For Crying Out Loud

25: Gummy War

Sierra's P.O.V.

     Hayden starts by driving to the Dollar General a few blocks up the road. There she buys a notebook, a pack of pens, and a huge bag of gummy bears. I continue to attempt to figure out what she is up to.

     After we leave the store, it remains silent in the car. Our surroundings grow familiar and I start to laugh at my stupidity as I realize where we are headed. I should have known, but it's been a while. We pull up a the house my grandparents used to live in before my grandpa died and my grandma moved a couple towns away. The house is abandoned now. The grass grows a little to high, and the roof sinks a little to low. It's still the house I grew up in though, but it isn't where we are going.

     Hayden grabs the bag of stuff and smiles at me. "Do you know now?" She asks sarcastically. I laugh and nod.

     "I have a decent idea, but the grass is probably really high up back there, it could be dangerous." She just rolls her eyes at me.

     "Since when are you worried about danger?" She laughs before she starts walking toward the woods. I shake my head and smile as I follow her slim figure.

     It takes a few minutes of wandering the old trails (which were still pretty clean.) before we reach the clearing. The grass comes up to our ankles, and I have to watch my step to insure I don't get stuck in briers. But all in all, it's still the same place I used to escape to.

     Hayden rips some grass up and clears some space for us to sit. Once we do, she throws me the notebook and a pen. "You know what to do." She smirks. I take a deep breath as I start writing the names of the people who has caused me pain recently. Amy, Jake, Darren (father), Trent (step father), and many other people who used to be my friends. I finish and rip the paper out, pressing my lips to it before grabbing the lighter from Hayden's hand.

     I hand her the notebook, where she writes down some names of her own, and catch fire to the paper. I hold it in my hand for a few more moments before the fire reaches my fingertips and I toss it in the grass. It fringes the grass a little, but doesn't damage anything. I just sit there and watch it burn. Eventually, Hayden catches her own paper on fire and throws it down as well.

     We sit in soothing silence as we wait for the fire to dull. Once it does, Hayden turns up some music on her phone and opens the gummy bears. I take a handful and pop them into my mouth, smiling at her as se does the same. "We are pyromaniacs." She mumbles with a mouth full of gummies. I laugh and nod in agreement.

     "We are also insane gummy bear addicts." I say as I swollow. She laughs as she takes another handful an shakes her head.

     "We are not insane. We are adventurous!" She shouts as if it's a war cry. I tumble into myself, laughing over the music.

     "All adventurers are insane, otherwise they'd never get anywhere." I state nonchalantly. Now she is laughing.

     "True. True. But I like our insanity." She says, wiping tears of laughter from her face.

     "I like our insanity too." I smile. We both taking another handful of gummy bears and tap our hands together.

     "Cheers!" She says.

     "Cheers." I repeat, and we devour the colorful deliciousness.

     After we enjoy some more bears, we hook her phone up to a mini-speaker and start dancing awkwardly. She really hates dancing, so I know she is doing this for me. Sleeping With Sirens echo through the clearing and I grab her hand and spin her around, both of us lost in laughter. The spin fails epically, and we tumble down into the grass, still giggling as if our life depended on it. I grab an handful of the remaining gummies and chunk them at her. A couple get stuck in her hair, and she glares at me with fake-anger before throwing some back at me.

     Before long we are lost in a full-throttle gummy war in the middle of the woods, and I slowly begin to feel like I did before all the bullshit. My smile is real. My laughter is real, an in this moment I feel like me. I feel free.

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It was a short chapter, I'm well aware, but I think it's sweet. It brought back some memories for me. I really hope y'all enjoyed it! VOTE, COMMENT, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! LOVE YOU MY DARKLINGS!!!