A Path To Understanding

Chapter 7

Xavier's pov

"So that's the webtoon that's been adapted to anime?" I ask, looking at Ivy's phone.

"Yeah, it's not really my favourite or anything, but yeah, I feel like this is gonna be huge," Ivy says, smiling.

It's been two weeks, and I've been talking to Ivy more. I wave at her, she smiles, and then we start talking. It's been like this for a while now, and she seems very cool. She's talented in her studies, something which I'm not very good at.

I've been trying to make myself forget about Christopher, and surprisingly, talking to Ivy helps. Mostly because we don't talk about him at all.

However, I've started to enjoy talking to her.

"What's it about, anyway?" I ask her.

"Well, it can be pretty dark, as sometimes it talks about trauma."

"Oh," I say.

"Yeah, I was literally depressed cause of that," Ivy says, laughing.

I'm quiet. I don't know how to react.

"Xaiver?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why did you and Christopher stop talking to each other? You seemed like the best of friends at the beginning."

The question I've been dreading from anyone, not just her. Did people notice? Was I really that easy to read?

I don't know why I said it but I muttered then, "he made fun of my illness."

I don't look at her, but I can tell she's shocked.

Then she says, "I'm sorry."

"That's fine."

My heart is beating fast. I've been friends with her for two weeks and while it's not much, I somehow felt like I can talk to her about this, but now I've said it, I can't say I feel good.

"Can I ask what illness you have?" She asks.

"Depression. My depression was peak when I was in school, but I'm fine now. My psychiatrist says so, too, says that I've been better than ever."

"Still, that doesn't give him any right to joke about stuff like that. Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really." Cause I may dump my problems onto you, and I don't want that.

"Ok. That's cool."

I'm actually surprised that she didn't tell me that I should talk to him, or maybe it was a misunderstanding, or anything like that. It felt like she got what I was trying to say without even saying, that I didn't care if it was a misunderstanding; friends don't make fun of others in that way. Sure, joking is fine, but there's a line that you shouldn't cross.

Still, I wasn't fully relieved when I told this to her.

I don't know what happened after that. I remembered her saying, "It's ok, you can share this with me," but I remember her asking me why I had stopped talking to him and we seemed the best of friends.

Me too. I thought so too.

I remembered he was the first friend who came to my house. I was so happy when that happened and thought we would be the best of friends after that. That our relationship was something.

Guess I was wrong. Now I feel it is nothing. I can hear in his silence. Sometimes silence says everything.

Ivy said I can share her about stuff like this.

Maybe I can do that.

.......

Ivy's pov

I had noticed Xavier not talking to Christopher, I didn't realise it was serious.

He didn't say it in detail, but I didn't have to know that to get what he was feeling.

They were good friends, you could tell at first, and then they stopped talking.

I got that. I had friends in my school who would always go near their crush when they got the chance and forget about me, and it hurt me a little, even though they didn't mean to.

But in case of Xaiver, it felt like it was deliberate.

He said something about his mental illness, and then and there I knew immediately how alone he must feel for not being able to talk about this to anyone, let alone hear a joke about it. So I said, "you can share this with me."

I may not be able to do anything about his mental illness, but I can help him by being there for him. And the first step is by listening to him whenever he wants to talk about it, whenever he wants to vent about it.

I can at least do that for a friend.