Growing Up

4.0

Two weeks.

It had been two weeks since the last time she had heard or seen Auden at all. His presence hung like a ghost in the english class- his seat eery and solitary in the middle of the crowded room. Nobody seemed to address the fact that he had been missing at all, and he had never made an attempt to contact her in any other way. 

It had also been two weeks since she had seen Kit at work. They had been the two hardest weeks of her job both physically and emotionally- boxes full of toys and magazines were heavy enough to break her back and even touching them to put them on display made her cringe and wash her hands immediately after, silently praying for her parents to forgive her from wherever they were. 

Real love never came easily to Aspen, it never had. After her parents passed away she had never been able to utter the words, and everyone knew it. It was an interesting story to tell when she would mention how she "almost loved" this band, or "almost loved" a shirt. It would always pose the question: "Why almost?". The only things Aspen had ever loved were her parents and reading. She loved and adored books. However, this inability to truly ever love anything else had rendered quite an obstacle when it came to relationships- whenever anybody had ever felt that way towards her, she felt herself immediately withdraw, afraid of breaking their heart- which happened inevitably when she couldn't reciprocate those feelings. 

She felt herself shudder back to life as the electronic bell chimed from the front door. She rushed out to find Kit standing there with a duffle bag over her shoulder. 

"Kit!" She laughed, running over to him and giving him a tight hug. His laugh rang in her ears as she stepped back to look back at him. He looked visibly stronger, his muscles considerably larger and his previously porcelain skin was a nice, toasty tan color. His curls had been bleached by the sun and grown even longer, hiding his dark eyes even more than before. 

"Where the hell have you been?" She blubbered, baffled by his new appearance. 

"Volunteer work- I didn't tell you? We went down to the Dominican Republic to build houses for the Haitians on the sugar plantations. Very labor intensive in the sun." He explained.

"Oh.. Did you have fun at least?" Aspen asked, blushing over how concerned she must have seemed. She had been, but now that she new the reason behind it, she felt selfish on how she was thinking about how many more boxes his muscular arms could lift. 

"Yeah I did. The workers were so grateful and nice," He went on, reaching for a strip of leather that dipped into his shirt. Upon pulling it out, a green Jade stone emerged. Aspen reached up to stroke the smooth material and made an impressed noise despite her sudden loss of breath. 

"It's beautiful." She complimented, her voice almost a whisper.

"It was a gift to thank all of the volunteers," He explained, smiling down at her as she examined the stone further. 

She nodded and stepped back, giving him a grateful smile. Thank god there was somebody to pick up the boxes that had been piling up in the back room.

She sat down at the register and started going through the inventory on the ancient computer. She caught herself on more than one occasion glancing from he monitor to Kit as he worked. It seemed as though the trip had changed him- he had turned into a whole different person in the two weeks. Whereas before he would wander the rows with a bashful expression and this nerdy charm about him, he now strutted along with this confident aura emanating from him. He caught Aspen staring a few times, and gave her a smile and a wink, sending a giggle from her throat. 

At the end of the day, she gave him a hug goodbye and began her dark walk to the apartment. The city bustle seemed like background noise as her thoughts took the foreground. Why had Kit never even bothered to mention it to her? She knew that they weren't inseparable best friends, but as a fellow employee it would have been nice to have been informed that she would have been taking on the responsibility of two people.