Nothing waits for you to live

Chapter 3.

He gave me a small smile as he lay on the grass. Stretching his body against the now black grass. His smile wasn't arrogant, nor was it necessarily lazy it just seemed sad. Over my fear from this strange boy, I did the same, still maintaining the space between us. With a deep breathe he began," It first started when I met her Alexandra, she was new in town and like everyone else I was intrigued by her. When I met her in the 5th grade I was super shy, I never really had any friends before so I was surprised when she told me she was going to be mine. Or rather that I was going to be hers. I didn't know it then but maybe I was so desperate to have friends that I only ever saw her. And for a long time it was that way, just us two we called ourselves the two musketeers. Cheesy, I know but that was just the way things were. After the Pandemic we stopped hanging out, we isolated ourselves and pretty much had 0 contact with each other." Pandemic? We haven't had a pandemic in so long. I haven't heard anything about it now the news, but then again I rarely watched the news. It always made ,me have a feeling of utter hopelessness. " Although I tried to ignore it as much as I could, she'd changed. She just wan't the same anymore and I craved the warmth and comfort that she gave me. I tried to go out with her more but she seemed to see past me, like I wasn't there anymore. But somehow I was too blind to see she just wasn't interested in me like that. So, I planned a date, I got a bunch of flowers and I made all of her favorite things, and then I just waited for her. I texted her to meet me by the old fountain that is in  the abandoned park. You know sometimes I like to think that It would've hurt less if she just didn't show up but I dunno... She came but she wasn't alone, she was laughing and at first I thought she laughed at my effort to impress her but when I turned she wasn't alone. I'll never forget the look on my brothers face as he realized that I was there. She changed alright but I guess it hurt a lot more to know she was with my brother. I couldn't see for a second other than his hands  wrapped around her hips, her face lighting up because of him. I had to get out of there before I hit him, so I ran, I ran until I grew tired and just started walking. I was so angry that I swore I would kill him, but then I saw you. And for some reason I thought you were her and so... yea." " Didn't expect me to get all Godzilla on you did you?" He threw his head back and laughed. "No, not really. You know you really surprised me Cassie." I surprised myself to be honest.  Brushing my hair away from my face, I closed my eyes. For some very strange reason even though I knew nothing about this place, I felt weirdly at home. " Hey, you alright?"  " yeah I'm alright, now that your done with your life story wanna hear mine?"  He sat up and looked at me intently, " I think we shouldn't talk about sad shit anymore. Lets do something fun." My heart beat faster, Stop, don't I thought.  I looked at him, searching his eyes, looking for a lie, dishonesty, but found curiosity and a bit of a mischievous glint instead. His blue green eyes held something else too, something like hope. I curled my lip slightly, "Sure" He stood rapidly and brushed his pants. Standing in front of me he held out his hand, grabbing it I forced myself to stop thinking about how warm his hands were. " So, where are we going?" I asked as I rubbed my hands together to forget about his hand in mine. " Somewhere, C'mon." In a second he grabbed my hand and was running. Somehow this time running through the woods felt differently, better sort of. I let go of his hand to run on my own, even though I thought I was fast he was faster, he ran like he was flying, I threw my head up and laughed as my lungs worked overtime.

Something about the whole thing felt like it was a dream, but it wasn't necessarily a bad one, I mean I did like running. My hair flapped around my face threatening to obscure my path but in a minute he stopped. Barely stopping  before I fell, I took a deep breathe as I looked around. I realized we weren't in the forest anymore but on a bridge. Although it was kinda gritty he sat down, and looked back at me. I resisted the urge to look at his eyes again and looked at the water. I almost gasped, there was a sort of pond, but the thing was it was filled with a light. A bunch of blue lights were twinkling and I blinked repeatedly to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. He chuckled at my expression, " Watasenia are really gorgeous aren't they?" I squinted,"Haven't you ever seen any?". He got serious and looked below. "Well they are kinda rare, people will hunt anything to eat these days, I discovered these a couple months ago. They eat small fish, and only surface for 10 minutes a max during the night time.  I blinked  and tried to lower my heart beat trying to not disrupt this fragile moment. It looked like someone had taken the stars from the sky and scattered them across the water. "I love them ," the words slipped from my tongue before I could stop them.  He grinned without looking at me. "Me too." I unconsciously climbed over the rubble and sat next to him.  I don't know the silence felt different with him but it did. I didn't feel like I needed to joke or talk. I felt like we were trapped in this bubble of beautiful and strange things, and if we talked we might ruin it. So we didn't, we sat and enjoyed the silence, the view, until the last firefly squid had gone back to the deep leaving us in pitch black view. The sky turned gray and for a second, I thought I would wake up and realize this was all a dream, and I wanted to cry. It's been a while where I've felt this calm and careless. But instead of do that, I got up and brushed off my leggings.    He didn't turn to me as I stood for a couple seconds and I started to walk away, maybe just maybe  I could preserve this moment if I was the one to walk away. But just as I took my eight step he called to me. "Cassie?,"  My heart beat furiously while I silently cursed it. " Yeah?" 

" When are you going to come back?" I bit my tongue, trying to not shout of with joy that I was actually welcomed back. But thoughts started racing against my head , What was really good at home? My best friend was with my ex and I had no one else... then... FUCK I forgot about Henry. " I- I don't know if I can." Then I started running. " Wait!" I wanted to look back but a boulder started forming in my stomach and guilt was making my heart pound furiously. But wait, why was I feeling guilty, I didn't even know Nathaniel, so why should I? Yet my feet continued to carry me far, far away. I didn't know where I was going but I prayed to god that i'd find the sewer. Damn, what time is-

Without pause I felt myself being thrown forward. Again. Throwing my hand in front of me I caught myself and yelled" FUck!" I twisted and got up, not even bothering to dust myself off I pushed the lid off without trying hard. Putting my foot on the steps I stepped and stepped until I jumped off and thudded on the bottom of the tunnel. Gasping I didn't stop running until I got to a familiar patch of .