my best friends older brother

11.

There I layed, on the floor without a regard for where I'd go or what I'd do. I ran away from my home, but why? Just because something unfortunate happened. Sandy must be so worried and its all my fault.

Laying in solitude, the realisation of my reckless behavior from the past couple of days hit me like a ton of bricks. Why was I being so petty? I had the perfect life, so why would I get so upset over the smallest things?

I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes, the cold chill finally set in and I used my last strand of energy to curl up into a heap on the grassy floor. One tear turnt into two, then two turnt into two more, until I was sobbing.

The weather turnt bitter and I felt a drop of water land on my bicep. Rain? It's raining. Seriously, it's raining? The birds which chirped nonsensically in the trees stopped, my last resort of company had finally left and all I could do was cry whilst getting hit by pellets of ice cold rain.

I opened my eyes for the first time in a while and saw puddles forming all around me. The trees which were once a nice beige were now tainted brown by the water. But amidst it all something moved in the distance. What is that? I'm certain that it's an animal. But it's small and it's running, seems to be a harmless animal.

I lifted my head slightly and saw it. A wild rabbit, timmid and easily frightened. Hopping and bouncing endlessly between two trees, trying to get away from something. I tried to focus my eyes as hard as I could and finally I saw it. A ginger cat with its tail erect and its ears pointed upwards. It chased the rabbit with no intention of eating or killing it, but it just wanted to frighten it, to torment it. In a way this kind of reflects how I've been feeling.

In this instance, I'm that timid little rabbit running away from the big scary beast. But in reality that big scary beast is just using the poor rabbit to play a sick sadistic game. The cat is Zain.

What am I even thinking, why am I comparing myself to a scared rabbit? And why does Zain get to be the cat? I need to stop feeling sorry for myself.

The cat was distracted by something and it let the bunny run away. What did it see? Why is it just stood there? Is it a wild animal! Am I about to be sacrificed to a rabid animal!? What if my eyes deceived me and it was never a cat but a fox!!

The 'cat' stood staring at the rabbit as it hopped away and when the rabbit was finally out of its view it turnt its attention to me. Me!? I couldn't react, tears still ran down my face and rain still soaked me. The creature slowly approached, sussing me out as if I was some sort of newfound species.

Once it had gotten close enough I saw its mood completely switch. Its tail became lively and its ears slacked down. It skipped its little paws through the puddles, coming and sitting right infront of me. That's when I noticed.

This cat is Gretta!? How did Gretta get all the way out here? We're in the middle of nowhere!

My tears still fell but I cracked a sad smile, weakly reaching a hand up and petting her soft wet furr. I could hardly hear her purring against the droplets of rain hitting branches and falling all around me. She leant into my touch and closed her eyes, but she leant to much and fell over into a laying position. I laughed a small faint laugh and softly grabbed her and pulled her towards me so that we were spooning.

We stayed like that for almost an hour before another sign of life showed up. Headlights? They shined through the trees and reflected off of the puddle into my eyes. I squinted, sniffling and still faintly sobbing with gretta purring in my arms. The car creaked to a stop a few trees infront of me. My heart dropped.

I closed my eyes as I heard the door open, clenching my grip on Gretta tighter and feeling her stir in response. Footsteps squelched through the mud and the leaves until they reached the puddle right infront of us. Water splashed from their last step into my face.