Sleep Magazine (Completed)

The Injury: Part One: 4

They did not stop running until they could no longer hear the yells and megaphones from the scene behind them. Nodding to each other silently, they decided to break off from the larger group of people in front of them to follow an inconspicuous trail that they had taken many times before. 

Sheltered now from the loud group of runners, steadfast on their hidden path, they allowed themselves to walk. The long run had sobered Ava's mind and she reveled in the sensation of sharp cold air in her chest, relieved to feel her usual clarity and sharpness return to her. 

The three friends were not on the small path for more than a minute before they ran into Melanie.

"Already?!" Melanie stood before them, long arms dropped to her sides in exasperation, her expression most visible in the open curve of her full mouth; a mix of shock and disappointment. Her dark hair framed her delicate face in two long braids that grazed the lettering on her school field hockey sweatshirt. She carried a backpack on her shoulders.

"Don't look so surprised," Ava laughed.

"Some kid got lit on fire and someone called the cops," Luther filled her in.

"Who got lit on fire?" asked Marco excitedly. Ava and Luther shrugged.

"Damn!" Melanie bobbed her head in frustration and stomped her foot down into the dirt, which Ava thought looked quite cute. "I was supposed to hang out with Mike tonight."

"Katie went home with him," Ava said quietly. She shot a weary glance at Luther, who turned his head away so she could not read the expression on his face.

"For real?" Melanie exclaimed.

Ava smirked and nodded her head.

"Damn. Katie Hall?"

"Yeah, what other Katie is there?"

"No, I know..." Melanie sighed and threw her head back, tugging at the straps of her backpack. "It's just...Katie's not...no offense or anything, I know she's your friend."

Ava chuckled. "It's alright, I know what you mean."

Melanie, not wanting to see how pissed Dave was that some teenager had lit himself on fire, and knowing that cops would be watching her house long into the night, decided to join her friends to meander their way back down the path she had just walked. 

Eventually, the path cut out of the woods and into a massive expanse of farmland with dirt roads running parallel through the crop fields, and greenhouses and tobacco barns scattered about the landscape. A smokey crescent moon, half-visible above the distant tree line, offered just enough light to allow the kids to spare the batteries of their nearly dead phones. 

The girls held their own conversation as they walked side by side, just a few paces ahead of the boys who discussed their upcoming soccer game.

"I wrote an imagine about him." Melanie grinned from ear to ear, her pretty, square teeth catching the moonlight.

"Holy..." Ava covered her face in embarrassment. "Melanie..." She began to shake her head disapprovingly.

Melanie giggled. "It takes place at Yaco's. You know—in that loft."

"Okay," Ava interrupted. "You're oversharing now."

Melanie shoved her lightly.

"Why don't you just snap him until he texts you, like a normal person?"

"Because then we'd hook up and it would be over! I like it better this way."

"How romantic," Ava muttered.