So Dear To My Heart

A tragic fic

a/n: hallo! I finally get to post one of my original fics up! Yay! This story runs along with a poem that I wrote also named "So Dear to My Heart" I hope you all enjoy it.

So dear to my heart

I may have not noticed you were

So dear to my heart

Now I regret, I regret

That I never noticed it before

Now I regret and regret

That I took it all

As a feeling of destiny…

…and not of the heart

Chapter One:

Not knowing what you have

Why do I have to suffer the burden of heavy traffic?

I am only but a delicate 17 years of age and yet I am constantly forced to maneuver myself within this mess of a road. Crowding and bustling, rubbernecking and delays. Why must this become a daily routine—no, a bi-hourly routine in fact! Move I say! Can't you see I have a destination to get to? With the rate that you're all going---I might as well crawl to where I'm heading. Wait! There it is! I finally get to my goal!

My school locker.

I turn the dials of the knob…24…12…6—

"Hey babe, why don't we hook up?"

Why? Why must my ass attract every punk. I'm not even wearing a skirt or anything. My shirt even says. "Shut up, I'm trying to ignore you" in bright red letters on my blue t-shirt. But I blame my blue khakis for making my rear stand out so much.

But still, I give my "admirer" a sarcastic smile.

"No thank you, I have better things to do like, oh…thinking!"

His friends all shout, "loser" as this so-called "upperclassman" blows a kiss my way, which I pretend to act that it had missed me and simply continued to my next class. High school must be some method of torture for the students who are actually getting a 3.0 and above grade point average.

If you think that was hectic, try being my friend, Mono.

Speak of the devil, there he is. Standing at the side of the hallway ahead of me waiting for the hall to clear. No, he isn't being lazy (though his simple attire of a plaid blue shirt and low shorts surely makes you think he is). If not for the fact that he had a thin red/white cane, I think he would've managed to navigate himself through this chaos.

"Hey, Mono!" I shout as I walk to him. Thing that always makes me worry is whether to look at his face, or not look at him at all. Either way, he would still be able to hear me. But that fact still bugged me because, if I look at his pale blue eyes, I wouldn't know if I'd be offending him. I guess I can just look at his face in general.

"Hi, Andrea"

Yes, Mono is blind.

"Just call me 'Andy'; 'Andrea' is too long"

"Okay, 'Andy,' but aren't you going to be late to class."

Mono, Mono…you are just too kind. Why aren't there more people like you who are selfless and generous even when their own needs are more important? I don't know about you, but right now, I'll be persistent and tend to your needs because now "I" am beginning to feel guilty.

"Yeah, but I decided that I would help my friend in need."

Mono gave a weak smile as he tried to protest, " But I'll be okay--"

"Sure," I say as I grab his arm and begin heading to his class, "being trampled by a few students will be really okay."

You must be wondering how we met. Well, actually, I met Mono right after he became blind. Yes, he wasn't born blind. When Mono was eleven, some kids pushed him in the street. But no one saw the car coming down the street. He wasn't hit by the car…"he" hit the side of the moving car. When Mono ricocheted off the car, his head hit the asphalt, knocking out his vision. His doctor told his mother it was permanent. When she began to cry, Mono simply hugged his mother telling her not to cry…he was okay.

Why would I know all this? Well, out of sheer coincidence, I was in the same hospital in the same room recovering from a broken right arm that I received from falling off my cousin's skateboard. When his mother left the room, I got off my bed and walked over to his.

"Hey kid, what's your name?"

The boy was sort of confused of the new presence in the room as he was trying to locate the owner of the voice. But he shrugged it off and smiled somewhere in the direction where I was standing. "Mono…who are you?"

"I'm gonna be your friend from now on!" I said as I held out my good hand to grab his and shake it.

"I'm Andrea"

After that incident, I got my cast of a month later while Mono got adjusted to life without his vision. It figures that Mono only lived four blocks away from me. So I would usually come over his house and talk to him. It seemed like he needed a friend instead of a doctor. When he needed to start learning how to use his cane, I agreed to walk him to destinations that he needed to get familiar with like school, the bus stop, getting home, and so on.

Other that that, Mono never changed. He never got depressed or upset or anything. He actually didn't seemed fazed in any way. That's the thing I like about him. This is someone who see's their life not as a glass half empty, but as a glass half full.

"Now which class are you heading for?" I ask as I navigate myself through the maze of forever chaos with Mono in tow.

"I have Mrs. Scott for Lit Honors."

I halt and cause him to bump into my back.

"Scott! You got that punctual 'I-know-everything-about-this-subject-by-heart' boaster! Now we have to run over there before she shuts you out the door!"

"I begin walking frantically toward the other side of the school and just barely made it to Scott's room to drop off Mono. As I waved bye and headed out the door, Mono called out to me and gave me one of his cheesy smiles.

Between trying to fix his brown bush of a hair and catching his breath, he said "Hey Andy…thanks"

I smiled back at him. As much as I know he can't see it, I know he can tell by the way I speak.

"No problem"

a/n: whew! That took a lot out of me. I hope you all liked it, and I'll try to update as soon as possible(but I won't know how long I'll take honestly). Please read and review, ne?