Spring Falls When Summer Wins - 1987

Chapter 4.

Kaladin. April 15th... 3:28 pm

    Keely was one of the last people I wanted to see at Elliot's house... Her bright green station wagon with brown wood panels shut my nerd talk up very fast. Elliot parked and almost strutted to Keely. He brushed a piece of her bright red hair behind her ear before cupping her face and kissing her. Just like he would have done in the interrogation room if the Detective hadn't walked in. I quickly gathered my stuff and walked inside, not wanting to listen to Keely's screeching voice talk about her "true love," also known as Elliot.
    "Well that's disappointing..." Carol was perched at the big bay window, watching Elliot and Keely talk. "It's so one sided!" Carol heaved an exaggerated sigh and walked to their dark brown leather couch, plopping down. The couch let out a soft exhale when I sat down. Carol and I shared a disliking for Keely. She was only using Elliot for popularity because he's been Homecoming king all 3 years, got on Junior Prom court, and popular from baseball and track. I decided to open my new book and half-listen to Carol and Elliot's great aunt argue about Keely.
    Their conversation was interrupted when Elliot walked into the house. The whole room went silent, as if he was some evil that no one may speak of. He walked over to the couch and squeezed in between Carol and I. His jaw was clenched tightly, indicating the talk didn't go as well as he had hoped... or it did... and that's what he didn't like about it. "So hows the girlfriend, Elliot?" Carol crossed har arms over her small body, laying her legs over Elliot's strong legs.
    "Fine." A single word answer. Something did happen. Elliot glanced down to me, catching my eye. I forced my eyes to drift to Carol who opened her mouth to talk. She was quickly cut off by their Aunt.
    "Any news?" Elliot's aunt asked with a warm smile, rocking back and forth in a cedar wood chair, a crocheted afghan laying across the back. I turned my attention up to Elliot. It was impossible not to admire his light freckles, sharp jawline, and his pale eyes that were filled with so much anger and pain.
    "Nothing new. She was just worried because I haven't called in a few weeks," He crossed his arms and looked back to me again.
    "Does that mean you're breaking up with her?" Carol piped up, curling up in her corner of the couch, she rested her head on her fist, staring down Elliot.
    "I don't know, Carol." He had snapped. I quickly stood up and started walking to Elliot's room.. Elliot followed, staying close to me. We made our way upstairs in silence but when we had gotten to his room he let out a deep groan. We stared into each others eyes before we began talking. There was no topic in particular that we wanted to talk about, we just needed to hear each others voices.

Summer. 7:30 pm, April 25th, 1987

    I hate school. I'm already behind in assignments and have to write an essay within the next 48 hours because it's due on Monday. Of course, instead of being productive, I'm laying on my bedroom floor while listening to the Beetles Yellow Submarine. After staring at my ceiling for 3 hours I decided to get up and leave my cave.
    "Hey, kiddo!" My adoptive dad called form the living room while I was making my way to the kitchen. "How have you been? Got your homework done?"
    "Yep!" I'm such a liar.
    "Good, good. What a re you lookin for?" I heard him begin to walk to me, the floor creaking with every step.
    "News paper. I wanted to see if they got anymore information about that bloody killer." I grabbed a couple news papers off the counter. I'm pretty thankful the old fart kept most of his news papers to keep records of local games.
    "Alright! Take as many as you want," My adoptive father walked in. He's very short, like... VERY short. His hair is receding but it's still holding it's gray color. He has large frame glasses and small eyes. A Brooklyn accent that's hard to understand when he's passionate about something.
    "Thanks." I picked up all of the news papers we had collected over the week and went to my room, losing my door behind me. I flopped on my full size bed and laid out the news papers, cutting out some articles and getting distracted by cute football players.
    I spent hours looking through these news papers, only finding out one more girl went missing, 3 still have yet to be found, and another body had been found. Some girl from Capitol High. I grabbed the newest article are began reading closely. Then I finally got to the list of the all the girls who are missing. It's horrible because so many of these names are familiar. Some of the girls I've seen on band field trips, some I've seen at track meets, some were cheerleaders at football games, one I even knew from meeting her through Elliot.
    Keely Winter-field has gone missing. I jumped up and sprinted to the phone and rang Elliot. No pick up. I called him 3 more times. Still no answer. I put on my boots, still wearing green shorts and a light gray Cambridge hoodie, and ran to my bike. My dad called out to me but I didn't listen, I was too busy trying to get to Elliot. It was about a 25 minute bike ride from Jon Ct SE to 46th Ln SE, aka my house to Elliots. On my way to his house, it began to sprinkle... then rain... then pour.
    "Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" I yelled out as I skid through a puddle, falling hard into the ground. I didn't care that my knees were bleeding, small rocks were in my hands, or that my bike now had scrapes on it. I needed to make sure Elliot and Kaladin are okay. Just as I turned into Eliot's neighborhood Kaladin's car came driving past me. He stopped and waited for me to roll up to his passenger side. He rolled down the window with such a worried look.
    "Are you okay!?" He was so loud but I could barely hear him over the rain.
    "I'm fine!! Could you get ahold of Elliot!?" My accent was thick, it always is when I'm worried. "Never mind, just meet me at his house!!" I began to pedal, going as fast asI could to Elliot's house. I dropped my bike in the yard and ran to the door, Kaladin ran after me. We both knocked haistily on the door.
    Carol opened it and dragged us inside, pulling me to the bathroom to help my wounds. Kaladin ran to the garage.
    "Where is Elliot?" I was pushed onto the Lu lid. Carol looked up at me with tears in her eyes.