The lady with the plasters

I should never have gone to university. It wasn’t that I was too young, I’d done a BTEC and was a year older than most. But inside I was so young and naive. I didn’t know at the time but I had some mental issues that made me particularly vulnerable to predators and attack.

Attack they did. But you see I wasn’t the person I am now. If you met me I would mumble and not look at you. In fact I would look anywhere but your face. I couldn’t.

Now, I am addicted to drawing faces – they show so much and I can never capture every expression.

Anyway, back then, I would probably have looked over your shoulder, pretending to look at you, and have mumbled what could have been a hello but might equally have been tuneless nonsense. And I have a feeling I would have continued on this path except someone stood in my way.

Do you know I can’t remember the day we met? One moment she wasn’t there and the next she was. Her name was Sandra and she taught me how to interact with people.

The first thing she did was make me meet her eyes.

“Kate, look at me,” she’d say. And I would. Reluctantly.

For two years she would say this. Two years… Can you imagine the staying power? At first we only met in uni but eventually we had flats next to each other. She was my friend. My first but not my last.

Now you if you were to meet me I smile and look at you, meeting your eyes. I do it naturally unless I am stressed.

Sandra did that.

This blog post is inspired by the daily prompt – BFFs.