Moment of Reflection

Chapter 19

Instead of walking inside right away, I stood outside, taking a look around before heading in.

Autumn is by far, the most beautiful time of the year. The trees were wonderful colors, the leaves were slowly falling, the smell was amazing, the sounds of your feet crunching the little leaves on the ground. Nights became longer, temperatures became cooler.

Walking in, I temporarily shut out the beauties of the outdoors, but the school was very open. We had many courtyards, doors, and windows. We let the freshness of the fall elements in, giving the environment inside a less confined feel.

The yellow piece of paper Dianne gave me last Monday remained in my pocket. I refused to put it in my backpack or my purse.

Pulling it out, my fingers ran over the distressed edges. Over the last week it's been through a bit of abuse, causing it to look quite worn. Though I didn't mind. I liked the look. The paper became softer, but still remained in its rigid state.

My Aunt Kendall and Uncle Colt invited me up to their place this last weekend, thankfully my eyes were just a faint yellow. We talked about the upcoming holidays, we grilled out and had a bonfire, and I got to see my two cousins, Kent and Holly.

Colt was my father's brother, only older than him by a year. They both had one older brother, otherwise they were the oldest. Kent and Holly were twins, compared to the rest of the fifteen year olds, they were mature. They would fit in with the seniors this year at my school.

I was by far, the closest to Kendall, Colt, Kent and Holly out of the entire family. Well, not including my dad of course.

They owned their own private plot of land just outside of Estes Park, they had built their house there. A lot of times my dad and I would make small weekend trips with the four of them into the mountains during the winter. We would ski, snowboard, snowshoe, lots of things.

I was walking down the hall and began to turn the corner when I was ran into someone.

Vito.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry." The both of us said as we began picking up the papers that were sent all over the floor.

As we continued to clear the papers into a neat stack, we awkwardly chatted.

"Sorry, Mr. Beckham made me make copies for both the trip and a few of his classes since-"

"It's fine, Mr. Scaletta." I said, cutting him off with what was the smallest smile I could awkwardly muster.

At this point we made it back to the main pile of papers. I had completely forgot about the paper that was between my fingertips... and now it was nowhere to be seen.

I had a feeling it would be in the pile somewhere, but I didn't want to make it a big deal. My hands would shake a little every time they got close to his.

Paper by paper gone by, the sight of the worn yellow square was nowhere to be found.

I turned around to look behind me just to make sure, but when I turned back, it was in his hand.

"Is this yours?"

Yes
No it's yours
I frantically argued with myself as I placed my fingers on one of the sides while he held the other.

It seemed as if electricity was flowing from his body, through his hand, and into mine.

Time seemed to go by so slowly, but my mind raced and I didn't know what to say.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." I said, looking at the paper, "Kind of."

What the hell? Kind of? You idiot.