A lonely little boy wishes on a star one night, hoping to be sent a friend in a world of foster parents and cruel temporary siblings. When his wish comes true, he dare not believe it, but while he can see his friend, no one else can. It's believed that he's just developed an imaginary friend, like all children, but after a few years, and his belief doesn't wane, it's believed he's developed an unhealthy attachment to his unseen friend, and is placed in a mental health facility to try to rid him of his delusions.

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Life is supposed to be full of wonder; life should be filled with happiness; life should be fun. One is supposed to have friends to act as confidantes, and parents who meddle in his or her life.

Never would anyone think that innocent, little Damien Simmons would be caught in a loop without any of that. No parents. No friends. Just foster parents after foster parents, siblings after siblings. Everywhere he went, Damien was abused physically and mentally, beaten over the head with just about everything. It was a painful existence. A lonely existence.

Now, he was living in the middle of a quiet, suburban area with a family of four. These people were just as bad as the last.

What do I do wrong?

He had been screamed at earlier that very day. Why? He couldn't even remember. All he could remember was a masculine voice, ragged and worn by what could only be chain smoking.

Why can't I have a family? A friend?

Instead of sticking around for more, the pale-haired child snuck out of the box he had been confined in, crawling through muck and trees until his little legs couldn't carry him any further. He looked up, only to be met by a starry night sky. A star fell in the distance, leaving a streak of shining white.

I wish...

"I wish for..." Damien whispered, hands clasped together, eyes squeezed close. "I wish for one friend. Only one friend."

That's all anyone could ever ask for.

Lola adored flitting through the cosmos and flying through planet systems. Moving faster than anything within the universe ever could, her shining white light passed through even massive galaxies in mere seconds, leaving billions of stars behind her and finding a billion more. She didn’t dare get too close to the stars, though. They would pull her right in like so many unfortunate planets and meteorites before her. Though she was hardly a planet, and not large enough to be a meteor. Her soft white light could be considered a shooting star when close enough. Lola’s guise of a star’s flying through the universe was well-received, though, as so often she was asked for a wish to be granted. Sometimes it was the wish of fortune, which she couldn’t grant. She had nothing but herself, after all, and no items of value. Other times they wished for good luck. Though she could be useful in that. Sometimes she made it to them in time to grant them their wish, to watch out for them and keep them out of bad situations. Every now and then, they wished for love. Lola’s fragile heart couldn’t ignore that. She assisted the wishers in finding true love, though it took a long time sometimes. There were instances where they were a bit reluctant to believe their wish could come true so easily.

And sometimes, not often, someone wished for a friend. She didn’t like that. It meant they couldn’t find anyone that loved them enough to be called a friend. Or they were just terribly unlucky. It saddened her so much more than those wishing for love. Because at least those men and women actually had friends. When someone was so desperate they turned to the sky, and threw up a wish to the wind and hoped someone would catch on or find them, or sometimes even hear them, brought tears to Lola’s eyes. And it was a child, no less! A little boy, a voice pleading. He called the stars angels. Perhaps Lola was an angel, happening along the right place at the right time. She had entered the galaxy called the Milky Way not a moment ago, and was greeted with this pleading wish: I wish for one friend. Only one friend.

Lola couldn’t cry in her ethereal form. But in her head, a sob echoed as she slowed a bit. From the ground, one would only see a streak of light, and if they were in the right place, they would notice the streak of light was getting closer. Lola had directed herself to the place the wish came from, give or take a few degrees. The streak whistled when it breached the atmosphere, gaining speed but never growing smaller. She slammed into the ground and burrowed a deep hole in the bottom of a ravine about a foot in diameter. It was silent for a moment, the world hushed in its nighttime darkness. Lola lifted up on the air, but lacked wings, raising her arms to direct her up and out of the hole, the ravine, and onto the soft, dewy grass. Her feet were bare, skin pale, almost silvery-white in the moonlight. A thin silken slip of a dress adorned her body, oddly, paler than she was. Her hair gleamed like strands of moonlight for a moment, then faded to pale silver, matching her eyes.

As she lowered her arms, she looked around. For a moment, Lola seemed a bit desperate, until she glanced back into the ravine. “Oh!” her voice was light, child-like, and a bit airy. “Sweetie, come here!” She put her arms out, and from the hole she’d made when she fell, a white rabbit with a pink ribbon around its neck drifted up and into her arms. It was half her size, the size of a five year old. When her rabbit was safe in her embrace, Lola spun on her toes, breathing in the cool, clear air before catching sight of some movement. Perhaps a deer, a rabbit, a fox or some other small animal. But she was near a rather wooded area, and the scent of pine mixed with oak and fir filled the air. Perhaps that was where the wish came from... She'd know as soon as she saw the one whose wish she heard, though. With a deep breath, Lola started forward.

His tiny hands clutched each other with such force that his knuckles grew white, as if that would make his wish any more real. His voice, muffled by choked-back sobs, tried to yell out his wish once more. Yet, only inaudible, unrecognizable squeaks were elicited. Instead of words, tears poured out, streaming down the pale child's cheeks and dripping onto the soft grass below him.

It was ridiculous, wasn't it? To wish on a star was a completely incredulous idea. Even Damien understood that wishing on a star was mere folklore. There was no mysterious entity flying hundreds of thousands of miles above his head granting wishes. If there was such a thing, then wouldn't everyone be happy? Wouldn't everyone have a fairy tale life with a princess as a bride or prince as a groom? Nothing in the world could ever consist of sparkles and rainbows - not in this world.

Damien took a few shaky steps backwards until he felt the bark press into his skin. With that, his knees gave in, and he collapsed on the ground in a heap. He hugged his knees close with his forehead resting right on top. For the first time in months, maybe even years, Damien began to wail. A hoarse bawl of utter anguish permeated through the quietude of the forest. As though afraid of the child's sobs, the trees seemed to curl away from Damien, as did the tiny creatures of night, which had all scurried off by that moment. Even the crickets ceased to chirp their nighttime lullabies. Nothing could be heard through the din of the child, not even a peculiar crashing sound in the distance.

It had been a long time since Lola had been on the ground. In fact, it had been so long she didn't quite know how to walk for a few minutes. As she tried to regain her earthly legs, stumbling over small ruts or holes made by moles or tree roots that had curled up and buckled the ground, she moved closer to the energy that had summoned her. It was easy, the energy was unique, as all of it was, depending on the person. This one was young. And it was nearby, which Lola found interesting, given she couldn't see a house of any sort nearby. Perhaps it was the country. She knew someone other than the wisher was nearby, but they were far away. Mostly, she felt animals. Small ones, calm ones, sleeping ones. Nocturnal animals had abandoned the area when she fell upon the ground.

As she fell under the shade of a small wooded area, the glow of her hair faded even more to become a very light blonde. While most of the nearby animals were silent, even the crickets, which seemed to be present but watchful as she walked by, she could hear something... someone, actually. A young one. A boy, crying somewhere quite near to her left. She gasped, putting the energy with the downtrodden sound of sadness just before her, and carefully, watching the twining vines and fallen leaves, Lola ran forward, turning here and there at an especially dense clustering of foliage or cluster of trees even her thin, small frame couldn't squeeze by. Perhaps, had she dropped her stuffed rabbit, she could, but she wouldn't do such a thing. While Sweetie would have to be retired soon, for now, he wouldn't be left in the dark of a small forest.

She kicked through a particularly difficult area covered in dead vines that couldn't find their way to the light above their huge trees, and found a rather small clearing-type area. Its grasses were stunted from lack of sunlight, and the ground was littered with fallen leaves from the daytime activity of birds, squirrels, raccoons, and other small animals. Curled under a tree that was quite rounded along the trunk, Lola found the source of the powerful energy she felt before making a way to Earth. With a gasp, she set her stuffed rabbit on the ground gently and ran forward, stopping herself several yards from the boy and slowing to a walk.

She placed herself in front of the pale boy and knelt, getting to his level. In the dark, it was difficult to see, but she could certainly see him. "I heard your wish." She said simply. Usually they believed her. After all, the wisher had seen her flying through the sky, and had seen her fall onto the earth.

After several minutes of unrelenting crying, Damien could barely explain why he could not find it in himself to stop. It felt as though his chest was about to explode right there in the middle of the woods. A pair of tiny hands began to rub his bloodshot, puffy eyes, a harsh stinging sensation spreading across his face. It was at that moment that he heard an airy voice speak to him. Had he not opened his eyes and looked at the young girl before him, he would have probably deemed the voice a figment of his imagination brought on by the wind.

But, there was no wind. There was nothing else in the forest. There was only him and the wish-granter.

Damien could do nothing more but stare at the girl, his eyes growing as large as saucers. "I heard your wish" - the phrase repeated itself in his head hundreds of times as his mind tried to comprehend the situation. The entire ordeal would be regarded as an act of severe psychosis or delusion. Little girls do not form out of thin air. Little girls do not grant wishes. It had to be a trick of his mind.

Yet, Damien was desperate. The desperation he felt for a mere friend - someone to talk to - could shatter the soul of any other individual. Anyone else in his position surely would have lost his or her marbles already. No, Damien was stronger than that. At least, that's what the blond always told himself.

After a long, awkward silence, Damien found his voice again. "You really heard me?" he asked with a hint of incredulousness reverberating through his whispering, raspy voice. In an attempt to see the people better, he squinted his silver eyes, but it was all to no avail. "Who... Who are you?"

In the silence after she spoke, Lola focused a bit harder on the boy. His red-rimmed eyes looked almost silver, but perhaps they were more gray... The moon did seem to shine on his face in an interesting angle, and made him look quite pale. It put a weight in her chest to see anyone in such a state as he seemed to be, but it was good that she was here. Maybe he would smile, so she could see how bright his eyes really shone.

She nodded at his question. "You wished on me while I flew by. I heard your wish among so many others, so I came down." She sat in a way that resembled his position, then placed her legs under herself as a seat. "I only pass through this system a few times in a decade. It only takes that few moments to hear a billion wishes, but I can't grant them all. I have to choose one. And I heard your voice, and it sounded so desperate, I couldn't just turn my back on you. I came down just nearby and found you from the familiar energy you give off, something I felt while drifting by this planet, when I heard you."

What if he didn't believe her? Some people were so completely astounded they simply waved off the miracle that, perhaps, their wish could so simply be answered? At least without something taken from them. She had to leave them there to their now dead hope that someone would answer their wish and go back to the sky, and circle around the universe once more until Fate led her back to this tiny planet in this tiny solar system. She took his hand in between hers. "Sometimes it's hard to believe. I know. It's not easy to think someone can just appear suddenly and make your life better, if a little. But I hope you believe me. I'd be your friend, and no one else's, if you let me."

She tilted her head a bit and smiled. Her smiles won many people over, but not all of them. Would this be another? She didn't have another chance to go around the planet; once she started off, she had to rocket away from the planet and out of the solar system altogether.

The situation that the young boy suddenly found himself in broke all the theories of logic that had so invaded his head. Everything in his mind told him to back away from this mysterious being, a creature that may not even be human despite her appearance. A headache brewed beneath his skull as the tiny neurons of his brain fired continuously in a fury greater than any other, trying and trying to comprehend what the girl was saying, even if this comprehension could only remain in his subconscious. Yet, there was another part of him that sparked to life for the very first time. He could feel it clearly - a heaving warmth in his chest that could only be described as a heart. Damien's heart seemed almost magnetically attracted to the little wish-granter. She wanted to give him a friend, and that was all he ever wanted, so why not take the chance now before it never comes back?

Humans, generally, are all the same. The heart may overpower the mind, and the mind may overpower the heart. In the case of this distressed, depressed, and downtrodden youth, his heart was the stronger of the two. Unconsciously, a smile crossed the young lad's face while he stared at the ground in front of him. His muscles burned slightly, possibly from crying burning tears, or possibly from making a gesture he had never made before.

"You must travel through the whole universe, huh?" the blond asked, his voice just above a whisper now. "A billion wishes is a lot. That's a number that I can't imagine." With a tiny sniffle, the child raised his head to look at his wish-granter. A few stray tears, though not of sadness, trailed down his cheeks as his small smile broke out into a huge grin. "I'm really happy that you chose my wish," he choked out. "I… I believe in you."

Lola's heart almost burst at those simple words. Gladly, she threw her arms around her new friend and brought him up into a standing position with her. "I'm so glad you do." She said, showing a genuine grin for the first time in, what she felt, was centuries. It was nice to help people with love, others struggling with money, but now she could always be around for this boy. She wouldn't leave his side, not unless he requested it. Not until he found others like him to befriend, and even then...

She stepped away and spun a couple times, taking in everything for the first time. "It's been so long, it feels." She said. "Everything is still so beautiful, like it was last time. Do you live near here?" She looked around, through the trees. Surely there was a house, or some campsite, or something similar nearby. The boy couldn't live out here by himself, not by the way his clothes looked, and not by the way he presented himself in the midst of nature. She knew she felt the presence of someone else, or more than one, related in some way to the boy. He no doubt had a family of some kind; but family sometimes didn't suffice for friendship, a close bond that can never be broken by time or distance.

For the first time in years, Damien's heart felt warm. There was a warm and fuzzy feeling that began to grow stronger within his chest at the mere sight of the girl before him. She was so genuinely overjoyed at the moment that the little boy couldn't help but smile and laugh.

With shaky feet, tiny Damien stood up and watched the girl spin around. She was an odd creature. Though she appeared to be human, he had a feeling that she was very different compared to him. She came hurling down from the sky, for god's sake!

"Huh?" he blurted out. He wasn't exactly paying attention to her question. "Where I live? I live not far from here. There's this neighborhood back there." He turned and pointed a finger in the direction he came from. In the distance, one could make out the faint, yellow glow of a typical suburban housing development. After a short pause, the boy scratched his head and then began to stutter. "But… Uh… I'm Damien. And you are…?"

Lola stared at him for a moment. Her bright eyes took in the light nearby and made it a bit brighter. So, that was where he lived. Glancing back at him from the light nearby, she smiled again. “Well, Damien, you can call me Lola. Everyone does! My real name can’t be spoken by human tongue.” She looked sad for a moment, but shook her head. “Anyway, you shouldn’t be outside so late! What would your parents say about that!?” She pulled him along, out of the wooded area.

“You don’t have to worry about me abandoning you.” She said simply. “I promise I’ll stay right beside you no matter what! That’s what a friend is for, after all, they stay right beside you and never leave you by yourself!” She sighed, looking up at the sky. The area was dark enough not to blot out the stars above, and the sight was kind to the eyes.

His focus turned to the girl once again as she stared off in the distance. "Lola…" The name rolled off his tongue smoothly, as if he'd known her for years. The warmth she radiated felt familiar, which drew him in like a whirlpool, yet it felt completely alien at the same time. This person acted in such an uncommon way towards him. Damien was used to incessant screaming and ruthless beating, not bright smiles and gentle embraces.

Be that as it may, his body still accepted the grasp of the tiny hand that clenched his own. "I won' worry…" the child mumbled. He felt safe walking through the uncharted forest with this girl he just met. She was good, and everyone else was evil - an unfortunate way that he classified the people in his life.
"L-Lola…" Damien stuttered after a few minutes, stopping dead in his tracks. He gave her hand a light squeeze, mostly to prepare himself for what he was about to admit. "Lola, I don' have parents. Momma and Daddy have been gone for a long time. The people I live with now, and the other people I lived with before, they call 'em 'foster parents.' But, they're not Momma and Daddy. They don' care like them." Though he knew this for a long time, the fact that his parents were long gone was something more than merely difficult to explain. Damien might have been young when it happened, but he knew that his mother and father were dead. He knew that they would never come back to save him, to take him home. "You hafta stay away from those people when we get home," he warned Lola. The home he was placed in this time around was infinitely worse than the one before. In this household, he was not treated as a person, but as a thing. A thing that they could release stress upon. There was nothing more dangerous than walking through the front door of this house.

Lola put her bottom lip out as she heard. “I’d heard.” She sighed. “I could tell from your wish, even your family, your... temporary family, anyway... they can’t be true friends, true people you can love and that love you. I could take that from your wish, and how you wished. It was like this was the only thing you could hope for, even though you really didn’t expect anything to happen.” She put her hand up, biting back the sadness she felt pressing behind her eyes.

“I won’t harm them, and I won’t let them know I’m here.” She said at last. “To them, I don’t exist. Only you can see me. But if they hurt you too much, I don’t want to stand for it. I’ll make them feel ill if that happens.” Indeed, she could do so much more. She wasn’t just a harmless little deity that could befriend and change emotions, help those in need. She could be bad if she needed to, but Lola preferred not to do such things. Not unless her friend were harmed. She nodded, then took up his hand again. “C’mon, I know how to be careful. I don’t want you in trouble for being outside so late, though! That’d be bad.”

It had been years since she’d been someone’s friend. A lot of years. Back then, having an imaginary friend as a child was smiled upon, and by her estimate, it still was. For most children. She hoped no one would find young Damien odd or try to ‘correct’ him.

The young boy did not completely understand what Lola’s words meant. He could tell that she only meant the best, that she understood his situation, and that she would always stick up for him, but he was grasping as straws for everything else. Why was it that only he could see her? She certainly existed; Damien could hold her hand, see how bright her smile was, giggle inwardly at her pout. Even if his foster family could not see her, she existed. She was real. “You’re real,” he blurted out unconsciously, quickly covering his mouth in an attempt to recollect his thoughts and sort out the vocabulary that just didn’t want to arrange itself in proper English. “I mean… I can see you. And stuff. So, you’re as real as real can be. I believe that.” He nodded for no apparent reason, looking down at the ground as the blonde dragged him towards his house.

He didn’t realize that he had run this far into the forest. Perhaps time slows when you have nowhere to go. “We’re, uh… gonna go in through the window,” Damien said after a little while. They could already see the house. “Doin’ that will save us from trouble.” At least, he hoped it would. Chances were that his legal guardians were having dinner and drinking some wine, enough wine to make them absolutely plastered, and enough so they could sneak in.

Lola nodded lightly. She'd had many a person with an odd style of life. Sadly this was not an odd lifestyle. It was to spare him the bother of facing his parents, so she understood. Why else would a child like him have to sneak out, wish on a star with little hope his wish would come true, then have to climb back into the house through the window his room was contained in. "I promise we'll get in without any bother." She said at last, smiling easily. Looking toward where they were headed, she could see the house now. It was rather impressive. Yes, they would get in without his guardians even hearing a thing.

"Damien, how about you tell me about where you live. I'd like to understand a little bit of it." She spoke not only out of her own curiosity, but perhaps to get his mind off actually sneaking back into the house.