Bliss looked up from her building blocks to the sneering voice. It was Rhaen. He had his thumb in his mouth, staring at her building. Bliss looked down in puzzlement.
"Engaged?" She frowned at her block "building", looking this way and that. "What's engaged?"
"Engaged means...uh...means that...uh...that you are going to be married to someone. Yup, that's right. It means..." the boy looked at the girl's puzzled face. "It means that you wear a ring on your fourth finger on your left hand." The small boy pointed at the silver ring on the girl's left hand. "See, you're wearing a ring on your fourth finger. That means you're engaged."
"I am not!"
"Yes you are! Tell me now, which boy are you going to marry?"
"I am not engaged!"
"Am too!"
"Am not! And if you don't stop being mean I'm never going to speak to you again!"
"You're probably going to marry Paul. He's always giving you candy from his recess."
"Paul is fat, and you are very mean. I mean what I say. I'm not going to talk to you forever!"
With that, the five-year-old girl stalked off, her small nose high up in the air. She didn't see the hurt in her best friend's eyes, or the tears that threatened to overflow down his fat cheeks. He looked down at the stack of blocks, overturned in her anger. She had wrenched the ring away, indignant. Rhaen picked up the silver ring, and looked back to the retreating figure, stalking haughtily to the paint easels, her little nose turned up. She didn't look back.
He looked down at the ring again, his pudgy fingers grasping it tightly. He looked back to the girl, and saw her hand lift up to wipe away her tears. Something made him run forward towards the crying girl.
She turned at the sound of nearing footsteps, and the running boy crashed into Bliss. They both fell onto the floor. Bliss started to cry again, rubbing her sore bottom.
"Don't cry. I'm...I'm...sor..sorry." The boy muttered softly. Bliss looked up in surprise, her purple eyes still wet. Rhaen blushed. He'd never said sorry before.
"There. I said it. I'm sorry I was mean. I was jealous, that's all."
"Jealous? What is that?" The girl scrunched up her face in puzzlement again.
"Jealous is...is..." The six-year-old scratched his head for an explanation. "Jealous is..." He looked down at the little girl's face, no longer crying. She looks so cute when she scrunches up her face like that, he thought, regaining his good temper. "Never mind what jealous is. Just that it's a bad thing. And I was being mean cause I felt bad." The little girl nodded gravely, though she didn't really understand.
"Yup, you were mean." She turned her back towards the boy, pushing her nose up in the air. The little boy looked sufficiently chagrined. She peeked at him obviously.
"But I forgive you." She turned back again, smiling. Rhaen smiled too, relieved. And then he looked at the ring in his hand.
"There. I think this belongs to you." He took the ring and sled it onto the girl's fourth finger. Left hand. The girl frowned, scrunching up her face in puzzlement once more.
"I thought this means that I'm engaged." She said, looking at her ring. Rhaen grinned at her.
"Yes it is." He looked mischievously at Bliss. "You are engaged to me!"
With that he took the girl's left hand in his, and ran off to the building blocks once more.
chiiyo's comments :
*smile* I love to write in little kids' perspectives. It's so fun! *bounce* A short little piece that has no correlation with the actual Bliss and Rhaen in the profiles section, I just borrowed their names for this piece. I used to wear a silver ring on my left hand's fourth finger, even though I wasn't engaged or anything. It was just a habit. I've long lost that habit though, especially since I'm actually single now... But sometimes I still wonder whether I should buy a ring for myself to wear...