Theo's rules

- lost ring -

Hands on my hips, I exhaled a deep breath.

"It's not here." I heavily breathed out, my stomach hurting.

"It has to be!" Felix groaned out, also out of breath. "Why did I listen to you when you asked to race?"

I shrugged at him, glancing at the dry patch of dirt underneath my shoes as I finally caught my breath. I don't even know why I insisted on the idea of racing one another in the woods in the first place but it sure made it fun. Plus, I was getting bored tracing the floor beds of the woods, inspecting every little thing in the hopes to find it. "I don't know why you agreed... I won though."

He squinted his eyes at me but ignored my victory gloat as he sighed, looking to the side of him. "My mum is going to kill me."

Poor Felix.

The entire reason we were standing in the woods right now, surrounded by twigs, dirt, patches of grass and ready to bite ants that were crawling on tree trunks just asking for us to rest our hand on was because Felix had responsibility of taking care of her ring.

Responsibility leading it to be lost in the woods.

Why the woods? His father insisted on them going for a run as "son and dad bonding time" and of course, Felix had the ring in his pocket. All he had to do was take it out of his pocket after picking it up from the jewelers on behalf of his mum, instead, he forgot, got home and immediately was destined to running with his dad.

"It's fine, we have to find it." If someone hasn't stolen it already. "It's in a plastic doggy bag, isn't it?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "There's no point," I lifted my gaze from the ground towards him, his chin raised as his eyes gazed at the sky. I followed, noticing the dark clouds hovering above. Ready to burst out water like an exploding drainpipe, it was bound to rain soon. "It's gonna rain. Perfect weather, no one will hear me being killed by my mother. RIP."

I rolled my eyes. "Stop being dramatic."

"You haven't seen how scary she is."

I gave his comment some thought. He's right, I haven't seen the wrath of Felix's mothers rage. His grandmother on the other hand...

"Let's just go home." He said in defeat. I felt bad for him, seeing him clearly bothered by his own neglect.

"Look," I started, once more eyeing the sky. "I'm sure it isn't going to rain this soon." Even though the cloud did look quite ready to explode any second. "So... we're here now, let's just keep exploring. It has to be somewhere." Probably in a thief's pocket, but I didn't add that part in.

"I can't..." He groaned, hearing his phone buzz. "I have to be back home to help clean up for a family dinner tonight." He dropped his head back, giving me a pout. "This is it. Our final time hanging out. Don't draw a mustache on me when I'm in the casket, dead."

"I will." I gave him a little smile. "It will be a curly mustache."

"As long as it's not another type of mustache like a hi- hey, are you coming?" He stopped, realising I was still standing in the same spot as he already began to walk back the way we came.

"Nah," I shook my head, dismissing him with a hand wave as my stare peered all over the floor ahead of me. I was determined to find it for him. It's the least I can do, even though drawing a mustache on him did sound tempting.

"Cora, it's going to rain soon. It's fine, my fault anyway."

"No, no. I will be fine if you're worried," I looked over my shoulder at where he stood. He didn't look too sure. "I have been in the woods by myself before, and it's still the afternoon. Trust me."