Infinite, Sometimes

10

The leaves were still covered with drops of morning dew and the water was being flung onto Ryan's dark gray shirt, creating black splotches that made it look like he had been in a terrible fight with an ink pen. He didn't mind the dirt that was getting caked around the edges of his shoes, and he simply followed Brendon in the same way he had done since they walked out of the school.

They had walked past the road Ryan lived on and they went directly in front of Spencer's house along the way. Brendon broke their silence at one point to give Ryan a vague idea of where he lived, but "a few houses down that way" was not quite accurate enough. They walked side by side, their hands occasionally brushing and neither of them was too sure of just how accidental it was. Until he had seen the path, Ryan did not know where Brendon was taking him. He just knew that he wanted to get there as soon as possible. Ryan was holding back all of his questions until they arrived at their destination. He knew that Brendon felt some sort of connection to whatever this place was, and he hoped that it would bring out that slightly sarcastic, mostly playful side of him that he had witnessed briefly the day before.

Brendon had rested his hand on Ryan's shoulder for several moments after making the gesture to signal the need to change directions slightly and cut across a large, empty field that the town tried to pass off as a park. Along the perimeter there was a wall of old trees, and coming out from this wall was a gravel path that Ryan instantly recognized. He smiled, remembering coming this way with his father when he was a child, only a short ten minute walk from his house. He had not gone there in years, but with his new friend, he was ready to go back.

"Slow down, Bren. You're gonna lose me back here." They had cut away from the path for what Brendon claimed was a quicker route to the spot along the river that he called his own.

"I'm never gonna lose ya, you can see me. You're just going too slow!" Brendon laughed and started to walk faster, taking it upon himself to jump over a fallen limb instead of pick it up and move it aside for his friend.

"Brendon, I'm not kidding. Just hold on." Ryan held onto the strap of his bag to keep it positioned on his shoulder. He had some sort of intense fear of getting a twig stuck in his eye after a rather traumatic childhood incident, and he was unable to run through the woods as easily as Brendon was.

"Ry, it's right here. You're practically there already." Ryan looked ahead and saw Brendon's red sweatshirt through branches. The boy was standing up straight and holding back a leafy branch to create an opening. Ryan approached him, and every bit of annoyance he felt was swept away with the view of the river that he got from where Brendon was standing. "Right out here, Ry. I come here a lot."

Ryan ducked under some leaves, getting some water droplets in his hair and shaking them out with his hand. He had never seen this exact place before. Some grass extended out a ways, surrounding a large rock that Ryan figured he might be able to sit on top of if he jumped. The grass created a rather nice clearing, but it was far too long to sit in. He watched as Brendon headed over to a slab of cement that was placed oddly along the tree line at the top of the gentle slope that led right down to the river. "This is beautiful out here, Bren."

"Yeah." Brendon looked at the empty half of the cement slab, and Ryan sat down to the left of him. "It's so far away, but it's still close to home, you know?"

"Yeah. It's nice."

"I could sit here all day if I wanted to. It's like the water just goes on forever or... something, I don't know." Brendon lifted his right leg and pulled it against his chest, resting his chin on his knee. "I guess the water has to hit an ocean somewhere, so it... it does kinda go on forever, doesn't it? Please tell me I'm making sense, here. Or just smack me for being incoherent again."