'Don't Leave Me'

“Don’t Leave Me!”

The teenager wandered down the street, drowning in his own thoughts. Thought's of his mother, his life, and his past. None of these were particularly a pleasent thoughts. Far too much pain lied in them. It hurt so much to think about them.
Suddenly, the young man was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of sobs. Just up the street, there was a girl. She sat crying on the steps of an apartment building. For some reason, the boy was reminded of himself. She showed on the outside the pain he felt in his heart. The girl looked up as he approached her, wiping the tears from her face.
"What's wrong?" the boy asked her, "Are you okay?" At his words, she teared up once again. Finally she broke down into sobs. He sat next to her, and with the tears running down her face, she began to confide in this stranger.
"It's everything. Nothing is working in my life."
"You want to talk about it?" the boy asked, "I know I'm a complete stranger, but maybe I can at least listen. I'm a good listener. Maybe I could even give you some advice." The girl nodded her head.
"My mother, the one I live with, doesn't care about me. She wants me to be perfect. She pushes me so hard and it's so unfair. No matter what I do, I can't make her happy. When she isn't yelling at me, she ignores me. It's like I don't exist and nothing I say means a thing. I don't think she even loves me. I don't know what to do." The boy was stunned. He didn't expect this. This was way too close to home for his comfort, but he decided to continue listening throught his discomfort.
"My parents are divorced, and sometimes I feel like it's my fault. They fight over me constantly and my father is always afraid that I'll become just like my mother. It's gotten so bad that I can't keep up with my grades because of my home life. That just makes them angrier, and that stresses me out even more. I just don't know what to do. I recently began thinking a lot about the past too, how she used to abuse my siblings and I. She would just dismiss that if I ever talked to her about it, as if it never happened and would tell me I always had an overactive immagination. She would say I was an idiot who didn't know what I was talking about or understood what I had been through. It would just make her angry. I just don't know what to do now. I'm so scared of everything and noone is willing to help me. I feel like I'm drowning and I can't be saved." The boy could only sit for a moment. He was amazed to find someone so much like himself. After a moment of silence, he regained control of himself. He sighed, then he smiled. He was no stranger to all of these problems and more. So many more. He could help her. He knew he could. He had been through all of this and he knew how to pull someone through it.
"It might be surprising, but I know exactly what you're saying. I've been through all of it. In fact, I'm still going through it. My mother is the same way, my parents are divorced, I've had the abusive past. I know all of it. I can help you through this. You want my advice?" The girl nodded once again, looking happier already.
"Well, I think that you should stop trying to make your mother happy. I tried that for years. I found that all it did was make her want more and it pushed me almost to the point of suicide. Stop doing things for her. Do them for yourself now."
"But I want her to love me. I don't want to feel alone anymore." the girl sobbed to him.
"I know, trust me I do. I know how much that can hurt, but I also know that it will make you much happier once you try to stop doing what's impossible."
"But it's so hard!" the girl said, looking upset again.
"I know, but if you do this, you can be freed of her. You've got to work for yourself. Make yourself happy, then come back and deal with your mother. You should make yourself strong. Do things for yourself so that you can be happy, with or without her approval."
"But I want her approval!"
"True, but you may never get it."
"That's not helping! I just want her to love me and I want someone who will stay with me and help me."
"You've got to help yourself first. You will never be happy if you refuse to do things that will help you."
"But they're just so hard. I don't know if I can do it. Why can't my mother just love me? Why can't she just see me for who I am? Why doesn't she just look at me?" the girl said, beginning to cry again. The boy shook his head.
"I don't know why she can't just do those things. My mother is the same way. That's why I learned to do things for myself because sometimes noone is willing to help you and doing things for her wouldn't ever make either of us happy."
"That's just too hard! I can't do that. Don't you understand? It's too hard! I want someone to help me. I want my mother to love me." Suddenly the boy found himself angry.
" That's not how things work. Sometimes you won't have help. Some things just can't happen. You have to work for them. You have to want them and be willing to do whatever you can to get yourself to that place."
"You're not listening to me!" the girl cried, the tears running down her face again, "I can't do it and noone will help me. No one will stay with me. No one understands me. They just keep living their happy lives and they won't help me. They won't stay and hel"
SMACK! The sound rang out. The girl looked absolutely shocked, her face stinging from the palm that had just landed there. She only stared at the boy, standing now, with that shocked face.
"You are the one who is not listening. You are the one who doesn't understand. You are the one one who won't help," the boy said angrily, " You are the one who refuses to be helped. You won't listen to the help that is offered to you. You don't want to be saved. You want people to feel sorry for you. You don't want to move, you want to wallow in your pain. You want people to take pity on you and do all the work for you. You are too pathetic to move yourself. You are disguisting. You don't want to do anything hard. You are the kind of person I despise with all of my soul. It's not that people won't help you. You don't want help. You want to wallow in your misery. If you're that pathetic, you deserve to be alone." With that, the boy turned.
"No! Please! Don't leave me!" the girl screamed in anguish as she watched him walk away. "Don't leave me alone!" The boy stopped. He looked over his shoulder at her.
"I'm not leaving you." He said quietly, "You're staying behind."