Eigengrau

And thus a new friendship began

Chapter 14:

Mia didn't cry. She didn't allow herself to cry. If she did, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop. Her heart was spread across the floor, tracing a path of broken pieces up the stairs and into her room. She locked herself in, almost in complete darkness except for the halo of light that entered the room through the peephole that was her window. She sat in her bed, staring at the wall with a knot in her throat and an itch in her eyes, from holding back the tears.

Mia sat there, doing nothing, barely moving. She breathed rhythmically in an attempt to keep her head clear and not to think about what had just happened.

Next door, Riley was preparing to go to the beach in his own attempt to keep Mia's broken expression out of his head. The thought of calling his friends crossed his mind, but he decided against it. He wanted, for the first time in a long while, to be alone. The beach promised solitude and calmness when he looked out the window towards the tranquil, blue ocean. Riley knew Mia wouldn't want to leave her house after what had happened, so the beach was perfect, because he wouldn't cross paths with her.

Not even I could believe how wrong he was.

After about an hour of pointlessly swimming in the ocean, occasionally going out of the water because he got tired of swimming against the tide, deeper into the sea, Riley spotted a figure in Mia's backyard. The figure was wearing sneakers and headphones, so it couldn't be anyone other than Mia herself. She was stretching, in hopes running would do a better job at clearing her thoughts. Riley wanted to jump into the water and drown when Mia made eye contact with him and her eyes shone with something Riley identified as tears that were being held back. Mia also wanted to disappear; she wanted the ground to swallow her whole and to eliminate her from existence.

Nonetheless, she kept walking, past him, breaking eye contact first.

She began running as fast as she could away from him, for once being able to disguise it behind the I'm-running-to-be-healthy façade, instead of showing it for what it really was: running away from her problems, instead of facing them. She was a coward.

Behind her, Riley sighed longly and ran his hands through his hair. He was frustrated both with Mia and with himself. With Mia he was frustrated because it bothered him -though it really shouldn't- that she wouldn't give 'them' a chance, all because she was scared she'd have her little heart broken. He'd wanted to shout "take a risk!" to her face earlier, but he had found himself unable to. He was also pissed at himself, because Mia's 'policy' shouldn't have bothered him at all. It was her choice, and he had to respect that. If he didn't, he'd become the very thing he'd promised himself he wouldn't be in front of Mia: an asshole.

Between the pain and their thoughts, Mia and Riley had trouble acting as though nothing was wrong, when in reality, all they wanted to do was sleep until vacations were over and Mia would leave. Only then would they be able -perhaps- to get over one another.

Exactly a second before Mia hit her twenty-minute mark, she heard a voice calling her name. An unfamiliar voice up until she put a face to it.

"Mia! Wait!" A man called after her.

She stopped on her tracks and looked back at the person who'd knocked her down while she'd been running, all those days ago. The overly-apologetic man.

"Hello!" Mia said, waving shyly.

Once she stopped, her muscles began aching -or rather she became aware of the pain in her legs and the wailing scream of her lungs, desperate for air.

"Um... How do you know my name?" She asked, once she realized he'd called her by name.

"Oh!" He laughed, realizing it must be an uncomfortable situation for a girl, an older stranger knowing her name "My son Milo, he told me he met you at a party last night. He said your name was Mia, and that he'd never seen you before. I deduced it was you." He clarified.