want an abortion. They disowned him just like that. So my dad ended up in a shelter and I was born. That's when things really started getting bad. He started doing crack, meth and we moved from place to place. I don't remember it that well, all I remember is his yelling and laughing and crying when he was high." Hanging her head. Staring down at her own feet, Sere shuddered. "It was scary. Child Protection took me away once and he swore at the lady who came to get me. Just stood outside in the road and swore, screaming and throwing his shoes at the car."
                          
"Did you go to a foster home after that?" I asked, engrossed in her story. She was talking in a monotone, almost as though she was detaching herself from what had happened. I felt guilty for bringing it up, but I'd been curious about that part of her for a long time. And she spoke like she needed to tell someone.
                          
She nodded without looking up. "Two months. My dad went to government ordered rehab. It's not like he was abusing me or anything, he just had to get clean before she could get custody of me again. When he got me back, things started looking up. He got a job as a shop keeper, we got public housing, life was better and more stable. He took me to go meet aunts for the first time when I was 4. But- it didn't last."
                          
"He relapsed." Was all I could say. 
                          
It wasn't a question. Why Sere wasn't up beyond all reason was beyond me. Maybe she had repressed everything, but I knew some people who had grown up in better conditions and had still managed to be screw-ups. Like me. My respect for Sere grew.
                          
Sere gave a humorless laugh. "In a huge way. You see, now that he had my mom back in his life, he would drop me off at her place and leave for days. Then he'd come home and- he was just cracked out. Like the people you see panhandling on the street. I look at them every day, Ash, coz I think I'll see my dad among them one day." She rubbed her eyes fiercely with the heel of her hand letting out a couple sniffs and I quickly handed her a clean napkin, but she wasn't crying. "On my 5th birthday. He took me to Aunts - he was making me a birthday dinner. My aunt was out of soda and dad offered to go buy a bottle." She shrugged. "And that was it. I never saw him again." She finished her whole story making me speechless for first time throughout my life. 
                          
I stared down at her for the whole time, not sure what to say. Was there anything I could say that would make her feel better? Nope.
                          
"Damn, Sere- that sucks." I muttered. Feeling very bad for Sere for all the cause of her father. My arms gently pulled her close to me as her slender body moved towards near me until her legs touched mine.