Izzy

Some things just go

together.

Like toast and peanut butter, or

envelopes and stamps.

You CAN have

one

without the other, but they’re

better together.

That’s just the way it is.

Like me and

Alex.

Better together.

Without her, I’m OK. Not fantastic, but not

totally useless.

But with her

I can do anything.

Without her, I creep along, shoulders

hunched against the

mean shouts

from the aggro boys,

swallowing their nasty words

so that they swirl and whirl

inside my stomach,

making me feel

jagged and

alone.

Footsteps behind me make me

speed up,

fear prickling my neck like a

miniature hedgehog

crawling along the collar of my school shirt.

My shoulders scrunch into my

ears as a hand

grabs

me.

And a voice calls out and I know that she is

here

and there is not an aggro boy alive who can

stand up to Alex.

She shouts and she tells them what

she will do to them

if they ever

bother

me

again.

Then she drapes her arm round me

and my shoulders sink back down like one of

Mum’s cakes when she takes it out of the oven.

And we walk home.

The heaviness of Alex’s arm

tethers me to her and I am

safe.

We don’t talk about it,

but I know that she is watching out for me,

and I know that

I need her.

And a tiny bit of me wonders,

What would happen to me if

Alex

wasn’t here?