My eyelids flutter open and I slowly lift my head, looking around confused for a moment before realizing that I had accidentally fallen asleep in the woods, the necklace still around my wrist and body still leaned against the tree, I stretch my stiff legs and plant my hands in the grass, pushing myself off the ground and on my feet. My eyes felt dry and my lips were numb from the cold, I rub my eyes and let out a small sigh, using my other hand to shove the necklace in my pocket. I cross my arms and stand there, unsure of what to do now, I mean I took a nap and it was pretty nice but my nerves were starting to rise again. And now that I'm thinking about it they never really went away, thinking of all the missed calls and unread texts from my father only made it worse.
'I have to do something to take my mind off this.' I trail off, sticks snapping underneath my feet and cicadas screaming in the distance as I walk through the trees, the birds looking down at me from the branches. I hop over the overgrown weeds and trot out onto the empty street, a few small houses where scattered around but other than that it was a typical ghost town, I continue to mindlessly stroll down the road.
I walk over to a row of houses and squeeze through the gap in-between two of them, small chain link fences surrounded the backs of the houses one of which contained a big black dog, it yanked at the chain around its neck as it barked at me, I quickly rush past it, shuffling through the dying grass. I look at the cloudy grey sky and the seemingly endless stretch of land, I look around and squint, the fog was clouding my vision but I was still able to see someone sitting in the distance, at first I hesitate but I slowly began walking towards them and while I don't like to admit it I actually feel pretty lonely most days so I was willing to talk to anyone, even if they were a complete stranger, as I get closer I was able to make out more of their features, they had pale skin, the sleeve of their sweater rolled up reviling faded scars scattered across their hands and arms and blonde unruly hair that went just above their chin and gently swayed in the wind as they sat, legs crossed in the grass.
"Um, hi.." I awkwardly say as I walk up next to them, they turn to look at me and I can now see that they were a boy who looked maybe a year or two younger than me, he had big brown eyes, long eyelashes, a small button nose, rosy chapped lips and freckles dusted across the the bridge of his nose.
"Huh? Oh hi." He replied, a small smile tugging at his lips, I sit down a small distance away from him and ask.
"What's your name?" He looks down and his hands and replies.
"Elias." Elias, it's a cute name.
"I'm Finn." I said and he glanced up at the clouds, smiling.
"Heh, I like your name." Elias commented, his thick hair falling over his eyes.
I chuckle, running my fingers through my hair. "Thanks man." He nods in response, humming absently as he plucks a stray hair from his head.
"Um, hey you wanna go to the store and get sodas with me? And maybe while we're there we can talk more?" He inquired, looking back down at his small hands.
"Fuck it, sure." I answered, he gently smiled and stood up muttering a small. 'c'mon' I stand up as well and begin following him to the store. I didn't bother asking which store, everyone knows The Store.
It didn't take us very long to get here, as Elias pushes the door open and we step inside the store, walking across the old floors I turn to ask him. "Soo, what were you doing in a random field?"
"Oh, I was actually looking for bugs to collect!" He answered, fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater.
"You like collecting bugs?" I asked, a little intrigued.
"Yeah I really do, especially beetles!" He said, smiling as we walked down the aisles, towards the back to get the sodas, I open the fridge door and grab a sprite.
"Hey Elias, which soda do you want?" I ask him, he looks up from one of the shelves and meets my eyes for a second before looking away.
"Can you grab me a coke?" He requested, his eyes now back on the shelve of food that's most likely expired, I nod and grab a can of coke, shutting the door and tossing the can to him, he catches it and we start walking around the store making random small talk and getting to know eachother.
"So what do you wanna do after this?" I ask him, as we walk down the aisles, towards the front counter.
"Uhm.. oh! Maybe we can go to that school that was completely abandoned a few years ago." He suggested.
"Uh yeah that sounds fun but how are we gonna get there it's like 20 miles away?" I stated.
"We can just take my dad's car." Elias nonchalantly said, swiping a small bottle of alcohol off the shelf and swiftly sliding under the sleeve of his sweater.
"Your dad let's you drive his car?" I ask, a little surprised.
"Yeah, he doesn't really care." He replied, with a small smirk, I chuckle and put my soda on the counter, Elias doing the same, the lifeless cashier quickly rings us up, we take our soda's off the counter and leave the store. I lean against a streetlight and pop open the can, Elias crouches down on the ground next to me, almost like a dog as he drank his soda.
"Hey, where is your dad's car?" I ask, taking a sip of my soda.
"Oh it's actually not far from here, we should be able to just walk there." He stated, ripping the soda tab off the can and putting it in his pocket.
"Oh okay, cool." I said. "You wanna go now?"
"Yeah, we can go now if you want." He responded, lifting himself off the ground and dusting off his pants.
"Let's go!" He shouted, running carelessly into the road.
"Wha- okay!" I yell, tossing the empty can on the ground and sprinting after him. We race through the streets, taking twists and turns, grey concrete turning into green grass as we run through a field. We both uncontrollably laugh,our feet stomping in the grass as we playfully shoved eachother, I've only known this kid for a few hours but I can already tell that I really like him.
"There it is!" He exclaimed, pointing at a truck in the distance, I see Elias almost trips over his feet as we dash towards it, he pulls the car keys from his pocket and fumbles with them for a bit before running over to the driver side door and unlocking it. He climbs into the seat and I hop into the passenger side, honestly his dad's car wasn't too bad it was just your typical red truck, the windows were a bit dirty and the tan leather seats were peeling but I didn't really mind as I quickly found myself picking at the damaged leather.
Elias starts the car and I immediately put my seatbelt on as I'm not really sure how well he can drive, he backs out of the grass with ease and peals out onto the road, he begins driving and so far he hasn't crashed into anything, I roll the window down and watch as we pass by trees and churches. Lots of churches. The sky was a dull blue, the sun just barely peeking through the clouds as we drove to the place of education.
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