Sunflower With Red Drops

5.

I said goodbye to Auntie, ran onto to my street and opened my green umbrella over my head. I was so excited about the afternoon I was going to have that I couldn't think straight. I walked silently, occasionally jumping in some puddles with my yellow rubber boots and helping snails to cross the sidewalk by gently laying them down on the grass. It started raining again. Being well protected with my yellow raincoat, I excitedly ran to the neighborhood park. Only a small group of people were there, sitting on a sheltered bench, or leaving. I decided to follow the path that would lead me to Cy's neighborhood. I calmly hummed while observing the few trees and after a minute saw a boy sitting alone on one of the picnic tables. He was completely drenched by the rain so I decided to walk to him and gently sheltered him with my umbrella.

   'Hey. You're okay there?', he jumped, surprised and looked up. I recognized him from school. I was the boy that always seems to be in pain: Justin Foley.

   'You-You're the new girl. The one who's friends with Tyler, right?', I smiled, realizing he knew I existed in some way.

   'First, I'm not the new girl, I'm Lily. Second, why are you sitting here in the rain? You're soaked now, you'll catch a cold.' he sighed, smiling awkwardly at my behavior.

   'I'm thinking, there's a lot going on right now!', I smiled at his confession and I sat down on his left.

   'Then you should talk to someone, I'm not the best at expressing my feelings and I tend to bottle them up but I can't object to the fact that the best way to feel better is to speak to someone about what's on your mind.' He offered me a weak smile. And opened his mouth like he was about to say something when the Hawaiian rollercoaster ride song started playing stopping him. I grabbed my phone hurriedly and saw Cy's ID.

   'Two seconds,' I picked up and raised my phone to my ear, 'Yeah, I know. I'll be there in two minutes.' Apparently, I scared the living shit out of him by being late. 'What do you mean? It's not like I got kidnapped or anything dummy. I bumped into a friend, he was sad so we talked for a bit. I'm coming, okay.' I hung up and opened my bag to offer Justin one of the cupcakes I had baked in the morning.

    'Here, it's for you.', I placed it in his hand, put on my hood, being careful to stuff all my hair in it and stood up. 'Keep the umbrella. Do not lose my froggy umbrella, I love it. Go home and take a hot bath then watch a Disney movie. See you.'

I ran to the front door and knocked on it hurriedly. The door opened and I bursted in without even looking at the person who had opened it in the first place. A chill ran down my back but the warmth of the house fought back.

   'What's up with you? You took so much time!', I lifted my arms in the air while Mackenzie was helping me to take off my raincoat, revealing a brown dress with mushroom patterns. 'I bumped into a friend, or someone, anyways, we talked and I offered him my froggy umbrella because he was soaked.' I squatted down to take off my rubber boots, and gasped realizing my socks were wet.

   'My socks are wet...', I pouted, making a defeated face.

   'Do you have brown socks Mac?' Cy asked as she nodded and ran upstairs. Tyler shortly appeared from the living room.

   'Oh, you're here. What took you so long ?', he asked curiously. I sighed tired of repeating myself.

   'I bumped into Justin and we talked.', their eyes widened at the mention of his name and they hurriedly drowned me with questions about every detail of our quick discussion. After a minute or two, I decided I had had enough and walked into the living room, ignoring their questions. They stopped when we entered the kitchen where lots of vegetables and a cutting board were set on the island. Some pots were steaming and Cy quickly stirred their contents.

   'What are we going to eat, chef?', I said, wiggling my eyebrows ironically. He turned around and wiped his hands on a towel.

   'Spicy udon and I also pan fried some dinosaur chicken nuggets for you.' My eyes lit up.

   'You made those! For real?', I ran and hugged him. 'Thank you Cy!', the noise in the kitchen caught the attention of a tall man, who stepped into the room pretty surprised to see a new face.

   'Wow!! What is going on over here?', I jumped, not expecting any adults to be here. I shyly hid behind Cyrus and waited till Cyrus introduced his father.

   'Where is that new friend of yours boys??', he turned to face the group and noticed my frail figure squished between Cy and Ty.

   'Dad, this is Lily. Lily meet my father.', Cy's father mouthed a 'nice to meet you' and I simply nodded in return.

After a few arguments and minor injuries, Cy's father walked in with a couple of beers in his arms. He turned to me, handing me a bottle but I rapidly winced at the idea of alcohol on my tongue. I turned to Cy, pouting and he stood up to walk to the fridge.

   'I don't like alcohol, I'm sorry sir.', he gently smirked and opened the beer he had in his left hand. 

   'First time I ever witnessed a teenager refuse alcohol.', Mac started laughing and after a second, I realized it was a joke and followed in the laughter.

   'There's some Ice Tea for you. There's limonade if you want?', I cheered and grabbed a glass in which, seconds later, Cy poured Ice Tea.

   'So Lily, you are the mysterious friend my son bought a ton of vanilla ice-cream for. Now I understand!', the man exclaimed, wiggling his eyebrows at his son who tried his best to ignore him. While everyone was making fun of Cy for having a soft spot for me, I was fantasizing about the simple idea of opening the ice cream. When silence fell on the table, I grabbed Cy's sleeve to catch his attention, catching everyone else's attention at the same time.

   'Can't we skip the dinner part and just eat ice cream? Can't we Cy? Please!', the table exploded into laughter while Cy was scolding me for even considering the idea.