Attached [Rewritten Version]

3. Cold Presence

Tuesday, September 20th, 2016

Ever since Cory Dunn joined Sid's group of friends during lunch the week before, Cory had been hanging out with them more often. Amber seemed to like him a lot, and she spent a lot of her time hanging out with him during and after school.

Sid didn't exactly mind his presence either. Cory had a sense of humour, and he was pretty intelligent. It now was Sid's and Cory's thing to make a fool of Davy whenever he said something stupid, which he did a lot.

It caused Cory to sit beside Sid during lunch every day. And whenever he did, Sid felt cold, though he tried to ignore it as much as possible, since Cory had told him 'he wouldn't understand' anyway. Cory was mainly silent until Sid pulled him into a conversation, or Amber would ask for his opinion on whatever matter they were discussing. He did not talk about the forest, no matter how many times they asked. By then, he mainly just ignored them whenever they asked for clarification on what had happened to him, or why he had been in the forest all by himself.

But he did see Cory light up whenever he was greeted by either himself or Amber. It was hard to imagine what the boy had been through in the past two years, and what it had done to Cory's self-image. Not to imagine the fact he had been isolated for so long.

Sid sat down next to him in class, instead of sitting in his usual spot between Davy and Annika. He didn't share many classes with any of them, but History was something they all had together.

"Hey, I was wondering if you're free to hang out later," Sid asked while grabbing his book, notebook and a pen. "Dave, Ed and I were gonna game at Dave's place."

"First of all, I'm always free," Cory mumbled, watching how Sid was grabbing his stuff right next to him. "I don't have any friends, remember. I'm crazy. Which brings me to my next question. Why are you sitting here, instead of with your friends? You don't have to pity—"

"Because I want to sit here," Sid cut him short. "I like hanging out with you. If I wouldn't, believe me, I wouldn't fake it out of pity."

"Really? Because you seem to have plenty of friends without me."

"We're friends in my book. So, will you join us tonight or not?"

"Even if we're friends, Edward and Davy don't seem to like me. I don't think it's smart to join when half the people present don't like me."

"Davy is just grumpy because we made fun of him last week. Edward is a pussy who blindly follows Davy and me without stating his own opinion. He's fine with you, believe me. If he wasn't, he suddenly would have an opinion because he only voices it to complain."

"Well, I'm free. So, if you really think they're okay with it, sure."

Sid smirked, happy with the answer. He shuddered, incapable of ignoring the cold that seemed to surround Cory. But the boy had refused to explain to him why he was so damn cold all the time.

Or why Sid was the only one who seemed to notice the fact he was surrounded by cold air.

He had given up on getting an answer after a week of prying and focused on their history teacher Mr. Brightwaters, while he told them about their town's history. Which would've been intriguing, if the Miller woods would have been included into the course. But since it was mainly about the founders, the Mills just outside of town and the development of the town, Sid had to focus to stay awake.

He was all too glad when lunchbreak came around, and Edward and Davy instantly pulled him away from Cory and in the opposite direction as soon as they left the classroom.

"Dude, did you ask him again?" Davy asked, aiming at the fact he had been trying to get Cory to talk about what happened. He seemed eager to find out what was in the Miller woods that had caused Cory to temporarily lose his mind.