A Part Of Your Soul

Chapter 3

I skated with Sam to his home while he rode his bike. My backpack was considerably heavier than it was before the trip to the library. I normally went to his house, especially when my home was a little chaotic. His mother was incredibly welcoming to me when I first appeared at his doorstep seven years ago, when we were both in fourth grade. Sam's mother was the kind of lady who didn't ask questions, just went by with what was given to her. As such, her soul was a light turqiouse.

She was inside making lunch when we walked in. "Hi, Kathrine." I greeted her.

Kathrine responded with a tired but friendly smile. "Hello Everly. Did you have a good time at the library?" she added after seeing my backpack which was still slung over my shoulder.

"Yeah. Sam about killed me though."

"Hey, you tripped over me." Sam interrupted.

"Mm-hmm. Need help with anything?" I offered.

"No, no, that's alright," she quickly responded. "But if you could help Sam with his room...that'd be great..."

Sam groaned as I led him by the arm to his room. I threw my backpack, skateboard and helmet in one corner, then turned around the witness the natural disaster that was Sam's room. "Oh god, there's no fixing this. We're just going to have to bulldoze your house."

"Oh shut up," he grumbled.

I grinned. "It's better to work with music. Where's your speaker?" We found it under a pile of clothes. I found an outlet, then plugged in my iPod. Fall Out Boy blared through the speakers. In about an hour, we had cleaned maybe half of his room. His bed, closet, and dresser were still a mess.

Sitting down on his floor with a huff, Sam spoke, "Ugh. Why does my mother force my to do this?"

I picked up a black hoodie of his. "Because. It'shard to live like this all the time. Besides, your room looks way bigger when it's clean."

He looked up at me, pushing his dark hair out of his eyes. "You're one to talk. Isn't your room a pigsty as well?"

"Yeah, but the difference is that I barely live in my room. Everybody just dumps stuff in my room. At least you don't have to share."

"Yeah, but that gives me less of an excuse," he groaned.

My stomach growled. "Ok, let's take a break. I'm hungry."

We walked into the kitchen. Sam's mom had gone on an errand and left two sandwiches sitting on the counter for us. I grabbed the nearest one and dropped onto the couch, propping my feet up sideways. Sam came and sat on my feet, and even though I glared at him, he didn't budge.

After a moment or two, he asked "Have you finished the paper for Duncan yet?" He grimaced at the mention of our english teacher.

I groaned and mentally smacked myself. "No. God, I'm dead. When's it due again?"

"Thursday."

"Lord...I should probably start on that."

"Yeah."

We sat in silence until we had both finished our sandwiches. "So," Sam finally dared to say, "what was going on at the library?"

I looked at him. He always could see through my charades. "A guy with an unusual soul."

Sam was the only person who didn't think I was crazy, but that might have been because he'd seen them before. He couldn't see them on a regular basis like I could, but somehow the fact that I hung around him allowed him to occasionally see a strong soul. "Unusual...how?" he wondered.

I sat up. "This guy had a white soul. And it wasn't flickering or doing any of the normal stuff souls do. It was still, and cold, like it was frozen."

"That's...perplexing." He replied at last after mulling it through in his head.

"It was freaky." I rubbed my bare arms. "Something about him just seemed...off."

"Don't worry about it too much. I mean, it's not like you're going to just run into him again."

"I guess." I laid back down.

"How's your house?"

"Same as ever. Terrible." I closed my eyes. I didn't say 'thank you for letting me stay at your house' out loud. I didn't need to. He already knew.

Sam got up off my feet and took both of our dishes up to the sink. I got up ad followed him. "Wanna go to the skate park?" He offered, not looking up from the dishes he was rinsing off.

I looked at the clock. It was 1:30. "For a little bit, yeah."

"Are you staying here tonight?" This time he glanced at me.

I looked away and pulled my phone out of my back pocket. "I can text my parents. They'd be fine with it anyways."

"Ok." He turned off the water. Together we walked out his front door and made our way to the skate park. The entire time we were there, I didn't even notice I had left my phone on Sam's kitchen counter. When we got back that night, it didn't even matter. The screen was still dark.

No one was looking for me.