Chasing Memories

[6] Even

    A heavy silence dragged by before any words came to Elise's lips. "When did you find out?" she asked, her legs still shaking from the revelation.

    The corners of Cadence's eyes shimmered, and the girl blinked the emerging tears away. "It was soon after you left," she answered as she hopped out of the car, slipping her dark jacket off and leaving it on the driver's seat. "Faith and Oli had planned to tell me they weren't my real parents when I turned thirteen. But my nosy pre-teen self was poking around their room while they weren't home, and I found copies of the reports they'd written about me and my 'siblings'. They couldn't have kids of their own, so they fostered us."

    "They really were such kind people." Elise wanted to reach out towards the girl, but the way Cadence's gaze swerved past her face made her think twice. "I'm sorry, Cadence. That must have been so tough to deal with on your own."

    "It's Cade. And it was." A bitter tang laced the ends of Cadence's words, twisting their sharp edges further into Elise's throat. Clutching at the vehicle's side for an answer that would never come, the rough slam of the driver door alerted Elise to Cadence's impatient stare. "Would you get off my car? This scrap wagon is going to be hard enough to shove back home as it is."

    Elise checked the time, a weight hanging around her heart at the sound of the car's slow crawl. The cabin stood not too far away, and the dense woodland around was more than capable of hiding her bicycle. "I could help you bring the car back," she said, tucking her bicycle behind a large tree. "Only if you wanted me to, that is. It's up to you...Cade."

    Even after she had revealed herself, Cadence still seemed more a stranger than Elise's childhood friend. As she paid Elise an otherwise unreadable look, however, the way the afternoon sun sparkled through Cadence's eyes made her resemble the girl from a decade ago. "You haven't changed a bit," she muttered, before shaking her head and taking hold of her car again. "Just don't wreck your back, alright? I'm not in the mood to push you down to the house too."

    "I'm not that weedy, you know." Elise flicked her hair and took up her position by the passenger-side door. "Don't you know how heavy books can get?"

    "Sure. With your years of intense book-lifting, we'll be back in no time, Supergirl."

    No time turned out to be a lot longer than Elise had bargained for when she had made her offer. The SUV's dead weight lashed screaming scars into her shoulders and back, and the short distance she had ridden only seemed to stretch longer with every glance. Across the vehicle, Cadence's determined gaze and pulsing neck betrayed the strain she suffered, yet no sounds of struggle fought free of her gritted teeth. The girl's eyes flicked through the cabin, and Elise dipped her head down and adjusted her grip on the car to take on more of the burden.

    Rolling the car into the cabin's shadow, all the numbing tension that fuelled Elise's focus fled into the motionless lakeside air, leaving wailing pains searing through her body. "We finally made it," she gasped, tossing her exhausted self onto the nearest grassy patch. The fine blades bent beneath her weight to release their soft cooling waves across her sweat-slick skin. "I can't believe you were about to do that on your own. I'm dying here!"

    "Been there," Cadence chuckled under a gasping breath. After shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath, she left the side of the SUV to stand over Elise, her hand outstretched. "Come on. Flo's not a fan of anyone trampling over her lawn."

    Reshaping her surprise into relief, Elise took Cadence's hand and hauled herself up from the grass. Sweat clammed the curves of her palm, but Cadence did not seem to mind. "I just found out Florence isn't a fan of me in general, messy grass or otherwise."