the newest babysitter for my younger brother was a nice lady. she was tall but a little overweight. kinda curvy you could say. her name was julie. she was good with crafts. i was not. my mom started up a conversation with her about how she found out about julie and her experience with other babysitters. i wandered around the house a bit and then walked outside onto the porch. two boys about my age stopped playing with the kids, and walked over to me. one of the guys seemed curious. it felt odd. they both asked how old i was. i told them i was younger than them by a year. things got quiet. and the same guy who was looking straight at me, smirked.
some time passed and we became best friends. i figured out he was smart. very smart. he knew things most 6th graders wouldn't know about. we were young at the time. and there's always that one crush you have in elementary school. and he was the person i liked. he kept helping me with things. i always struggled with school and he became my tutor out of kindness, not because i asked. he was... my only friend for most of my childhood. the end of 5th grade hit me like a huge gust of wind. we both admitted to liking each other. but none of that matters anymore. he's gone. and i'll probably never see him again. but memories never leave me. i remember how he comforted me all the time. protected me in a way. life was okay until i had to leave.
his mom became obsessed with God, i never gave him my new phone number, he was forced into being home schooled,
and i'm having to realize that i'll never meet him again.
everything is over now. my entire support system is gone. my friend is gone. all because of a religion. all because people are stuck on the belief that somebody upstairs sitting on a cloud is going to save us. but the realization is... we save each other. and he sorta saved me in the end. you can believe what you want. you can believe any religion you want. but i don't believe in religion. i just believe in helping people the way he helped me.
