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Winter In Summer | iiii

Winter In Summer || iiii || 

19th July 2001

Hugo hated everything about summer, the formed drops of sweat trailing on his back, showering multiple times a day. Everything, except the amplified opportunities to spend more time with Winter. He couldn't suppress the irony of his best friend's name and the weather that taunted Hugo the most and he was sure to mention it at every session with his companion.

Hugo first asked Winter about his birthday date on his own when the latter decided to surprise the former with unsurprising trip to Mr. Oakley’ woods, yet the present was lingering inside and Hugo almost kissed Winter when he saw a green bicycle wrapped in a big pink bow and immediately rushed to touch it, to confirm to his racing heart that it was real . Winter stepped beside him looking quite relieved and happy altogether to receive his wonderful reaction from Hugo.

In an unsure manner stood Hugo and looked at Winter with superbly gleaming eyes, he was feeling joyful. He saw Winter scratching his neck and said, “I know it’s not much but I found it when Dylan wanted to throw it away and it was in a good shape but he wanted a new one, so I told him I would get rid of it but instead took it to Mr. Rowley’s paint shop, bought a green paint with my allowance and came here and painted it. It looks great now, I wish I could buy you a new one, but if I even asked my parents for the money to buy a brand new bicycle what would I tell them, right? Then I took this ridiclious pink bow, I borrowed it from Celestine because I couldn't find a proper one—“

He was cut short with Hugo’s sudden embrace; he felt his friend tense at his action then reached an arm and slang it over his back. Hugo whispered to him, “It’s amazing, the best I ever received. Thank you.” Then leaned back, kissed Winter on the cheek and rushed to his precious bicycle’s side, never desiring to leave it alone. He heard his friend’s muttering against the weak hot wind, “Now you made it odd.”

 It was the same day when Hugo confessed his family's tragedy to the young boy in a sad whisper as well. Some kids communicated with eye motions, or secret codes, these boys whispered. Whispering, as Hugo told Winter once, "is a secret form of speech between two who share trust and trust."

To which Winter answered, "But isn't whispering a sign of weakness? Don't people usually shout to make their point?"

And Hugo replied by hitting Winter playfully on his head with annoyed huff. "I said secret, don't be stupid. You can shout all you’d like, but not when you’re with me."

They both smiled.

Kylie was 12 when she took her own life on Hugo’s birthday, she left him a long letter in her neat writing and a picture along with a gift he never dared to touch, because touching it would be like taking away the purity it possessed, like it would turn into an abomination with his simple craving touch and disgrace Kylie’s memory, so he felt adequate with just gazing at the plain golden ring that sat in a beige box on top of his dresser. Hugo never found out the exact reason of why Kylie was gone, but he thought it was a poor choice of her to go on his birthday. She made his birth date a miserable one once he thought of her not being around anymore, yet always cheered when he looked up toward the heavens and spoke to his sister in a delight of her watching him.

Hugo trotted down the stairs humming an unrecognizable tune, his mother wasn’t anywhere in sight and his father was surely off to work which left him and his Mama’s Mum alone. He yelled for Audrey without receiving a response, he was starting to get worried. Would they actually leave him by himself in a large house with no supervisor? As much as his situation screamed fun at him he couldn’t but feel a twinge of scare. It was the first time he was ever home alone, what if something bad has happened to his family? He never wished anything upon them, he hadn’t pulled a Jimmy Neutron move even though he thought the film was brilliant. He, Hugo Osborn, for the first time in his life, violated a very important unwritten rule for him. It was the first time he ever prayed loudly. He pleaded for бог.