I remember the last time I discovered a spark of happiness. I was young, younger than I
am now, about seventeen. I can recall that moment of life in every aspect, the words, the feeling, and especially the turmoil that came after it.

It was the night of homecoming, 1982, and amongst the sporadic neon lights, I found
myself on the back wall of my high school gym, next to the punch. My ex-boyfriend named Ed, stood next to me in a drunken haze with his hands occasionally touching the small of my back over my dress. I would tell him to stop every once in awhile, but the feeling of his palm occured still.

Ed was, how to put this, unwilling. Unwilling about everything, our breakup, how I said
no to him every time he asked me out, and especially how I wanted to be independent, even during our relationship. Ed was also a very big guy, which made him all the more intimidating when he wanted to be. So saying no to him in front of everybody was giving me mini heart attacks. Breaking up in private is much more comfortable than in public, I must admit.

Eventually I broke out of his grasp and ran my way out of the back door. The lights were
blinding, yes they were old and yellow and gross, but they remain bright in my memory. I stood just under one, my back slammed against the wall, brick caught my dress and ripped a sliver of the pink ensemble that my mother had made me. My breath was gone, the mini heart attacks mentioned earlier finally managed to reach the level of actual, I don’t remember a time before that that made me that nervous, so in the moment it was heart stopping, both figuratively and literally.

Fresh mist covered the streets before me, cars passed every once in awhile, their
headlights illuminated the secrets hidden within the haze, people living their normal lives, while I stood there, incapacitated.

“Are you okay?” a voice questioned behind me, it was soft, but enough to pull me out of
my thoughts. My head drifted to the side to catch a glimpse of who ever was trying to talk to me.

From underneath the light’s glare i could see a taller outline leaning against the opposite
wall. Red and orange embers of a cigarette lit up a hand with painted nails. Smoke plumes flew out in small streams that lead up to a halo of short curly brown hair. She stepped out to where I could properly see her, revealing a beautiful black dress and even more beautiful face, it wasn’t until after I gasped that I realized I had done so.

“Huh?” I managed, the spit was caught in my throat, my mouth was desert-like. “I’m
okay, yeah, sorry.” Nodding softly, she put her cigarette back into her mouth, took a drag, then pushed herself off the wall. She sauntered, almost, towards me, hips swaying, a permanent smirk resting on her face, the whole bit.

Suddenly the door slammed open. In the doorway stood Ed, red-faced and angry. His
bow tie was dangling around his neck and ruffled shirt. His eyes flitted between me and her, like he was trying to figure out who we were. I hoped that Ed would decide that neither of us were me, but unfortunately fate doesn’t always turn out like that.

Without thinking I took tiny steps away from the wall and stepped toward the road and
the girl. A lump formed inside my throat, swallowing it was going to be impossible. I think at that point in time, my breathing and my heartbeat were the only things audible.

“Rose, you need to stop running from me, I’m your boyfriend.” Ed grunted, taking two
more laborious steps. I felt the girl’s hand wrap around my wrist tightly and tug me behind her body.

“Don’t touch her.” her voice was defiant.

“I’ll do what I want.” he shot back, she turned her head and gave me a reassuring look,
like everything was okay, I knew it wasn’t.

“E-Ed, please don’t do this. I don’t like you anymore, we aren’t a thing.” I had to force
myself not to cry. However the thought of something happening was getting all the more realistic.
“I decide what’s over or not,” he huffed, “I still want you.” Ed, at that point, was almost
pressing himself onto the girl in front of me, who carefully watched him. I was facing my fear, literally.
In one motion he ripped her away from me and shoved his hands onto me. Yelping, I
wiggled within his grasp as he grunted with every movement.

“Hey asshat!” the girl thrown to the side raised a fist and socked Ed in the face. I had
never seen someone actually get punched before, nevertheless be involved. The crack of her hand against his cheekbone was deafening, and what made it worse was the way his body thumped on the ground like a sack of potatoes.

The girl turned to me with wide eyes, “He hurt you?” she whispered, “Hey, answer me.

Did he hurt you?” I snapped out of it by the second statement. I quickly shook my head.

“Looks like you hurt him… you really didn’t need to, thank you. I owe you-” I watched
her rush forward while shushing me, her face, I remember, was contorted with pity and shock. Hugging me, she told me no over and over, rapid fire, one after the other.

“You don’t owe me anything, alright?” her soft voice was back again, it was comforting
like an old friend, she felt like someone you’d think you knew for decades somehow, but I had only known her for minutes.

She was an unfamiliar sense of nice-ness I had never experienced before. Usually in a
small town all you get is the feeling of knowing everybody there, but none of those people never stick up for you, even if you sit next to them at church, even some of your friends won’t.  Not even your closer ones. Mine didn’t.

“He said your name is Rose?” she questioned, her eyebrows raised on the last syllable.

“Yeah, Rose O’Neil” nodding, I pulled away from her and idly checked on the rip in my
dress.

“Radical, I’m Nora by the way, just moved here,” Nora looked down to Ed, “Looks like
my first impression isn’t gonna be too good, huh?” That made me giggle, and I don’t ever giggle, even the use of the word is repulsive in my eyes, but that’s the only correct term for that instance.

“Nora? Can we go inside, I don’t know if I wanna look at him any longer.” offering a hand, she gave a warm smile. I took her hand, and got pulled towards the door.

“You know, roses are my favorite flower. They’re really pretty.” my heart fluttered at her
words. Flowers, huh.