Here's the point.
I wasn't supposed to know.
I wasn't supposed to know about any of it- not the beginning, not the middle- and hell, the end hadn't even come yet.
Glitch hadn't told me because he hadn't wanted to see me like this.
He didn't ever want me to know, he wanted this unglorified past of his to be masked.
I had been talking about Glitch and I's relationship with Mo, because he was older and I thought he gave me pretty good advice majority of the time.
And that's when Mo had smiled at me when I said I was glad to have him.
"I'm glad he has someone as caring as you. He's a sweet boy, and he's been through a lot."
Going through a lot meant something was major, and I remembered feeling my heart sink a bit and I searched Mo's eyes with my soft ones, eyebrows furrowed and begging for an answer.
What happened to Glitch that Mo wasn't telling me- what happened to Glitch that Glitch wasn't telling me?
I'll never forget what Mo told me.
Mo had taken my hands, sat me down on the couch which replied with a soft squeak.
He didn't let go of my hands and we stared into each other's eyes before Mo started to tell me about Glitch.
Mo bit back a nervous laugh, then told me about how he'd found Glitch in the subway one day.
He said that all he was trying to do was get on the subway and go to DCI headquarters for training.
He took the subway that day because his skateboard wheel was broken- and part of him was glad that it had been broken that day or he could have never fixed someone else's life.
He was about to step right into the train but that's when he saw him.
Leaning against the wall, knees up, looking down at the floor.
He looked so sad, so out of place in a way.
Mo decided against riding the train, and he'd walked over to Glitch who shifted his look to the tall dancer once Mo's shadow cast over the small boy.
"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" Mo had asked.
Glitch only stared back, and Mo knelt before him.
"Are you okay? Do you know where your parents are?"
The word parents had triggered something in Glitch, he could tell, Mo had explained to me.
He remembered the boy looking at him with shimmering eyes and shaking his head 'no' in the weakest of ways.
Since Mo was closer he could tell that the boy was homeless, his clothes tattered, his hair greasy and his skin had smudges of dirt.
The boy couldn't have been more than eleven in this point in time.
That hit Mo hard- and eleven year old boy who didn't know where his parents were and seemed to be homeless- and for more than a few days.
Mo couldn't bear to look at him, and it was all Mo could do to get through this part without tearing up.
I was crying by now too, just the image in my head was enough to rack my brain with sadness.
Even though I wanted to take my hand out of Mo's to wipe my tears, they were shaking too hard and I couldn't let go.
Especially seeing Mo like this- it tore me up on the inside.
Mo continued on, needless to say.
Mo had gone on to say that he reached his hand out to the boy, and he had flinched right when Mo moved his hand from his side.
That's when Mo had realized that something serious had happened to this poor boy.
I'm not the one who wants to hurt you.
The tears in the young boy's eyes started to appear and Mo simply stared with wide eyes.
Here he was, holding his hand out to this boy who had no home, no family, and was afraid of him raising his hand to him.
People walked by, people stopped, people stared, people pointed- but Mo's world was revolving around this boy right now, not those watching.
You're way too young to be broken.
"What's your name?" Mo asked, hoping that maybe this boy had a name- something- something that would help Mo get him to a home or back to his parents.
"I don't know," The young man finally spoke, staring at the other dancer sadly.
Mo decided to toughen up a bit and lean out a little more, putting his hand by Glitch a bit more.
Glitch finally slid his hand in the other man's, quickly looking at him to make sure he was safe.
You're way too young to play these games.
Mo offered him a small smile, helping the boy stand while he too stood.
"I'm going to call you Glitch, aight?" Mo asked, the corners of his mouth turned up.
Glitch nodded and they walked out of the subway station together.
"That was almost five years ago," Mo explained to me.
Mo had a few tears rolling down his cheeks, and me on the other hand, I was shaking a bit and sobbing.
Glitch was always so sweet, how had I never known that he had gone through so much as a child?
His parents abandoning him while he had to grow up nameless in a subway station until age eleven- when someone finally decided to reach out to him.
Mo had helped me dry my tears because Glitch would be coming home from a competition soon, and Mo would want me in bed and asleep, no questions asked so that when Glitch got home everything would be peaceful.
Mo kissed my forehead and told me goodnight, then left me alone to heal my own heart after that grueling come-to-Jesus with Mo.
I had wasted no time getting off the couch and going outside to sit on the curb of the sidewalk to breathe in some fresh air and wait for my lover- my best friend to get off the bus where we could hug and kiss and talk for God's sakes.
I heard the rumbling of the bus from down the road, and I stood under a streetlight, waiting.
The bus parked momentarily at the corner, letting Glitch off.
As he walked down the street, the bus drove off and I started to get weak in the knees.
He noticed that figure standing in the streetlight was me, and he waved with a small smile, picking up the pace a bit.
The only thing that ran through my head was Mo's story.
I stood there, snuggling into my jacket a bit more as tears pricked my eyes again and I started to make soft sniffling noises- almost warning him I was going to cry.
Once he was a few feet away, he noticed I was crying and he stopped for a moment, leaving us staring at each other.
His jaw dropped slightly as if he was going to speak but in less than a second his backpack was on the ground and his arms were around me.
My head was against his chest so I could hear his heartbeat, and I put my arms under his and my hands up on his shoulder blades.
This is when it starts from the beating of your heart till the street lamps talk to you.
"What's wrong?" Glitch asked almost hopelessly.
I shook my head, not wanting to say anything yet.
Glitch ran his fingers through my hair and swayed with me a bit to calm me down.
After a few minutes of being soothed, I fessed up.
"Mo told me how he found you and what happened to you," I spoke quietly and weakly, my heart pounding so loud it could be heard in my own ears.
Glitch looked down at me with wide eyes, not able to speak a word.
He thought about those times for a few minutes- how he spent nearly nine years living in the subway station and fending for himself in the literal sense- Everything's turning dark to you.
Glitch finally cringed in my grip and I looked up at him, worried.
Tears pricked his eyes and started to fall while he remembered how things used to be and how they got that way.
Didn't Mo know he didn't tell me for a goddamned reason?
He didn't tell me because I wasn't supposed to know and he didn't want to bring those memories back to himself.
I know it might seem frightening to have the world fall apart right under your shoes- I breathed in shakily and pulled Glitch down, putting a hand in his hair and securing his grip on me, burying my face in his shoulder.
"It's okay, It's okay, I promise," I told him, rubbing his back and trying to take that pain away from him.
I moved his face from my shoulder and cupped his face in my hands.
I took all this in- tear stained cheeks, soft green eyes, trembling lower lip and pink cheeks.
I kissed him, under the streetlight for all to see.
I loved him, I cared, and I could help him push the past back into the past.
I'm not the one, I'm not the one who wants to hurt you.