Connie Maheswaran: Distance

Chapter five -Mist-

     The tides rushed forward, brushing against the shoreline before pulling back into ocean.

     Steven sat alone on the beach. 

     He was lost in his own world. His eyes were focused on the beautiful landscape before him. Yet, he wasn't taking it in or anything. He was merely thinking about other things.

     'The gems aren't gonna to worry about me, they have their own stuff going on...' His mind was reeling, 'I don't think dad needs to worry about anything. Or Connie, or anyone. It's just me and my thoughts and nobody but me and God knows how long it'll take or if they can even help... No, I don't have problems, I'm just... stressed, right? I'll just sit here and smile and sit there and smile and laugh and act like everything's alright, and it IS alright...'

     His thoughts came to a halt when the sea foam crashed in to him. He looked down at his drenched clothes, sighing, "Now I have to go home..." 

     Then, a shiny pink portal popped up out of nowhere and lion leapt out and crashed right into him.

     "HEYYY!" Steven moved his pink paw off his face, only to see the cute feline give him an innocent look, making Steven smile a little, "I just can't stay mad at you, can I?"

     He stroked lion's mane, thinking how very much the fur resembled cotton candy.  Lion seemed to sense Steven was tired, so he let the kid on his back to take him back home.

     Steven recalled the first time he found lion. He, for a moment, felt like a kid again. Like the sweet, naïve 12-year-old left to play in a desert unsupervised meeting a harmless lion, while the adults were basically fighting some monster not far off. 

    But the minute he reached the beach house, dread began to creep up around him as he hopped off lion and gave him a friendly pat goodbye. Lion looked at him, tilted his head slightly and nuzzled against his shoulder affectionately.

     "Well, see you, lion," Steven turned and walked up the sandy hill, all the way back to the empty, miserable place he called home. Having left lion curled up under the deck his dread intensified. He didn't like being left alone, he didn't like his thoughts attacking him like it was all they were capable of doing...

     He checked his phone to distract himself. 

     And there, he decided to flop down against the sofa to scroll away, to ignore his problems. Maybe it'd help, he lied to himself, sinking deep into the depths of the soft cushions. 

     While he let himself fall down a rabbit-hole of memes, random facts and old pictures, a serendipitous text popped out of the blue. The sender was...

     "Connie?" He whispered, "What's she gonna say?"

     'Hey Steven! How are you doing? Hope you're managing the time you're spending without the gems just fine. I was wondering...'

     'Are you okay?'

     Steven rapidly texted back, 'Yeah, I'm fine. Just relaxing and all that, y'know.'

     'Oh,' Connie sent, 'That's good. It's just that I hadn't heard from you in a while... and I guess I was worried some crazy monster ate you or something.'

     'I can fight monsters off better than ever! Don't worry about me ,  Connie,' Then he changed the subject, 'So, how are you?'

     'I'm doing fine, the workload they give at cram school is a LOT more than it was before. But it's okay, I've got friends to help me out with managing all that.'

     Steven felt a pang of longing for what Connie had. Even though school sounded tough, what with exams, extracurriculars and strict teachers, he wished he could experience the chaos it brought with it. 

     Outside, mist began to form. 

     Suddenly, a phone call interrupted his train of thought.

     "Oh, it's Connie," He picked up the phone, unsure of how he could possibly mess up a phone call, "Hey, Connie, what's up?"

     "Nothing much, Steven. Do you wanna hang out?"

     "Hang out?"

     "Yeah, silly! We haven't hung out in a while. Where should we go?"

     "Uh, I don't know..." His thoughts fogged up, the places he loved turning into a confusing mesh of places he hadn't gone to in a while. How could he choose?

     "Let's meet up at Funland. Maybe we can decide where to go from there. What time are you free?

     "Anytime, really. Are you sure you won't be distracted from your studies and... cram school and things?" He facepalmed, hoping he didn't sound stressed out or anything. Connie had enough to worry about already.

     "Yeah! I studied a lot today. All my chores are done. I just want to relax, hang out with YOU. So, see you at Funland at 4?"

      "Yeah..." He laughed, even though nothing  that funny was said, "See you then."