rain

Chapter 6

I woke up to a crash. On instinct, I bolted upright and looked toward the source. Seth had just dropped his bike and was walking over to me. "Hey Carter, what's up?" He said nonchalantly, but I could tell he had something to say.

"Hi, um nothing. What's up with you?"

"Nothing, hey, why were you sleeping on the ground."

"People sleep on the ground all the time. I'm just one of this people..."

"Sure people sleep on the floor, but not on the ground outside, in a forest, underneath a giant tree, in the rain. Carter, what is going on?" I looked down. "You weren't really at your aunts, were you?"

I took a deep breath, "No, I wasn't at my aunts.I don't even have an aunt. I was here, and I've been here since Thursday night, and chances are I'll stay here for a little longer."

"But why?"

"Why what?"

"Why didn't you go to school? Why are you here? Why did you lie? Why aren't you at home?"

"Which of those would you prefer me to answer first?" I asked, stalling. I don;t even know what I was stalling for, I just knew I was dreading something.

"Start by answering this: why did you run away?"

"Fine, I'll just tell you the whole story, okay?" I gave in. He nodded and sat down implying that I had his full attention. "It starts from the day I moved here. I didn't want to move here, and I didn't know what to expect, but I remember that I loved the sun, and was so disappointed that there were only clouds and instead of making the best of things, I shut myself in my room. For four years. You could probably tell, but I became the most unsocial person every, and I don't think I said more than ten words my whole middle school life... Anyways, you get the point."

I took a deep breathe and continued telling my story. "Last Thursday, in seventh period, I decided I was going to change my life by doing something new. It was a milestone type thing for me. What I had decided to do, was climb a tree, this tree, and I absolutely loved it. I came down when I thought it had been too long, which indeed I was right then I came home to the cops and commotion and you saved my butt and you already know that part.

But the part that you didn't know was that after all the cops had left and it had started to get dark my family went inside and I was going to go to my room but my mom called me out and made me give her an explanation and what was I thinking and the whole process and, then I said I was trying something new and she said she thought I had gone somewhere to kill myself and that they suspected I was depressed and I said maybe I should have killed myself which I really didn't mean but I was just trying to say that I wasn't depressed I think and now that I think about it, probably wasn't the best rebuttal-"

"Hey, slow down there Quick silver," Seth interrupted but I was thankful because the words were just pouring from my mouth, "Breathe." I took a deep breathe.

"Anyways, I was really hurt. If they thought I was depressed then why wouldn't they have done something about it? I mean, I'm not depressed, but it just really hurt, so after hours of staring at my wall, I grabbed a couple things and left.

It felt so good, leaving. I felt like anything was possible at that moment," I smiled reflecting back on the magical moment. "I went straight to the tree because I wanted to keep that happiness and I was happy at the tree earlier, also I didn't have anywhere to go. Then I fell asleep under my raincoat, then you came the next day and I don't need to explain all that because you were with me, but after that, the next three days were quite boring. I went and got food, and climbed the tree a couple times, and just sat here.