two days later;
"laun, there's someone at the door for you." my mother says, tapping lightly on my door.
"who?" I ask setting down my pencil.
"he says his name is hayes." she says opening the door and peeking in. I squint my eyes and stand up, shuffling down the stairs to see hayes out the window of the front door that's at the bottom of the steps. my mom stands behind me confused.
"yeah I know him, you can go back to what you were doing now..." I say. she walks away.
i open the door and look at hayes, he's wearing a red tye dye shirt, but the only other color included is a darker maroon. along with khaki shorts and messy hair.
"how may i help you?" i say folding my arms.
"well, I was just wondering if someone like you would like to go to the park with someone like me right about now." he smiles. i look at him confused.
"why are you talking third person?"
"I was trying to sound a little more enthused." he rolls his eyes. "but do you want to?"
"can I change first...?" I say looking down at my sweat pants and black tank top, with loose wavy hair.
"nope!" he says grabbing my hand and pulling me out the door.
"hayes!" I yell. he laughs and keeps dragging me. "I'm not even wearing shoes!" he stops and looks at my bare feet, shrugging. but instead of turning around and walking back, he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder continuing to the park.
"oh my god... hayes!" I yell once again.
"that's my name." he says, I can practically hear the smirk from his voice. I eventually give up and relax, letting my upper body swing as he walks. finally after what feels like 4 hours but in reality is 4 minutes, he places me on the ground. I almost fall over from dizziness but I straighten up.
"thanks." I glare. he laughs again and walks over to a tree starting to climb it.
"coming?" he asks. I shrug and walk over. I climb up the branches and reach the top one that hayes is on, it's almost like it was made for people to sit on. the middle of the tree is a flat circle and the branches go up, curved like chairs. I sit and lean on the one directly across from hayes.
"it's pretty nice up here isn't it?" he asks.
"it isn't bad. how did you even find this?"
"my brother showed me this spot when he was fourteen. he's sixteen now but he told me he used to always bring girls up here." he says.
"oh that sounds... I don't know actually, are your dad and brother still camping?" I ask and I swear I can see a flash of pain across his bright blue eyes that seem a little dull on the subject.
"not yet." he says looking down. I can tell somethings wrong but I don't dare ask.
"so why did you move here, if you don't mind me asking?" he questions.
"my parents, they got a divorce and the only place my mom could afford to live at is with my aunt, so here I am."
"I'm sorry." he says. I look up to see his head once again raised like he wasn't the least bit affected by my question.
"no, no it's fine. i guess it's better to live in peace even if i am 471 miles away from home." he looks taken back by my response.
"you know how many miles?" he laughs a little.
"you see, you have a lot of free time when the only thing you have to do is sit in your bedroom depressed and counting down the days you have left to do anything you want at home, but you choose not to move."
"deep." is all he says.
"sorry, I didn't mean to be so, serious." I say embarrassed.
"no no it's all good." he says looking at me and smiling. I attempt to smile back but it's no use, it won't look real anyways. he looks at me and scoots over right beside me, careful not to push me off. he wraps his arms around me and hugs me, rubbing my back.
I'm not really sure if the hug was for me or for him, but what I do know is we're both just a couple of sad teenagers, and we both needed it.
