𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 | Supposed To Be

ｓｕｐｐｏｓｅｄ   ｔｏ   ｂｅ

✫

"You're so strange," I tell him, watching as he tosses tiny red berries into the air and catches them with his mouth. He makes a popping noise with his lips, chews, then swallows. "Those probably aren't even healthy."

"Everything is edible once," he tells me wisely, pointing a finger towards me in a reprimanding manner. There's mischief in his blue eyes as he perches on a fallen tree log. I'm sitting on the stump of the same tree he is on. 

"Birdie," I call.

"Hmm?" he hums whilst chewing.

"Tell me your favorite thing about life." I tilt my head to the side, interested at the following statements. He usually always says the strangest things, they always surprise me. I've forgotten what it's like to be next to unpredictable. He's very unpredictable for a person who believes in fate.

He thinks hard, rolling a singular berry between his pinched fingers. "How ironic it all is," he mutters. "It's like, how can it get any worse, but life always listens. Trees hear everything, oxygen carries words like pollen, and somehow, the world just spins--and continues to," he explores deeper. He tosses his legs over the bark of the hefty tree as fog builds barriers between the standing trees. He situates criss cross, facing me. "It continues to stay alive off of our words." 

"How so?"

"Life is beautiful without humankind. You take away people and mankind creation, you're left with this." He waves a hand towards the woods. Sheets of gray fog start from the tops of pine trees to the carpet of snow, it enclasps us in our own little snow globe. "But then, you take away humankind, can anyone revel in its beauty? Animals appreciate it, but do they compliment it, is the question?" 

"You might be onto something," I tell him.

"I can't take all the credit, I certainly am not the first to think that humans have ruined everything and made the animals, insects, and themselves, miserable." He shrugs and holds the red berry up to eye level. "We are destroying this Earth to the point that people don't even want to be on it and would rather go somewhere unknown." He pauses, his eyes flitting up to mine to see my reaction to his statement, but I focus on the berry between his thumb and pointer finger. He nods his head slowly. "We've lived on Earth for so long that we've normalized the end of it---just, like, this." He squishes the berry and the guts shoot out on either side.

"Motivational," I assure him. He gives a small bow. "If you hate the world so much, then why are you here?" I ask. 

"Rude."

"Not what I meant," I grumble, swaying my head side-to-side, my shoulders jostle with laughter.

"I'm supposed to be," he answers.

I sarcastically agree, "right, how could I forget? Fate!" I drawl, excruciated by the thought. "You are the most surprising and boring person I've ever met."

"I'll choose to take that as a compliment," he responds, straightening his posture. "Wanna talk about October twenty-fourth yet?" He catches my attention. I briefly display stress, but it fades. "I'm waiting."

"Me too," I mutter, "not yet." I look down towards the snow. "I'm not ready for that conversation, it might end with me crying."

"Or me disappearing," he jokes, but I glare.

"You can't just leave me, you did make yourself one of my friends earlier." At the idea that it was only a few minutes before, I take the device out of my denim pocket. I unlock the screen and see the time. I distantly hear Birdie and reply with, "it's eight thirty in the morning. Smile," I order, holding the phone out and snapping a picture without looking at the screen. I stuff it in my pocket. "I'm hungry."