I've done a bit | An SVA stori

Chapter 24.4: Nowheres Time

The present - May ?th 2017

"So Rowan, you visiting for long?" A mother asked, sitting down for tea.
"Uh..."
"How's school goin'?" A step father asked.
"Huh..."
"Are you sleeping in Pipers room??!!" Teased her little sister (Lucy).
"Don't listen to them, they've not seen anyone in ten months." Piper remarked.
"Ooooooo!" Lucy made fun.
"We've only been here-" Her mother was cut off.
"Ok can we go." Piper got up.
"Sit down." Her step father ordered but Piper dragged Rowan outside.
"Do you wanna get out of here?" She asked.

Santana Park was a small town north of Lôndôn where nothing ever happened. The school there had three people in Pipers year, including Piper. It was quiet, and just out of reach from the big city smog.

Piper led through a forest behind the dull town.
"There's this place I like to go." She took him over fences and through gaps.
"So you're getting comfy here?"
"Beats being not comfy, since I'm gonna be here anyways. And... no."
It was a long path up, twisting and turning up a hill until they saw a small parting in the trees.
"Rundown waterfall." Rowan smiled.
"Well, more shit, there's no water, or chairs or nothing, but you can see the whole town, and the roads behind it, and see them buildings over there, that's Lôndôn. We can sit here and pretend we're there."
"You wanna be there?"
"Well beats here." She sighed, "We can be detectives- or gangsters."
"Or get stabbed." He joked before remembering he'd actually been stabbed.
"I wish... as bad as the academy was, I wish I was there." Piper said. "I guess I'm just homesick."
"Homesick? For Spring Valley?" He laughed, "It was shit."
"Here's shit. I'm alone!" She let out.
"You've got Lucy."
"No I don't, she's there and it's all about her. Because of course it is." She ranted, "We only moved out here because of her, she's gonna be a star don't you know."
"...yea."
"No! She's gonna fall and crash and burn and die and I'm glad we moved here to see it happen." She blurted and dropped her head to her hands.
It was cold.
"I'm horrible." She sighed.
"No, you're just, angry." Rowan said.

They sat for a while and thought. About everything to them. It didn't matter. They'd seen what it's up against. The sky's fake, how do you up that?
Her eyebrows. Her eyebrows were darker. A lot darker. Rowan didn't bring it up because he assumed it meant something in womanese, he just couldn't not see it.

Later Piper took him to The Plannel. It was the only bar in the town, she liked to go because they had an open mic.
They watched travellers play their songs, it was the only good part of the town and they knew they had to be up there.
Afterwards Rowan asked a performer about it.
"That was alien!" He said.
"Thanks." The guitarist laughed, "That's good right?"
"Oh ye, for sure. Hey um we wanna get involved how do you get our name up to play?"
"No way you two in a band?"
"Rats In Autumn." Piper told.
"Funky. You'll wanna talk to Scott he does the whole thing."
So they talked to Scott like a side quest and got a slot next week.
"This' gonna be awesome!" Piper smiled.
"Yea." Rowan nodded.

They walked around the town for a bit, it was quiet and by now it was dark. It was one of them nights. They sat on swings in the park, and it was sad. The kind of sad you don't mind wallowing in, at least for a bit, because it's not painful, nor is it particularly sad, not really. They couldn't find a word for it, but they didn't mind because they felt it, and they knew the other did too; nowhere, and no time lasting forever.
"It's pretty." Said Piper.
The stars shone, scattered across the sky.
"It's fake." Said Rowan.
"I know. It's both."
Not a cloud obstructing the countless amount painted across the dark.
"I didn't even bring my boots." Rowan sighed.
"If you did, would it make a difference?"
"I don't know." He said sleepily, "If it did, I'd just fly until I couldn't breath."
The sky was so appealing.
"If it did, bring both pairs ye?"
Empty and peaceful.
"Yea." He nodded again.

Rowan liked being in Santana Park. He felt outside of the world, or at least he could pretend he was.
They went back to Pipers very late. Rowan had a spare mattress they brought to her room.
They laid awake and spoke to the ceiling.
"I got this idea, that no one really know what they're doing." Rowan murmured.
"I think you might be right." Piper said under her breath.
"Like teachers... they were taught. My dad's a person... Paul's just, some guy."
"Yea." Piper yawned.
"I was this guy... and they followed me. You did too... I didn't notice... I don't know... what I'm doing."
"No one does."
"Yea." He nodded, but this time off to sleep.