Dulce Lacrimae

Aniela stood nervously at Nadia's door with a tote bag Nadia gave her herself. Aniela wasn't a fan of ringing doorbells or knocking doors. Overall, she just felt stressed explaining why she was there. Nadia's parents didn't particularly like her, because from what she heard from Nadia they don't like that Aniela is making her more delusional. But her friend explained that with her parents that's the highest compliment she could get, because they both are very delusional. Nadia walked out of her house and immediately glowed up when she saw Aniela. "Hi! I'm so happy to finally see you."

Aniela chuckled. "I've seen you two days ago."

"I know, way too long. Before we go to the club, let's go to our spot." The girls walked to the cemetery but sat down behind it on a rusty bench. Nadia took out a cigarette and lit it.

Aniela didn't understand why she smoke, but she enjoyed the smell, and she couldn't deny it looked cool. It smelt better with fresh air, unlike with the dense air in their kitchen. Her mother hated her father smoking, and he did it in the house just to annoy her.

After Nadia's smoke session, they got up and started their walk to the community centre. To Aniela, it felt as if the path got longer and longer, while her stomach flipped upside down out of the stress.

Aniela looked at huge community centre. "Why is that big?"

Nadia shrugged. "They do plays on makeshift stages in there, maybe that's why."

Nadia dragged her in, and they went to the first desk they saw. Beside the desk was a big staircase and on every wall in the square room was a different door. "We're here for the art club." Nadia smiled. The woman looked her up and down but smiled politely.

"It's lovely to see you girls, I'll just need the €2 and you can head on in." The girls gave their money and were led to the door opposite the entrance.

Inside was a huge hall which looked like a PE hall. In it were tables scattered around with people sitting in them. This did not look like just five people. There were people from 13 years old to 17 years old across the hall in groups. A brunette lady led them to their age group. Nadia went to sit down at a nearly empty desk in the back, with just a chestnut-haired girl sitting at it with a green and black stripped sweater.

Aniela grabbed her arm. "Maybe we should leave her alone."

"Why? She looks lonely. Come on, we'll make a new friend!"

Aniela was dragged over to the table and forced to sit down across of the girl. She looked up at them, with blank face expression.

"Hi! I love your sweater! I'm hope you don't mind us sitting here with you." The girl smiled faintly. "Thank you. And I don't mind at all. I'm Darla."

"Hi Darla! I'm Nadia. And this is my friend Aniela." She turned to Aniela.

"Say something."

"Hi." Aniela mumbled. Aniela couldn't help staring at the girl’s freckles which looked like they wrecpainted on by Vincent Van Gogh himself. But she caught herself and looked down at the table. Nadia continued to talk with Darla, but Aniela felt awkward, so she took out her notebook. She continued a drawing of ravens on a telephone wire she saw a few days ago.

"That's a really nice drawing." Darla said to her.

"Oh, eh thanks."

"I love ravens. They are so pretty, don't you think?"

"Yeah, they are."

Darla flipped pages of her notebook and showed her some of her drawings of birds.

"Wow, you are so good." Aniela and Nadia looked wide eyed at Darla's drawings.

"I really like the drawing on the next page." Aniela pointed to a drawing of a snake around an apple, making it poisonous? She wasn't sure but the apple looked like it was turning green.

"Thank you." Darla smiled. "Could I look at some of your drawings?" Aniela somehow relaxed and showed her own drawings, and Darla observed them complementing each one of them. Aniela's cheek slightly flushed while she beamed at her showing her favourite drawings.

"You know." Nadia interrupted them.

"This is quite a strange idea of a club though."

"Well, it's a lot like Fóroige if you think about it. You just have to bring your own things." Darla mused.

"Like what?"

"Fóroige."

"What's Fóroige?" Aniela asked.

Darla looked at her with her deep blue eyes. "It's a club where you come to a local community centre and hang out with your age group. There are people there minding you and giving you activities to do."

"Ah."

"Is there one near us?" Nadia asked.

"Not that l'm aware off. But my cousin joined Fóroige in their town." Silence lingered into their conversation, but not for long, for Nadia was here.

"Oh! Ye know what we could do?"

"What is it?" Darla tilted her head in question.

"We should draw each other! I'd draw Aniela, Aniela would draw you, and you would draw me."

"I think that's a great idea. Aniela?"

"Eh." Aniela's hand started sweating at the idea. She looked at the two girls, staring back at her expectingly.

"Sure......"

Aniela rubbed her arms, but quickly got to work. After an hour, she drew Darla with her long hair messily dropping over her shoulder, drawing in her own notebook. It wasn't coloured except for her deep blue eyes. Aniela knew she didn't have much time left so she did her freckles with pencil, but she wasn't satisfied as they didn't look as neat as they looked on Darla. Overall, she wasn't happy. It lacked the glow of the girl in front of her.

"Time to start packing up." One of the ladies called. The whole time they walked around talking to the different teens, but they didn't go up once to the back with the three girls.

"Alright. Here's mine." Nadia proudly showed her drawing of Aniela in her brown cardigan. The only thing coloured was her brown hair, which was clipped into a messy bun, replicating exactly the state in which Aniela's hair was at. "Wow. That looks so good." Aniela smiled at her friend's drawing. "Yeah. Here's mine. You can keep it, Nadia." Darla slid her piece of paper beside Nadia's. Nadia was the most coloured in from the rest, and she was drawn in a very cartoony style, which Aniela loved. "It's looks great!" Nadia squeaked. "Aniela show us yours before they kick us out."

Aniela's cheeks flashed red, but she placed her page. The other girls admired it.

"I love it." Darla smiles softly. "Can I keep it?"

"Sure." Aniela almost choked.

The girls walked out of the centre with their new friend.

"Where do you live, by the way?" Nadia asked her.

"Just outside Glenfallen."

"Oh! That's where Aniela lives."

Aniela nodded.

"That's great. Do you also walk here?" Darla asked. Aniela nodded again.

"Maybe we could go together."

Aniela smiled. "I'd love that."

"Aw, I already feel left out." Nadia sniffed. "I'm joking, anyway I need to go home before my mom crucifies me."

So, the girls split ways.

"Do you have WhatsApp?" Darla asked Aniela.

"No, but I can give you my phone number."

Darla nodded and they exchanged numbers.

"It's weird that l've never came across you before. How old are you?"

"I'm fourteen."

"Ah, l'm fifteen. I think I'm a year above you then. Still weird I never seen you at school, then again it's small and every year the year groups get bigger." The girls walk along a road full of cracks. They walked on the grass as there was no sidewalk.

"What music do you listen to?" Darla asked her.

"I don really listen to anything."

"What? How? I would've gone insane." Aniela chuckled and shrugged. "I guess I don't have anything to listen on."

"Don't you have a phone?"

"Well..." She didn't really tell people that she just had a Nokia. She kind off felt ashamed, but for some reason, she felt like spilling all her secrets to this girl. So, she took out her Nokia. "Can't really listen to anything on this thing."

"Oh. Sorry I didn't know."

"It's fine. I didn't have enough money to buy anything better."

"Maybe you could ask your parents or guardians to help you out?"

"As if my dad cares." Aniela snorted.

Nadia usually laughed with her about parents, but Darla looked worried.

"Does he not care about you?"

Silence. "I-"

"I'm sorry." Darla looked down at the ground. "It's none of my business."

"It's fine." Aniela almost choked again.

She did not want to just start crying in front of her new friend.

"Eh, what do you do in your free time?" Darla thought about it. "I play on the piano, and l'm practicing the violin.

Though I'm very bad at it." She chuckled. "What do you do?"

"I like to research spells and read about magic and stuff. I know it may sound stupid...”

"No, I think it sounds interesting. Tell me something about it." Aniela looked into Darla's eyes. They looked like galaxies with the stars reflecting in them.

"Well... Did you know there are spells people can do to learn and master telekinesis?"

"Really? Where did you read that?"

"In an old book. It could be fake, but I still think it's a cool concept."

"Hm. Maybe we should try it some time."

"Yeah, maybe we should." Aniela beamed at herself. A new friend and already had a contact with her, and they are thinking about meeting again. In one day? She suddenly became a social butterfly. She looked at a flower in the grass. She picked it up and gave it to her. Darla accepted it. "Thank you. Flowers are always the prettiest on the side of a road, don't you think?" Aniela nodded and for the rest of their walk she kept on giving her different flowers she saw. But all that's well always ends.

"Here is the road I have to go down on." Darla smiled sadly. "But we'll be in contact right?"

"Yeah." Aniela nodded. So, they parted ways.

Aniela laid happily on her nest of papers. She felt as if she could talk for hours with Darla. But she still had some work to do. She took out her vellum book and continued reading it. Now the chapters talked less of stories and more about spells. It also told her how to collect different things. She came across a spell how to revive a flower. She rolled to her side, grabbed her green notebook, and started scribbling in the spell. While reading the words, she always read in her head with a voice. Her own voice.

But now, she suddenly read in someone else voice. At times she felt like she wasn't even reading it, and someone was telling her it. But whenever she took her eyes off the paper, it stopped happening. After she finished, she realised she's very tired. She rolled to the wall beside her and looked at the photos of her mother stuck on it. God, she missed her. She hoped she could revive that damn flower.