12.

Maybe you knew how much crying helped me — how it was my only form of emotional release — because there's no other reason for you to impassively endure my frequent bursts of anger, in the form of me crying.

No one else would've let me be. Everyone else, if they had even cared, would've told me to stop crying and get myself together.

That was what made you so different from everyone else; you knew exactly what to do and say to comfort me.

It was the little actions of yours — be it nodding your head in understanding, subtly flirting with me to lift my mood up, or just being there, listening to me — that made all the difference in the world. They helped me beyond belief.

Your existence helped me beyond belief.

"Come," you said, wrapping your warm hand around mine, "I want to show you something."

x x x